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    A Rugged, Smart System for Motor-Drive Control

    May 21, 2025
    The ION/CME N-Series Digital Drives developed by Performance Motion Devices handle distributed intelligent motor-drive management.
    Related To:

    Case Study: Autonomous Construction Bots Powered by PMD's Precision Motion

    Download the free Case Study to learn more about how the ION/CME N-Series Motion Control Drive from Performance Motion Devices can help achieve high-performance motion control with position accuracy of 1/16 of an inch.

    PMD Case Study with Dusty Robotics' AMR

    Performance Motion Devices’ (PMD) ION/CME N-Series Digital Drive family is a rugged, PCB-mountable intelligent motor-drive management system (see figure). The family addresses three power output levels: 75, 350, and 1,000 W. The drives can control brushed DC, brushless DC, and step motors. Quadrature, sin/cos, and BiSS-C encoder formats are all supported.

    Each module is able to handle profile generation, servo compensation, stall detection, field-oriented control, and digital torque control in addition to other motion-control functions. The controllers can be managed via Ethernet, CAN FD, SPI, and serial interfaces, thus simplifying system design and software programming. The module incorporates PMD’s C-Motion Engine that allows users to download a control application.

    The ION/CME N-Series Digital Drives series of PCB-mountable controllers can be linked together in a network controlled by an optional host processor.
    The ION/CME N-Series Digital Drives series of PCB-mountable controllers can be linked together in a network controlled by an optional host processor.

    Furthermore, PMD provides the Pro-Motion Windows-based application. This can be used to control and monitor a system. It also supports the C-Motion programming language. The on-board processor packs 256 kB of user code space and 256 kB of RAM. The system maintains a 20-kHz servo-loop rate and delivers up to 20 A. The controllers come in a small package that measures 37.6 x 37.6 x 16.8 mm and delivers up to 1 kW of power.

    The small package makes the N-Series Digital Drives ideal for embedded control solutions in application spaces such as semiconductor, medical and automation.

    PMD
    Internal block diagram for Performance Motion Devices ION/CME N-Series Digital Drives.
    Internal block diagram for Performance Motion Devices ION/CME N-Series Digital Drives.

    Developer Kit

    A software development kit with C-Motion support is provided. A Developer Kit is available as well, with different versions for each type of host interface.

    Developer Kit includes:

    • ION/CME N-Series integrated hardware and software package
    • Pro-Motion® Software
    • Software Development Kit (SDK) with C-Motion®
    • Complete manual set
    • Complete cable and prototyping connector set

    Free Download: Case Study

    Case Study: Autonomous Construction Bots Powered by PMD's Precision Motion

    Download the free Case Study to learn more about how the ION/CME N-Series Motion Control Drive from Performance Motion Devices can help achieve high-performance motion control with position accuracy of 1/16 of an inch.

    About the Author

    William G. Wong | Senior Content Director - Electronic Design and Microwaves & RF

    I am Editor of Electronic Design focusing on embedded, software, and systems. As Senior Content Director, I also manage Microwaves & RF and I work with a great team of editors to provide engineers, programmers, developers and technical managers with interesting and useful articles and videos on a regular basis. Check out our free newsletters to see the latest content.

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    I earned a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Masters in Computer Science from Rutgers University. I still do a bit of programming using everything from C and C++ to Rust and Ada/SPARK. I do a bit of PHP programming for Drupal websites. I have posted a few Drupal modules.  

    I still get a hand on software and electronic hardware. Some of this can be found on our Kit Close-Up video series. You can also see me on many of our TechXchange Talk videos. I am interested in a range of projects from robotics to artificial intelligence. 

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