Applied Motion Products Modular Component for Viam

This modular component allows Viam to control the Applied Motion Products line of motor drivers.

Configure your appliedmotion motor

On the new component panel, copy and paste the following attribute template into your motors's attributes field:

{
    "protocol": "<ip/rs485/rs232>",
    "uri": <string>,
    "steps_per_rev": <int64>,
    "max_rpm": <float64>,
    "min_rpm": <float64>,
    "default_accel_revs_per_sec_squared": <float64>,
    "default_decel_revs_per_sec_squared": <float64>,
    "min_accel_revs_per_sec_squared": <float64>,
    "max_accel_revs_per_sec_squared": <float64>,
    "min_decel_revs_per_sec_squared": <float64>,
    "max_decel_revs_per_sec_squared": <float64>,
    "connect_timeout": <int64>
}

Attributes

Variable	DataType	Inclusion	Notes
protocol	string	Required	The protocol to use for communicating with the controller. Acceptable values are ip, rs485, and rs232
uri	string	Required	Either the IP address or the path to the rs232/rs485 interface on linux
steps_per_rev	int64	Required	The number of pulses required to drive the motor one revolution. This is configured in the drive using the Applied Motion software
max_rpm	float64	Required	The maximum RPM that this motor can run
min_rpm	float64	Optional	The minimum RPM that this motor can run
default_accel_revs_per_sec_squared	float64	Optional	The default acceleration rate to use for the start of move commands
default_decel_revs_per_sec_squared	float64	Optional	The default deceleration rate to use for the end of move commands and explicit stop commands
min_accel_revs_per_sec_squared	float64	Optional	The minimum acceleration rate to use for the start of move commands. Set this to 0 to not enforce any minimum value.
max_accel_revs_per_sec_squared	float64	Optional	The maximum acceleration rate to use for the start of move commands. Set this to 0 to not enforce any maximum value.
min_decel_revs_per_sec_squared	float64	Optional	The minimum deceleration rate to use for the end of move commands and explicit stop commands. Set this to 0 to not enforce any minimum value.
max_decel_revs_per_sec_squared	float64	Optional	The maximum deceleration rate to use for the end of move commands and explicit stop commands. Set this to 0 to not enforce any maximum value.
connect_timeout	int64	Optional	The number of seconds to wait for the drive to respond

Supported Motors

Support Matrix:

Driver	Support
STF06-R	⚠️
STF06-C	🚫
STF06-D	⚠️
STF06-IP	⚠️
STF06-EC	🚫
STF10-R	⚠️
STF10-C	🚫
STF10-D	⚠️
STF10-IP	✅
STF10-EC	🚫

✅ - Known to work ⚠️ - This has not been explicitly tested, but should, in theory, work. 🚫 - Known to not work

Support has been explicity tested on the STF10-IP, and support for RS485 has been added (in as much as a path to a /dev/xxxx is accepted). This means that, while STF06 support has not been explicitly tested, it should work based on the Applied Motion Products documentation.

Network Setup (for ethernet-connected motor controllers like the STF10-IP)

Assuming you set the dial on the side of the controller to a static IP address such as 10.10.10.10 or 192.168.x.xxx, you will need to configure your computer to know where to find it. On your computer, go to the settings for the ethernet device to which the motor controller is connected. In the IPv4 settings, set the method for obtaining an IP address to Manual (rather than, for example, DHCP). Add the address selected by the dial, excluding the last digit (note that this is not the IP address of the motor! This is the IP address your computer should call itself when talking to the motor). For example, if the dial on the ST driver is set to 1 and the IP address is 192.168.1.10, add the IP address 192.168.1.1 to your IPv4 settings. Next add a netmask of 24 (255.255.255.0), which instructs the computer to look for all addresses in the 10.10.10.xx or 192.168.1.xx subnet on that ethernet port, while still looking for all other traffic on other network connections. Save and close these settings.

Using extra parameters in the movement RPCs

In the GoTo and GoFor commands, you can optionally set the "acceleration" and "deceleration" in the extra parameters. If you set either (or both!) of them, they should be 64-bit floating point numbers (sometimes called doubles), describing the acceleration/deceleration to use in revolutions per second^2. If you have also set the minimum or maximum acceleration/deceleration in the config, and the extra value falls outside the allowable range, we will instead use the minimum or maximum (depending on whether the extra value was too low or too high, respectively).

Unspecified parameters

Any parameters not explicitly set (e.g., if you don't specify the acceleration, or you're interested in the torque ripple threshold which we don't support at all) will use whatever value was previously stored on the motor controller. This means you can use DoCommand to send raw values to the motor controller for all the extra parts you're interested in, and they will be respected by later movement commands.

For a description of the raw instructions you could send to the motor using DoCommand, see the manual for this hardware.

We will take care of the extra formatting: just put a "AC100" or similar in the "command" key of a DoCommand, without the null byte or bell at the beginning and without the carriage return at the end. We'll send back the result in the "response" key, again with the formatting bytes stripped out.