Motor Control Through Serial

[raging_engie]

Hello,

I am working on a project which requires the operator to be able to control the motor's rpm and whether it is on and off from a labview interface.  The motor is a Kollmorgen servomotor(AKM42E-ANDNC-00) which is connected to a danaher S20360-VTS controller. The controller is connect to the computer through the serial port.

My question is if there is any way to control this motor through the serial connection to the computer.  I attempted to communicate with is using strings but only received gibberish back. ( I don't really understand string communication).  The settings for the serial communication are correct (with the exception of flow control which I am unsure about).  Any help would be appreciated.  Serial info can be found starting on pg 57 of the controller manual.

Thanks

[raging_engie]

More specifically I am looking for help with commands and format to control the intrument through VISA in labview.

[raging_engie]

More specifically I am looking for help with commands and format to control the intrument through VISA in labview.

***ooops how to i delete repeated posts, complete noob here 😛

[Bill_5335]

You may want try using a VI for Animatics' Smart Motor Interface.

I suspect the codes that are sent to the cotroller are different, but it may be a stepping stone to communicating with your device.

If I remember correctly, you can get the VI from Animatics web site.

Good Luck,

Bill

[JtotheB]

I wasn't able to find any information on the proper formatting of string commands in the documentation you posted. Are there any other documents that you are referencing? Try sending the drive the "Enabled" command on page 91 of the manual (page 97 of the PDF you posted), and see if you get any response.

[raging_engie]

John, thanksm for the response.  I keep getting the feed back in the attached image below.  I am in contact with Kollmorgen now and will update you when I get a response to my problem.

[raging_engie · Accepted solution]

So after spending quite some time yesterday and today with Kollmorgen's tech support.  I determined that t he motor drive and serial cable are actually proprietary and there is no way to interface with the motor outside of Kollmorgen applications.  We tried to run commands and a motor test in both Hyperterminal and Labview and the motor ended up locking out as a safety feature. Thanks for everyone's input btw, I still learned a lot.

[AKA_TG]

There ought to be a law against doing that and not making it CRYSTAL CLEAR before you buy.

Serial comms with disparate devices, each having their own rules are hard enough as it is.!

[JtotheB]

Sorry to hear that didn't work out for you.