Control More EtherCat Axes

Sept. 3, 2010
The MC4Unt is real-time networking technology based on the EtherCat protocol that is designed to connect multiple MC4U units to increase the fully coordinated machine control axis count from eight to 32. 
The network is an integrated system that controls up to 32 fully synchronized axes of motion, including a wide range of amplifiers and corresponding power supplies (100-10,000W; 24-560VDC) with the ability to add hundreds of I/Os. Axes controlled by the system are synchronized to a single 20kHz sampling and servo update rate with a maximum synchronization dither of 100 nanoseconds. Unlike other EtherCat network control approaches, the network allows the user to integrate several axes (up to 8) into single network nodes, says the vendor. In the MC4Unt networked system, one MC4U unit acts as a master and controls all the axes including those of the slave MC4Us, other network drives and EtherCat nodes. The host computer only communicates with the master unit and the master MC4U internal SPiiPlus motion controller generates the motion profile for all the axes.ACS Motion Control Inc.www.acsmotioncontrol.com763.559.766

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