Glossary

Motor which moves or controls something by transforming energy into motion. There are three versions – captive (anti-rotation protected), non-captive (not anti-rotation protected), and external (external translating nut).

Interface, which transmitts encoder signals to the engine control

Baseboards support the functionalities of stepper and DC motors to create a complete intelligent motion control system.

Brushless direct current motor
Advantages: speed/high RPM operation

Serial bus system for networking in devices or vehicles

Open communication protocoll for networking in devices, based on CAN

3D-printed plastic cap for protecting the control, mountable onto a stepper motor, with control-specific sections in order for the plugs to be freely accessible

The patented chopSync™ feature allows very high velocity operation of stepper motors using the standard TRINAMIC drivers TMC236, TMC239, TMC246 and TMC249. This is achieved by reducing resonances that occur when operating the motor at velocities where the EMF voltage exceeds the level of the supply voltage. With chopSync™, motor velocities of several 1000 RPMs can be reached.

Motors are referred to as either closed loop or open loop. Closed loop means that data flows both to the motor and back to the controller, whereas open loop only flows one way. This means that as a closed loop stepper motor system spins, adjustments can be made if there are imperfections in the motor’s operation, such if the motor is given a load that is too large or if the motor is stopped altogether. This way, the controller can attempt to correct these irregularities so that velocity, torque or position can be maintained despite an error.

TRINAMIC Closed Loop Stepper Control:

Sensorless load-dependent current control using the stallGuard2™ feature. It is the first technology of it’s kind and helps to improve the overall efficiency of stepper motors.
Up to now, stepper motors have been driven with constant current, but the new TMC260, TMC261 and TMC262 stepper motor driver series detects the actual load of the motor and adjusts the current accordingly. This eliminates the security current margin and also allows a boost the motor, avoiding stall and step loss to improve the reliability of the entire system.

CoolStep in action:

dcStep™ closes the gap between fully featured closed loop stepper motor drives and cost-efficient open loop systems. While most open loop stepper drives will lose steps in an overload situation, dcStep drives will reduce their speed in order to overcome the resistance. Therefore, the integrity of the position counter is always maintained.

With dcStep™ a stepper motor will act in a similar way as a dc Motor with regard to energy efficiency. dcStep™ allows for auto ramping and turning the motor as fast as possible in the actual load situation.

DcStep addresses stepper motor drives’ needs to maintain positional self-awareness and step count without costly feedback circuitry.

Without feedback circuits, operating margins must be restricted, so that motor torque and velocity are maintained within acceptable levels.

The dcStep technology provides extra torque to match sudden increases increases in load resistance while preserving step count. This significantly reduces previously required stepper motor control system safety margins to increase system or reduce motor size.

Closed plastic case for a control unit or the electronics of a PANdrive

System for measuring the position of a motor independent from the position counter of the motor control

Modern fieldbus interface based on IP technology, which was initially developed by the company Beckhoff. It is mostly used in larger units or devices.

Trinamic technology, which uses current regulation to regulate the torque of 3-phase motors and stepper motors.

Closed, 3D printed plastic cap, which is mounted onto the stepper motor, with a lateral, outward cable

Housing for a complete PANdrive (encloses the control and the motor)

(x=flange/width                                                                                               y=length)

Using a horizontal pin header or assembly

hallFX™ is a back EMF commutation device that is built into many of Trinamic’s BLDC motors. hallFX™ can be easily integrated into most systems, since it directly emulates hall sensors and does not require complex software components to be added to your controller.

Magnetic system for determining the rotor position inside the motor, can also -to a limited amount- be used as a position valuator.

The maximum force a stepper motor can yield while current is applied

Intelligent compact stepper motion control by mocontronic:
intelligent, programmable controller
compact by using newest Trinamic chip technology, no cooling nessessary

Metal cap for the protection of the control, mountable onto the stepper motor

Microstepping is a Trinamic technology, which enables stepper motor drives to be controlled by a sinusoidal current waveform. This is achieved by the divide of full steps into smaller “microsteps”.

Trinamics microPlyer transforms lower step resolutions into microsteps, by interpoling time in-between step pulses.

Motion control without feedback assumes motors always behave as expected. Under common conditions, the motor position of the motor is deterministic and predictable. To cover uncommon conditions, the motor needs to be operated with safety margins, which can reduce efficiency and overall performance.

Full mechatronic solution made up of one step motor (QSH) or a BLDC motor and the necessary controller module.

Trinamic’s universal BLDC motors.
Advantages: reliability/speed/high RPM operation

Trinamic’s quality stepper motors.

