Synchronizing stepper motor to robot movements

rakshithb174

Hello All,

I am trying to integrate a stepper motor to ABB IRC5 controller. My intended architecture is as follows:

ABB IRC5 controller ----> PLC ----> Stepper Driver ----> Stepper Motor

I have read that the digital outputs available on the IRC5 are not capable of PWM pulsing outputs. Furthermore, I want to synchronize the motion of the stepper motor to that of the robot i.e. start motion of stepper motor when robot starts to move. My idea is to prepare the RAPID code to contain instructions on how much the stepper should move in addition to regular robot motion. This information is then passed on to PLC using either using DeviceNet or EtherNet/IP.  

1. Are there any simpler methods to do this?

2. Are there any hardware flags or status bits that can be used for synchronization?

3. Can motion commands for stepper motor be communicated to PLC over DeviceNet or EtherNet/IP?

Any suggestions will be helpful. 

lemster68

Set up a group output for your position requests.  Use TriggL/J to set the desired output numbers to synchronize.

rakshithb174

@lemster68 I am a newbie to RAPID programming. Could you please explain your answer and provide me with an example? Thanks!

lemster68

Configure a group in your EIO.cfg:

#

EIO_SIGNAL:

      -Name "go_Position" -SignalType "GO" -Unit "Name_of_your_IO_unit" -UnitMap "10-17"\

      -Access "NATIVE" -Store 

Rapid code:

VAR triggdata trigPosition;

TriggIO trigPosition, 0.0\Start\Gop:=go_Position,90;
TriggL p10, v500, trigPosition, fine, tool0;

This is just one example, there are other ways to do this instruction, other optional arguments to tune depending on your application.  I suggest reading up on it in the Rapid manuals.