JVL, the Danish motion control designer and manufacturer, has recently added a Wireless Industrial Ethernet communication option to its ServoStep™ integrated stepper motor series. Available from Mclennan, JVL’s UK distribution partner, the new wireless option supports Profinet, EtherNet/IP and ModbusTCP/UDP protocols and is available across its MIS and MIL series integrated motors in NEMA sizes 17 and 43, offering output torques from 0.3 to 25 Nm.
Industrial Ethernet brings added application flexibility for machine builders and OEMs and this option is particularly useful where wireless control is preferred or necessary for autonomous motion tasks. Application areas include battery powered AGVs , remotely operated machinery, theatre & stage automation systems etc, or where motion control from a tablet or mobile phone is required.
JVL’s ServoStep integrated stepper motors combine a microstepping motor and drive with motion controls and a variety of interfacing and comms’ modules in a single compact unit. The packaged integrated motor solution makes wiring straightforward and significantly reduces installation costs, and furthermore provides much better electrical noise protection compared to cabinet housed drives with long noise-prone, motor power and control cable runs. The same ‘built-in technology is applied to JVL’s wide range of integrated servo motors – also available from Mclennan.
Configuration, programming, and communication diagnostics is made straightforward with JVL’s MacTalk® PC application software which includes a graphical programming environment and a wide selection of motion control commands and machine I/O interaction functions.
JVL’s new Wireless Industrial Ethernet option can equally accommodate use with an antenna equipped PLC or a wireless access point for long range communications. MacTalk takes care of set-up with a range of commands including SSID, encryption and credentials as well as signal strength. Two selectable operation modes are available: Station Client, which establishes wireless point to point control of individual antenna equipped integrated motors, and Access Point that allows a number of wirelessly-controlled motors to each be hard-wired to other ServoStep motors through a secondary Ethernet connection. Station Client mode is used where multi-axis synchronisation is not an issue, and Access Point mode should include a managed Ethernet switch of industrial grade in the wireless network topology for best axis and machine I/O synchronisation.