Trinamic’s hybrid stepper motors. They are optimized for microstepping.
Advantages: high level of precision and small discrete microsteps

Established serial interface for the networking of controls in devices and machines

Metal housing for a control unit         x=max. inner length

S-shaped ramp profiles are based on polynomial functions of a second degree. The acceleration is always continuous and therefore jerk-free. Seven ramp segments form the S-shaped ramp, which can be optimally adapted to suit user requirements. High torque with high velocities can be reached by calibrating the bows of the ramp.

S-shaped ramp

linear/trapezoidal ramp

sensOstep™ encoder provides a low to medium resolution for PANdrive™ mechatronic solutions. It consists of a stepper motor with a magnet on the rear shaft and a hall sensor IC on the circuit board that reads the position value. This system is available from resolutions of 8 bit (256 steps) per revolution up to 12bit (4096 steps).

Trinamic – sensOstep PANdrive demo: direct mode:

The introduction of additional acceleration segments attenuates the disadvantages of trapezoidal ramping. Trinamic’s advanced sixPoint™ ramping profile allows for faster positioning by adding freely configurable start/stop frequency to a linear motion profiles. In addition, sixPoint ramping adds a reduced acceleration value at high velocity to reduce jerk at the end of standard acceleration ramps.

New patent pending constant Toff chopper scheme. Using the spreadCycle chopper, the µStep current sine wave is always well formed with a smooth zero crossing. Due to this effect, the stepper motor can be driven very fast without resonance effects. All the coolStep™ drivers use this new technology.

TRINAMIC’s patented sensorless stall detection stallGuard™ enables customers to detect mechanical overload conditions and stall conditions without external sensors. This is achieved by measuring the load at a predefined point where a step loss has not yet occurred, thus eliminating the need for reference or end switches. This reduces cost and complexity of applications where a reference point is required.
When compared to pure mechanical referencing, mechanical stress and noise are reduced.

Trinamic – linear stallGuard™ movement demo:

Trinamic – stallGuard demo:

Improved version of the successfull stallGuard™ feature. stallGuard2™ is the world’s first sensorless, high resolution load detection system implemented in a standard stepper motor driver.
This gives the user easy and cost effective real-time feedback of the motor’s operation. It enables monitoring of the motion system without additional sensors. This can help to determine the appropriate motor and mechanics during development phase or to detect abrasion or mechanical stiffness in their operation.

stealthChop™ is a new patent pending technology which delivers exceptionally quiet stepper motor performance. Trinamic’s stealthChop™ minimizes magnetostriction by implementing a PWM algorithm that relies predominantly on voltage modulation for motor control at lower speeds. This technology minimizes PWM current fluctuation, which is the primary cause of low-speed hum.

Motors work through the pushing and pulling of magnets or magnetic surfaces with the help of an electromagnetic field. In a standard AC or DC motor this electric field can pulsate multiple times per rotation, which makes the motion efficient, effective and reliable, even at high speeds.

Stepper motors, on the other hand side, work through a magnetic push and pull of gearwheels in very small steps. These gearwheels do not pulsate two to eight times per rotation, but more than a hundred times, which results in a motion that is quite slow, but in return very high-torque and highly precise. Standard motors can also perform this kind of operation, but only through the use of bulky, inefficient and complex gears. Essentially, every operation that is easy to perform by hand, is a perfect task for an automation with a stepper motor.

The most common applications are linear drives, mirror-, lense- or camera mounts, liquid handling systems, intelligent lighting, solar panel orientation, scanners, printers, plotters, 3D printers and CNC machines.

Standard motors do have some advantages though. They are, for instance, very easy to handle and do not need complex controls. Additionally, they work independently of the position of the magnetic field inside the motor. That means, if there is a laod too heavy for the standard motor, there will always be a resistace, even if the motor runs in the opposite direction. If the teeth of a motor are misaligned due to an overly high load it loses the ability to apply force. But there is a solution for this issue. Many of the controllers that we build contain a safety mechanism that detains the system of supplying too much power to the motor. Basically, it works like a sensor, that detects the load limit of the motor and prevents the limit from being exceeded. Therefore, it is secured that the motor stays oriented, active and precise.

If you have any questions regarding stepper motors, stepper motor controls or equivalent applications, please contact us and we will be glad to consult you and to answer your questions.

The TRINAMIC Motion Control Language is a programming language dedicated to motion control applications. The software includes commands for moving one or more motor axes at certain velocities or to certain positions and for setting all relevant parameters of the motion general purpose digital and analogue inputs and outputs. TMCL™ is available on most TRINAMIC modules with integrated motion controller. Program development is supported by the TMCL-IDE – a PC based integrated development environment which is available free of charge.

Free programming and operating interface by Trinamic. Made for motor control modules and PANdrives

Downloadlink: https://www.trinamic.com/support/software/tmcl-ide/

Trinamic-Motion-Control-Module

Using a vertical pin header or assembly