Installation guide

Mint™ v4 Advanced Programming Guide
4 MN1270 02.2002
The NextMove family of controllers are multi-axis controllers. Depending on the hardware available
these axes may be used to control either servo or stepper axes. The number of axes supported by each
controller is detailed below:
Controller Number of Software
Axes
Number of Physical
Axes
Servo Stepper
NextMove BX 8 4

NextMove PC 8 8
 
NextMove PCI 12 8
1
 
A servo axis consists of a DAC and encoder channel. A stepper axis consists of a pulse and direction
output. A controller may have more axes available in software than the number of axes in hardware.
This allows a number of virtual axes to be configured.
A NextMove BX supports up to 4 servo axes and is sold in 2, 3, and 4 axis variants.
A NextMove PC supports 4 servo axes and 4 stepper axes. There is an axis expansion card available
for the NextMove PC controller which supports another 4 servos and 4 steppers allowing the controller
to be used to control up to 8 axes of servos or 8 axes of steppers.
A NextMove PCI supports 4 servo axes and 4 stepper axes. There is also an axis expansion card
available for the NextMove PCI controller which supports another 4 servos and 4 steppers. Up to two
expansion cards can be linked to a single main card allowing the controller to be used to control up to
12 axes of servos or 12 axes of steppers. The NextMove PCI main card is sold in 1, 2, 3, 4 and 8 axis
variants.
The
VIEW PLATFORM keyword shows the number of axes, the number of axes of control and the
number of hardware channels available on the card.
The
VIEW CONFIG keyword shows the configuration of each axis and the hardware channel being used.
The
CONFIG keyword is used to change the configuration of an axis. It is possible to change the
hardware channel that an axis is using. See the
AXISCHANNEL keyword for details.
2.1 Axis Variants
Controllers are sold as being able to control a number of axes. An axis of control means that an axis
can be configured for closed loop control, i.e. a servo axis or a stepper axis. For example, on a 2 axis
controller, it is only possible to have two closed loop axes running. Each axis of control can be
configured as a servo or a stepper axis (subject to availability of hardware).
On each card, there are a number of hardware resources. These are called channels and are always
numbered sequentially from zero. For example, the first encoder, DAC output and stepper pulse and
direction outputs are all referenced as channel zero.
Regardless of the number of axes of control purchased, the number of axes in software is always
constant. Any axes that are not controlling actual hardware can be configured to be virtual axes.
NextMove controllers support ‘virtual axes’. A virtual axis allows motion to be simulated without
moving any physical axes. To is useful for system design and testing. A virtual axis allows most Mint
commands to be executed as normal and the axis will simulate position and velocity information for any
motion performed. To configure an axis as a virtual axis, the
CONFIG keyword is used. Any axis can
be configured to be a virtual axis. NextMove PCI and NextMove BX have additional software axes
that be configured to be virtual axes without taking up any of the regular axes connected to physical
hardware.
Any hardware that is not being used for closed loop control is available to the user for open loop
control. When addressing hardware for open loop control, the hardware's channel number must be
used, NOT the axis number of the axis that was associated to the hardware. It is possible for an axis
number not to match the channel number of the hardware it is using.
1
Using a NextMove PCI expansion card will increase the number of physical axes to a maximum of 12.