PMD’s Motion Card Raises Performance Bar

Available in 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-axis versions, the Prodigy-PC/104 motion card provides control features including trajectory generation, servo loop closure, quadrature input, motor-output signal generation, performance trace, and on-the-fly changes. Motor type is software selectable on a per-axis basis and includes dc brush and brushless, step, and micro stepping. The card communicates via a PC/104 bus, CANbus, or serial port, and is programmable in C/C++ or Visual Basic. It provides servo loop rates of up to 50 µs/axis, an 8-Mcount/s quadrature encoder input rate, high-speed motion trace for servo tuning diagnostics, and pulse and direction output of up to 5 Mpulses/s. Card features include: S-curve, trapezoidal, velocity contouring, electronic gearing, and user-generated profile modes; a limit switch input; high-speed position capture; dual loop encoder input; 6-step and sinusoidal commutation; PID filter with feed-forward and dual bi-quad filters; incremental and parallel encoder inputs; eight general-purpose digital inputs and outputs; and eight 10-bit, general-purpose analog inputs. Price starts at $380 each in OEM quantities. PERFORMANCE MOTION DEVICES INC., Lincoln, MA. (781) 674-9860.