controlling a stepper motor via parallel port

[Rani]

Dear Sirs,

I've got recently the PCI-7334 motion control.
I need to control a fifth stepper motor via parallel port with a closed loop.
The control mode is CW&CCW with an incremental encoder feedback.

How this can be done and if there is any manuals to help through this application please send it to me?

Thank you in advance for your help and support.

Best regards.
Rany FADDOUL.

[JesseD]

Hello Rany,

Thank you for contacting National Instruments.

Unfortunately, I'm not aware of any manuals for this particular application. The FlexMotion VIs for the PCI-7344 will not be able to be used for the parallel port, so you will need to manually perform the control process. My first recommendation would be to use either an additional motion control board or perhaps upgrade to one of our 6 or 8 axis motion boards (PCI-7356 or PCI-7358). This would eliminate the need to use two different programming methods.

You will still most likely need an amplifier for this motor. Also note that you may run into timing and synchronizing issues, as parallel port communication will be software timed by the Windows OS. You will need to devise your own method for reading the feedback from the encoder in order to close the loop.

Hope this helps you get started.

Best Regards,

Jesse D.
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

[Buechsenschuetz]

I totally agree with this answer. It IS possible to use a parallel port, but you will have to write your own routines for speed ramps etc, not to mention the incremental encoder feedback - your routines must be able to count two outputs from the encoder and also to calculate forward or backward movement.

Stepper motor controllers with or without encoder feedback controlled by the PC's serial port are available from several manufacturers, I don't know whether stepper motor controllers connected to the parallel port are available, too.