Trio displays Mini EtherCAT master controlling 12 Drives from different manufacturers on one network

The dedicated MC4N EtherCAT controller for 2, 4, 8, 16 or 32 drive axes and 1024 machine I/O points features a built-in and expandable library of market leading EtherCAT-slave digital servo and stepper drives as well as EtherCAT I/O modules with automatic detection and plug & play configuration for fast and straightforward set-up of complete machine control systems.  This allows OEMs and System Integrators an independent choice of drive and other key machine components to optimise their machine construction.

The MC4N-ECAT is part of Trio’s MC4 series of Motion Coordinators that have been designed to provide an economic, scalable and modular control solution from small through to large automation systems by sharing many progressive features.  Programming and set up flexibility across the range includes Trio’s multi-tasking TrioBASIC language and the powerful Motion Perfect v3 application development software; users may also use the industry standard IEC 61131-3 runtime languages to allow a fully functional PLC programming system for Structured Text, Function Block, Sequential Function Chart and Ladder formats.  Offline program creation away from the target motion controller is also available.

By using advanced ultra-high speed 64 bit processors to provide rapid and precise program execution, these industry leading motion and machine controllers feature 64 bit integer position registers and floating point maths to offer the highest resolution and positioning precision for tightly coordinated linear, circular, helical or spherical interpolation in addition to electronic cams, linked axes, line shaft, and multi-axis electronic gearing.  Optional software modules allow multiple robotic and kinematic transformations with simplified programming of Parallel 2-Arm, Delta 3-Arm, Wire Positioning, 6 Axis Anthropomorphic and SCARA geometries.

The flagship MC464 supports, through axis expansion modules, up to 64 axes of motion with the potential for 64 networked digital drives, 24 analogue servo drives, 24 pulse and direction drives and 64 absolute and incremental encoders in any combination.  The plug & play expansion modules include 4- or 8-axis FlexAxis drive interfaces for use with open loop stepper motors and closed loop  analogue servo motors as well as piezo-ceramic, galvo or hydraulic motors with respective servo feedback.  In addition, modules are available for network drives such as Panasonic RTEX, Control Techniques SLM, SERCOS and EtherCAT.  Anybus-CC communications modules provide most commonly available protocols including Profibus, DeviceNET and CANopen.

For smaller automated machine requirements, Trio offers its MC403 and MC405 Motion Coordinators with 2-servo/3-stepper and 4-servo/5-stepper capability.  With factory communication interfaces including Ethernet IP, DeviceNET and MODBUS-TCP/IP, the range features I/O expansion via Trio CAN I/O modules for up to 512 digital I/O points, 32 x 12bit analogue inputs and 16 x 12bit analogue outputs.

Trio’s UNIPLAY HMI range of 7” and 10” colour touch screen displays are also showcased at sps/ipc/drives 2014.   Programmed within the Motion Perfect v3 application development environment, they offer machine builders and OEMs the ability to develop applications faster with single point programming of easily adapted user interface screens.   By a combination of dragging and dropping scalable objects such as labels and buttons, with text, numeric entry and colour assignment etc. using a right click keystroke, users quickly create HMI screens that are automatically integrated into the motion program.