Installation guide

300 Glossary
ABSOLUTE MODE - Motion mode in which all motor
movements are specified in reference to an electrical
home position.
ABSOLUTE POSITION - A data register in the Con-
troller which keeps track of the commanded motor
position. When the value in this register is zero, the
position is designated "Electrical Home".
ACCELERATION - The rate at which the motor speed
is increased from its present speed to a higher speed
(specified in units/second/second).
ACCURACY (of step motor) - The non-cumulative
incremental error which represents step to step error in
one full motor revolution.
ALL WINDINGS OFF - Applying an average zero
motor current at standstill to alleviate motor heating or
eliminate holding torque.
AMBIENT TEMPERATURE - The temperature of the
air surrounding the motor or drive.
ASCII - (American Standard Code for Information
Interchange). A format to represent alphanumeric and
control characters as seven-or eight-bit codes for data
communications.
ATTENTION CHARACTER - <nn, where "nn" is a
unique integer from 1-99 (set by use of the unit ID#
select switches) that is assigned to a Motion Controller
arrayed in a multi-Controller system. The Attention
Character directs the program command to the specified
Motion Controller.
BASE SPEED - Starting speed for the motor (also
known as low speed).
BAUD RATE - The rate of serial data communications
expressed in binary bits per second.
BCD - (Binary Coded Decimal), a format to represent
the digits 0 through 9 as four digital signals. Systems
using thumb wheel switches may program commands
using BCD digits. A BCD digit uses a standard format to
represent the digits 0 through 9 as four digital signals.
The following table lists the BCD and complementary
BCD representation for those digits. The Motion Con-
troller uses the complementary BCD codes because the
signals are active low.
Complementary
Digit BCD Code BCD Code
0 0000 1111
1 0001 1110
2 0010 1101
3 0011 1100
4 0100 1011
5 0101 1010
6 0110 1001
7 0111 1000
8 1000 0111
9 1001 0110
To represent numbers greater than 9, cascade the BCD
states for each digit. For example, the decimal number
79 is BCD 0111:1001.
BOOST CURRENT - Increase of motor current during
acceleration and deceleration to provide higher torque,
which permits faster acceleration/deceleration times.
CLEAR - Input or Command to immediately halt all
motor motion and program execution.
COLLECTORS (OPEN) - A transistor output that takes
the signal to a low voltage level with no pull-up device;
resistive pull-ups are added to provide the high voltage
level.
CYCLE START - Command to initiate program execu-
tion.
CYCLE STOP - Command to stop program execu-
tion.
DAISY-CHAIN - A method to interface multiple Motion
Controllers via RS485 to a single host using only one
serial port.
DAMPING - A method of applying additional friction or
load to the motor in order to alleviate resonance and ring
out. Stepper motor shaft dampers are commercially
available from several sources, including Superior Elec-
tric.
DECELERATION - The rate in which the motor speed
is decreased from its present speed to a lower speed
(specified in units/second/second).