Experience with Primatics MDC series?

[RVallieu]

Just wondering if anyone out there has experience with the Primatics MDC series of motor drives?

I'm looking into the MDC800 to control some stepper axes (6 planned right now) to avoid having to use multiple UMI boxes, and multiple drives.

Any feedback would be welcome.

[Torba]

Hello RVallieu,

Thank you for contacting National Instruments.  Primatics offers a variety of Motion drives that are tailored to work with our motion controller cards.  Did you have a specific question for us on the MDC800?

Regards,

Mike T
National Instruments

[RVallieu]

Not really from the NI side, as I know they will interface directly with the NI motion cards.  I was just wondering if any of the users out there cared to share their experience with the Primatics Drives as there is very little posted on the forum..

[RVallieu]

I guess I do have some specific questions, but I am not sure if NI can answer them.

I see that the MDC manual has an NI set-up / user guide section.  In this section of the MDC Manual (chapter 9) they cover the set-up in MAX, and mention a motor control executable, and the LabVIEW VI's Mdc800Control.vi

1) It looks like the Mdc800Control.vi takes the place of the  MdcControl.exe program they mention on page 66 section 9.3.4.  Is this correct?

2) I see that I can access the digital ports on a connector they supply next to the drive inputs, but how would I access the Analog out capability of the PCI-7356 or 7358 motion card using the Primatics MDC800?

[Torba]

Hello again RVallieu,

I checked out the Primatics user manual, and made a side by side comparison between the Mdc800Control.vi and the MdcControl.exe interfaces, and they both seem to do exactly the same thing.  I would assume that the LabVIEW version is available if you want the functions to be present in LabVIEW.  I would contact Primatics to confirm this.

In regards to the analog outputs, I do know that analog outputs 1-4 are on pins 29,30,63, and 64 of Motion I/O connector 1, and outputs 5-8 are on the same pins for the other Motion I/O connector.  I noticed that a figure on page 56 that shows a Primatics interface for the 7344.  Is this the same interface that you have available on the Primatics unit?  Unless Primatics has supplied a means to connect to both of these Motion I/O connectors, then you will need an additional interface for analog outputs 5-8.

I hope this information was helpful.

Mike T
National Instruments

[RVallieu]

I contacted Primatics and inquired about access to the AO signals.  They are mapped to the backplane and are not available on the D-Sub connector marked "Motion Signals", figure 9-2.  They did this since the drive is designed to handle a mixture of Stepper and Servo motors if desired. 

Is there some sort of breakout connector that could be placed between the 7356 and the MDC that would allow me to pull off just these channels?  I'm thinking that if there is, it might end up being just as expensive and getting say a PCI-6722 and SCB-68. 

PCI-6722    778705-01             $799

SHC68-68-EP 2m 186838-02  $119

SCB-68  776844-01                 $299

The connector for the "7344" works for all the motion cards from NI - you just need 2 of the interface cards to be able to plug in the second set of 4 axes.  The 7356 has 2 motion output connectors and 2 DIO connectors.  Axes 1-4 connect to one 7344 Interface, and Axes 5-8 connect to the second 7344 interface.

Any thoughts on getting the AO signals before they go into the box?

The reason we need the AO is to control some other equipment, such as nozzles and valves.

Message Edited by RVallieu on 08-18-2006 09:11 AM

Message Edited by RVallieu on 08-18-2006 09:12 AM

Message Edited by RVallieu on 08-18-2006 09:18 AM

Message Edited by RVallieu on 08-18-2006 09:18 AM

[Torba]

RVallieu,

The cleanest way to access all 8 analog outputs for the 7356 is to use two breakout boxes as you have suggested.  The UMI-7764 is designed for breaking out such motion card signals.  One thing to note here is that the analog outputs are software timed.  If the hardware that you are trying to control does not require hardware-level determinism then this should work fine.

Regards,

Mike T
National Instruments