Contouring in 4 axes of motion

[ktm1]

Hello,

I have been using a PCI-7344 motion controller along with LabView to control a 3-dimensional motor/slider system.  The 3 axes operate together in contouring mode.  I am adding a fourth, separate axis of motion to the system.  The fourth axis should also operate in contouring mode.  How can I synchronize the start of motion of the fourth axis with the original three? 

Thanks,

Kate

[Jochen]

The flex_start() function or the Start Motion.vi in LabVIEW provide an input parameter (Axis/VS Map) to start multiple axes or vector spaces simultaneously. It is not possible to combine the start of an axis and the start of a vector space in a single use of this VI or function call. To accomplish this, create a single-axis vector space for axis 4 and then execute a multi-vector space start.

I hope that helps,

Jochen Klier
National Instruments Germany

[ktm1]

Thanks, Jochen.  I'm a little new at this, so I have two more questions for you.

1.  How do I create a vector space for the fourth axis?

2.  How do I execute a multi-vector space start?

Thank you!

[Jochen]

Please refer to the attached vi.

Jochen

[Jochen]

Here is the screenshot of the vi for the case that you don't have LV 8.

Message Edited by Jochen on 02-03-2006 04:09 PM

[Giridhar_Rajan]

Hi Jochen,

I noticed something which I wanted to ask you. The image that you have attached above, shows the motion VIs. But my motion VIs look different. Like, the start motion VI and configure axis VI icons are different than what yours look like. Is it a different version. Also, when I open the VI that you had posted above, it looks like this on my PC with LV8.0. Check the attachment.

Regards,

Giridhar Rajan

Automation Engineer, Design

Cruiser Controls

Mumbai, India

[Savageaggie]

Giridhar Rajan,

The reason the VIs look different is because they are for the newest version of our Motion driver, NI-Motion 7.2.  Our R&D team spent a lot of time trying to increasing the readability of our API and in the latest version of the driver, they re-created all of the icons used for the subVIs in LabVIEW to make them more consistent.

Thanks,

Scott Savage

National Instruments

Applications Engineering

www.ni.com/support

[ktm1]

Hi,

I have 4 axes starting and stopping together now.  For Vector Space 1, I've assigned Axes 1, 2, and 3.  For Vector Space 2, I've assigned Axis 4, None, and None.  Everything seems to be working, but when I end the program I get the following error message:

Error # -70145 occured at SetOperationMode on Coordinate 2

Possible reasons:

Motion: -70145 (NMC_illegalVectorSpaceError)

The vector space being used does not have enough axes assigned to it.  If you are using the NI SoftMotion Controller, this error indicates that the vector space has not been configured.

I am using an NI-7344 controller.  I can't find where the error is occuring in my program either. 

Thanks,

Kate

[Savageaggie]

Kate,

This is a known bug with older versions of our motion driver.  Do you know what version you have?  You can found out by opening Measurement and Automation Explorer and shecking NI-Motion under the software tab.

If you go to our driver page (linked below) and upgrade to the newest version of our motion driver, the problem should go away.  You will also then get all of the new fancy VIs we talked about above!!

- https://www.ni.com/en/support/downloads/drivers/download.ni-motion.html

Best of luck!

Thanks,

Scott Savage

National Instruments

Applications Engineering

www.ni.com/support

[ktm1]

Hi again,

I updated the motion drivers and spend some more time working on this, but I'm still having the same problem.  What is this "known error" usually associated with?

Thanks,

Kate