Software Reference Manual v4.2

Note

This is the manual for firmware 4.2 which does not include all features. If you are not dependant on v4.2, please refer to our firmware manual v4.4 for full functionality.

Some functionalities may not exist in older firmwares.

Please refer to the respective section when using an older firmware:

* Firmware manual v4.1

* Firmware manual v4.0

• Overview: Functional description

• CANopen over EtherCAT: Description of the working principle.

• Actuator configuration: Contains information about motor and gear settings as well as a description of the brake release feature.

  • Motor and gear settings: Description of the motor and gear parameters

  • Manually controlling phase D voltage Phase D can be used for a single phase device or custom brake options

  • Brake release: Description of the brake release feature

  • User defined velocity units Users can change the default velocity unit for higher precision

• Encoders and I/O: Description of analog and digial inputs and outputs and encoder configuration

  • Analog In: How to set up analog encoders directly or using external scaled measurement

    • Analog Input Scaling: Allows to do a nonlinear conversion of an analog voltage using a 5th order polynomial function.

  • Digital I/O: Configuration of digital I/Os as input or output

  • Encoder configuration: Description of the most important encoder parameters

  • Commutation with Hall and ABI combined Hall sensors and ABI encoders can be combined for commutation.

  • Input counter: Allows counting pulses in a particular pin of an encoder connector.

• Protection: Users can define limits for undervoltage, overvoltage and overcurrent.

• Errors and warnings: A list of all standard and SOMANET specific errors.

  • Errors thrown by the firmware: SOMANET throws firmware errors as specified in CiA 402.

  • Error report object: Each occurring error is described in the Error Report Object.

• Logging: Logs are provided at every state change as well as at each occurring error or warning.

• Motion control: Details about motion functions available via EtherCAT.

  • Control Loops

    • Current and Torque Control Loop

    • Velocity Control Loop

    • Position Control Loop

    • Dual Loop Cascaded Postion Control

  • Modes of operation: SOMANET supports several modes of operation according to CiA 402

    • Cyclic modes: In cyclic synchronous modes, the trajectory must be computed by the master.

      • Cyclic synchronous torque control (CST): In torque control mode the master sends desired torques to the drive.

      • Cyclic synchronous velocity control (CSV): In velocity control modes the master sends desired velocities to the drive.

      • Cyclic synchronous position control (CSP): In position control modes the master sends desired positions to the drive.

    • Profile modes: In profile modes, the trajectory is computed on the slave.

      • Profile position mode: In profile position mode the trajectory to a target point is generated on the drive.

      • Profile velocity mode: In profile velocity mode the motor will rotate at a target velocity.

      • Profile torque mode: In profile torque mode the drive sends a target torque to the motor.

    • Homing modes: Homing can be used to center an axis.

    • Switching the modes: Describes how the modes can be selected.

  • Extended control functionalities: These features can be used to enhance performance:

    • Cogging compensation: Feature for compensating ripples caused by magnetic interaction between motor rotor and stator.

    • Field weakening: The velocity range of electric motors can be extended by weakening the magnetic field of the rotor.

    • Anti-windup control: An Anti-Windup algorithm is used to prevent the integrator part to accumulate too much.

    • Gain scheduling: Applies controller gains which will change dynamically regarding the current speed.

    • Motor overload protection (i2t): This feature limits the overcurrent injected to the motor to prevent damage from overheating.

    • Velocity feed forward: To increase the velocity of the robot’s reaction, the target position signal can bypass the position controller.

    • Torque Offset: A desired offset torque can be added to the reference torque.

    • Velocity Offset: An additional velocity offset can be used to improve the positioning performance.

    • Filtering: Digital filters can be used to remove unwanted frequencies such as noise or nonlinear effects.

    • Control supervision: Allows to supervise the work of the control loops

    • Distributed clocks: Allows to synchronize the system time for enhanced performance.

• Object dictionary: The object dictionary is defined in IEC 61800-7-201.

  • All objects: Description of all objects.

  • Communication area: Objects needed for communication.

  • Manufacturer specific area: Complementary objects for enhanced performance and additional features.

  • Profile specific area: Objects that are used by the CANopen device profile for drives and motion control (CiA 402)

  • Process Data Objects: These objects are transferred cyclically to each slave.

    • Standard RxPDO mapped objects: List of outputs that are mapped in the standard configuration of SOMANET CiA 402.

    • Standard TxPDO mapped objects: List of inputs that are mapped in the standard configuration of SOMANET CiA 402.

    • Configuring custom PDO mappings: Choose your own objects for the PDO mapping.

  • Device info: These objects describe your Drive system for internal identification.

  • Changelog v4.2