How To Use Turn Table  (Parker's DM Series Flat Servo Actuator and 6K4 Servo/Stepper Controller)

The photo depicts Parker Motion Control Systems' Turn Table Setup. This tutorial shows you how to use the turn table.

The units that are marked in the picture are,

1 - 6K4 - 4 Axis Servo/Stepper Controller,

2 - Power Adapter for 6K4 (24V DC -2.5A- output),

3 - DM Series Flat Servo Controller/Amplifier (DM-1004B-115) - DYNASERV

4 - DM Series Flat Servo Actuator/Motor (DM-1004B-115)

5 - Parker Cable (Z1-017982-10-A)

6 - DM Series Cable

7 - Serial Cable (Use null modem to connect to the computer's serial port)
 

From this point on, the term DM Series Flat Servo Actuator is used to represent units 3, 4, and 6. Click here to download DM Series Flat Servo Actuator Manual or here to get it from Parker's web page.

DM Series Flat Servo Actuator has 6 modes of control; position control mode (I-PD, P-P, P-I,) velocity control mode (P, PI,) and torque control mode. The control mode of the actuator is activated by setting the jumpers (JP1, JP2, JP3,) and the switch (SW4) as shown in the manual. We are using the torque control mode.

To control DM Series Flat Servo Actuator with a PC you can use either Parker's motion architect software (required driver) or Parker's 6K4 with motion planner software (Click the hyperlinks to download the software/drivers or click here to go to Parker's web page). We are using 6K4 in this tutorial.

Instructions
Step by step instructions to control DM Series Flat Servo Actuator with 6K4 cotnroller thru your PC is given below:

Step 1

Install Parker's motion planner software. Download motion planner's programmer's guide and command reference (or go to Parker's 6K manuals web page).

Step 2

Connect 6K4 Servo/Stepper Controller to your PC  using a serial cable with a null modem.

Step 3

Connect the 9 pin encoder connector and 15 pin drive connector end of the Parker Cable (unit 5) to one of 6K's axes (Here we used axis 1) and the other end of the cable to DYNASERV's (unit 3) CN1 connector. DYNASERV's CN2 connector is for encoders. DM Series Cable (unit 6) is connected to unit 3 and 4. Now you are ready to power up the setup. Connect the power plugs to 110V AC. You should see a "0" on DYNASERV's LED. For error codes check the manual.6K4's power LED should be green and LEDs of all the axes should be red. Red LED represents inactive axis, it will turn off when the axis is activated.

Step 4

Now, you are ready to start the motion planner. Go to start menu and click Start >> All Programs >> Compumotor >> Motion Planner >> Motion Planner. The motion planner will start with settings control panel. Select 6K4 controller under the product tab and select your com port under the Port tab. Here we used com1. Set as default so that you don't have to edit the settings any time you start motion planner.

Step 5

Before you can start programming your code, or sending or entering commands by using the terminal window, you are going to need to select the right driver, and encoder parameters. Click the Start button (blinking yellow) to start motion planner's wizard. The wizard would quickly get you oriented with the program. Read the welcoming message and click next. You will see the step 2 of 7 window, and click next again. The encoder has 655360 steps per revolution. We are, here setting our units to be rev (revolution,) rev/s, and rev/s2 for position, velocity, and acceleration respectively by using 655360 as our scale factor on the scaling page. Follow the pictures below to complete the wizard. 

Step 6 of 7 of the wizard is used to tune the controller's gains. This will depend on your setup. In our setup we had smooth operation with the gains shown on the below picture. Click next on the step 7 of 7 window.

Step 6

Now you are ready to program and use the motion planner to control 6K4 and hence the servo actuator. Motion planner's main window has 3 important section; list, code, and program objects. The list shows the program's that you are currently using; SETUP, MAIN, USER, and CRASH programs. Setup program stores the parameters that you chose in the previous step. You can update those parameters by double clicking on the items listed under SETUP. Main program is the core part of the coding. User program goes under the main program. CRASH is used to give error messages. The structure of your code should be as depicted in the below picture. Now we can code the user program by dragging objects from the Program Objects section. The code section shows you the commands that will be executed, or sent to the terminal window. Clicking the blue icon on left top side of the motion planner window will open the terminal window.

Motion planner helps you code your program by a wizard. You can also use the motion planner thru its terminal window,. These two methods are interlinked. Although we are not going to use the terminal window, it is worth to give a brief description of the terminal window. The program that you code is basically being sent to the terminal window. Terminal window is used to send your commands directly to 6K4. For using those commands look at the 6K4 command reference. Some significant commands are reset, memclear, drive, go, D, V, and A. Reset is used to reset 6K4 and memclr is used to clear 6K4's memory. If your controller does not work you can try the reset and memclr commands. Drive is used to enable or disable the certain axis. For example Drive1111 activates all 4 axes, and drive0000 disable all 4 axes. If you are using only one axis, axis 1, drive1 will active and drive0 will deactivate the axis. D, V, and A are distance, velocity, and acceleration commands respectively. D1 would set the distance of the first axis to 1 units. Once you activate an axis, drive1, set D, V, and A, you can control the actuator by sending a go command, go1.

You can again use a wizard to help you program your code. Now lets build a program to drive the servo actuator.

Step 7

Programming:

Now, drag a User Program icon from Program Objects and put it on the MAIN. You will need to enter a name for your program. Here we enter move for the name. It should look like the below picture.

Now drag items from Action Objects and build your program as below:

Motion Profile is used to set the travel distance, max speed, max acceleration, and the shape of the motion.

Enable is used to enable/activate the relevant axis. When the program is executed the corresponding LED, once was red, would turn off at this step.

Go is used to execute the motion.

Wait is used to wait.

Disable is used to disable the axis.

Once you complete the above steps save your program. Now you can download your code to 6K4. The green LED icon with a circular arrow around is used to execute your code. However, if your program is not downloaded to 6K4, it will download your program. The red LED icon with a circular arrow around is used to stop the motion. The dynamite icon is used to stop the motion and kill the program. When your program is downloaded you will get a TCMDER response. That window shows you the commands executed on the terminal window. Close that window and you will get the window shown below:

If  you chose move (User Program) your code will be activated and the actuator will move as programmed in the motion profile and then it will be disabled. Congratulations, you now have a basic understanding of the motion planner to control your servo actuator.

Final Words

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