controlling a maxon motor with labview!

[YukiNagano]

Dear Community members,

I have been trying to control a maxon motor (RE40 GB 150W) with an EPOS2 70/10 controller using Labview.

I could set up the things and control the motor severl times. But the problem is that it does not work all the time. It worked several times and did not many times. I am not sure what the source of problem can be.

In detail, I first tuned the motor with the EPOS2 controller using RS232 method of communication. Then, I tried the 'Example_MoveToRelativePosition'. First, it did not work, but afterwards when I checked with the variables such as communication port and ..., it started to work. However, it stopped working suddenly giving some errors. I have attached the figures containing the screenshots of the windows and errors. I was wondering if you could help me with this issue.

Thank you very much.

Best regards,

Yuki

[Mark maxon motor technical engineer]

Good morning,

I believe the issue maybe that you are not saving the parameters on the EPOS drive. It does not "hard flash" so needs to be prompted to save the parameters. In the EPOS studio software you click on workspace, then right click on the node selecting "save all parameters". You have probably go the communication correct, but when it is powered down or you unplug the communication for about 20sec it will loose what you have just set up!

You can download this from our website:

http://www.maxonmotor.co.uk/maxon/view/catalog/

Choose the controller picture and search for an EPOS controller (any). Choose a controller from the list and select the downloads tab. You are looking for a document called
"firmware specification".

If you still have trouble, please feel free to contact me.

[YukiNagano]

Dear Mr. Mark,

Thank you very much for you feedback.

I followed your instructions and tried the steps for the troubleshooting of the labview program. Unfortunatley, the problem still exists and I can not run the program steadily. I mean that it works once or several times and stops working. I tried the 'Example_DataRecording' example of EPOS library. I tried to use the example in the following steps:

1. Using EPOS STUDIO, I initialized the controller and configured the comunication port. Then, I right clicked on the 'EPOS2 [Node 1]'  and choose 'save all parameters' from the opened window.

2. I closed the EPOS STUDIO and opened the labeview.

3. I opened the 'Example_DataRecording' example and set the variables as it can be seen in the screen shot of the Front Panel.

4. I also opended the 'Initialize' VI of the Block Diagram and set the parameters as it can be seen in the screen shot of the Initialize.

5. I set the relative position to 10000 and run the program. The arm moved.

6. Then, I changed the relative position to -10000 and run the program again. The arm moved back.

7. I tried again with the relative position of -10000. The program gave me the error shown in the screen shot of 'Initialize' VI.

I would appreciate if you could help me with this problem. Thank you very much.

Best regards,

Yuki

[Mark maxon motor technical engineer]

Hi there,

Last time I saw this fault is was to do with the coms speed:

The parameter for RS232 Baudrate in the parameter file is set to value '5' (equates to 115200). With function VCS_SetProtocolStackSettings the interface settings from the PC are changed only.

Please check this behavior with the EPOS Studio. The default RS232 baudrate from the EPOS2 is set to 115200.
With a parameter import from a parameter file the RS232 baudrate (communication settings) is not changed!

Note:
VCS_OpenDevice: Opens an interface from the PC
VCS_SetProtocolStackSettings: Configures an interface from the PC

For change the baudrate settings from the EPOS2 device use the function VCS_SetObject, VCS_Store and VCS_SendNmtService with command ‘reset device’.

Please check and see what happends.

Thanks

Maxon UK

Mark Gibbons