MicroLYNX – Trip Point Application
The automotive industry is exploding with applications ideally suited for stepper motors. Whether it is in the end product or part of the production process, stepper motors are making it easier for Control Engineers to do their job. Recently, we worked with one such application where a customer wanted to measure the wheel-well height as a quality control check on the assembly line.
Using a Panther HI2 Microstepping driver and a linear actuator, a sensor was used to detect the top of the wheel-well. However, the customer did not want the linear actuator to ever exceed a determined distance which equated to 2000 steps. Using the trip command "T", we set the trip point. Then, moving the actuator at a constant velocity using the "M" command, we looped on one of the general purpose inputs until the sensor detected the wheel-well. The loop "wait until" command, "L2048" allowed the program to fall through when input became true and stopped the motion. Then the "Z" command sent the position to a PLC. If the sensor did not detect the wheel-well, then the trip would stop the motion at 2000 steps, return to start position, and flag the PLC using one of the general purpose outputs that no wheel-well was detected. Overall, the learning curve for the indexer commands was small and the customer was very pleased.