Can NI recommend a linear drive?

[Thoric]

I'm spec'ing up a PXI system and it requires control of 4 miniature linear drives (around 15mm travel to near-micron position control).

The NI range of motor control cards and motors offers only rotating drives, so I'm now looking further afield for suitable third party linear drives that can be easily controlled from within LabVIEW.

I wrote that bit in bold because I can find many many suppliers of linear drives, but what's important here is that they have excellent integration and compatibility with LabVIEW to simplify their adoption. I don't want to be creating my own drivers, or be limited in functionality because they're only compatible at a basic level. I'm really looking for NI-quality levels of plug and play - it needs to 'just work' without complication.

My options appear to be:

1. Use NI PXI motor controller card, NI recommended stepper motors and some form of compatible 'linear drive attachment'. There are a few NEMA compatible linear carriage modules out there.

2. Use NI PXI motor controller card and third party linear drives. Definitely must be proven compatible.

3. Use 3rd party motor controller card and motors. Must come with existing robust LabVIEW code that provides solid communications, either USB or EtherCAT for example.

I was originally looking at PI miniature linear drives, with their multi-axis controller chassis, all controlled through USB. They even include LabVIEW drivers which look fairly solid. But these might be coming in a bit pricey, so I'm asking here if NI have a recommendation for this to save me searching the entire internet and getting a million quotes.

Thanks in advance!

[snordinh]

Hi, 

Thank you for reaching out with this question. I was going to ask a sales engineer to get in touch with you but unfortunately I cannot see your contact details. 

I recommend you to reach out to one of my colleagues in Technical Sales under "Purchase and quote" at this page: http://www.ni.com/contact-us/en-gb

They have a good understanding of our products and are specifically trained to help our customers choose products, so I hope they will be able to give you some good recommendations for your system.

Best regards,

Sara N H

Applications Engineer

National Instruments