Q.
Can I use the SSWin program to control all Simple Step® boards from one RS232 Line?
A. Yes, that is one reason why the SSWin programmed was designed. It allows the user to
connect the boards together and control them with a program that performed all the
communications within a Windows environment. The program also allows you to create a
program very quickly without having to worry about the details.
Q. Do you have a
CNC program to run your Simple Step® Boards?
A. Currently we do not have a program that will create G or M codes
and translate them into Simple Step® commands. This is being worked on
however, but we do not expect a release of any software until the first quarter of
2008.
Q. What do
I need to have a complete motion system?
A. All you need is a standard RS232 serial port capable of speeds
from 9600 to 115.2K baud, No parity, 1 stop bit, 8 data bits, a power supply (12-38 volts,
24 volts is the most common), and a motor. You can add a Home sensor and/or limit switch,
but they are not needed to make the unit run. If the IEE option is
purchased, you will need
the PC or terminal to program the IEEPROM processors, but after that, it does not need the PC
for further operation.
Q. How far
can I move if your board can only step 65,534 (or
-2,147,483,648 to +2,147,483,647
with 32 bit option)
steps total travel?
A. If you have a mechanism connected to the motor that allowed you
to move the unit 0.001 inches per step, you could travel 65.534 inches (5.4612 feet) total
travel. Another example would be a mechanism that had a 0.01 inch per step resolution
would allow you to move 655.34 inches (54.612 feet). The 32 bit option does not allow
greater then 8K steps per second, but does allow a user to have a mechanical pitch
of 0.001 inches per step with a total travel of 357,913 feet.
Q. Can you
connect more then one (1) board up to a RS232 line from a standard PC?
A. Yes, Simple Step is using a new RS232 interface chip that allows us to parallel the RxD and
TxD lines. Henceforth, we claim that we do NOT use a RS232 ring network, so no lag in
communications is present. All RxD signals are tied to every board. So when the user
commands a board, all the boards listen at the same time to determine who the command is
for. The best example is that the Simple Step® boards act like RS422/485 but with the RS232 electrical
characteristics. This allows us to connect up to 16/8 boards of EACH type to the same
RS232 line. That means a user could have 16 SSCB's, 16 SSXYZ's, and 16 SSQE's on 1 RS232
line and communicate with all of them. That would give the user 16 Quadrature
encoders
with 40 motors that could be controlled by one PC. You can also order the SSCB unit with
the choice of RS422/485 communications instead for no extra fee.
Q. Can I abort a motor movement after I
have sent a motion command?
A. Yes. While the motor is moving, a user could send down an '*' character (0x2A) preceded
by the board address to the RS232 port. The board will stop ALL motion, and re-calculate
its current position. There is also the ''!' abort command. This will decelerate the motor the same way it was accelerated.
Q. Can the
Simple Step SSXYZ boards perform simultaneous motor movement on all three axis's at the same time?
A. Yes. There are 3 SSCB 30MHz uProcessors sharing the same clock, communications line,
and dip switch. Each one has been programmed for a communications prefix character of
"X","Y","Z". A command for simultaneous movement to all
three to move from position 0 to position 45000 would be
"XM45000,YM45000,ZM45000". Since all three processors share the same RxD line
(data receive line), they all get the command at the same time. When the delimiter has
been sent (in all boards the delimiter is 0x0D), all three processors start running the
motors. The most the step time could be off from each other is 3 clock cycles (total
delay). At 30 MHz that comes down to be 0.0000002 seconds (less then 200ns).
All boards can perform simultaneous movement between all boards on
the RS232 line with one (1) command string.
Q. How does the
SSQE/SSXYQE boards tell if there is an error or not with a motor that may have missed a
step or a few?
A. The SSQE/SSXYQE boards does not know. What the SSQE/SSXYQE boards allows you to do is
connect one of the Quadrature encoders to the motor you are using. The user would
then command the controller to move the motor to a position. After the motion is complete,
the user would then query the Quadrature Encoder board channel to find out how many steps
it had moved and compare it against the step value you passed to the stepper
controller. If they do not match, simple math can be performed to tell you how far
off and in what direction. The user would then command the controller to move to the
new position you calculated to compensate for the error. The SSWin program
"link_me" (link motor to encoder) command performs all this
automatically.
Q. Can I query
each channel of the SSQE/SSXYQE board while a motor is running?
A. Yes. Since the SSQE board runs via a RS232 line, it can not perform real time
display of the encoder (based on 57600 baud communications speed). The encoder
interface chips, uProcessor and software do run in real time. They constantly keep
track of both encoder channels while the user commands the SSQE to display current
positions. Since communications are running at 57600 baud, every character sent down
to the SSQE will take 166.7 us (microseconds) to receive. A command to display
channel 0 would take the form of "Q1p0<CR>". This command would be
received and executed in 833.3 us. The output response would take the form of
"q1>100<CR>". This response would take 1.667 ms to send back to
the PC. Now the total time would be 1.99 ms (not including the operating system time that
the command was generated from DOS, Windows, Unix, embedded, etc. Now 1.99 ms turns out to
be 500 steps per second (or 1.99 ms per step). If the motor is running faster
than that (and in most cases it is), then every time the user commands the SSQE for
a position there would be a jump in numbers from the SSQE.
Q. Does
Simple Step have an I/O Board that also runs from a serial port?
A. Not at this time. We have, however, decided to add I/O onto the Quadrature Encoder Board
(SSQE).
Q. Does
Simple Step export to other countries?
A. Yes. Please click here to see more information.
Q. How many leads should a bipolar 2
phase stepper have?
A. Manufactures can have from 4, 6 and 8 leads per motor. A 4 lead motor
is just a 2 winding wire setup, 6 leads is the same but a center tap is also included, and
8 leads is 2 windings again (just like a 4 lead motor) but are paralleled to allow more
current to pass the two sets of smaller wiring gauge.
Q. What size motors can I connect to the
Simple Step®
boards?
A. Any motor size can be connected to the controller boards. The only
limitation is the current per phase (0.1 amps per phase to as high as 6.25 amps per phase). You can
have from NEMA 11 to NEMA 42 motor sizes with torques that run from 10 oz. in. to 1600
oz. in. Go to our General Motor Selection guide for more information. |
