Running 9501 stepper motor example without Premium library

[vicki 2020]

I'm trying to set up stepper motors (NI 9501 module on cRio 9074).  I want to run the motors exactly like the Position Control (open loop) example in Labview, but we don't have access to the SoftMotion Premium libraries.  Are there examples of running this without utilizing these libraries?  I don't have any experience with motors so information about how to do this from scratch would be immensely helpful as well.

[NathanK · Accepted solution]

NI RIO includes examples for the NI 9501 module that do not rely on Softmotion.

Softmotion premium includes FPGA VIs that make controlling the 9501 easier. It also gives the ability to use unbound axes so your FPGA-defined axis can be controlled by the NI Softmotion engine. You can use the 9501 without Softmotion premium but obviously you don't have access to these features.

The examples will give you a good start at understanding what is required to drive a stepper motor- and how to use the 9501 to do it.

The example "Setpoint Control (open loop) - NI 9501" is a good starting point. The FPGA VI has loops to demonstrate how to pass the position setpoint from RT to FPGA, simple step generation on the FPGA, and how to configure the parameters of the 9501- such as microstepping rate.

[vicki 2020]

Thanks I'll try that

[SaraBaber]

hello

I am using NI 9501 c series and compact rio 9074.I have controlled single motor with open loop velocity eample succesfully.

I want to controll multiple motors ..how is this possible??

[Ever_Song]

Hi SaraBaber,

The NI-9501 is a single axis only module, meaning that it can control only one motor (unless we want the motors to run the exact same profile). In order to control multiple axes, you will have to get an additional module. This will allow us to run multi-axis moves if we have SoftMotion Premium or if we want to program the moves ourselves. Additionally, in the future, you will likely get a faster response if you post new questions in a new thread as this thread has been solved and the question is a different one. Thanks.