ACS Motion Control  hasdeveloped an EtherCAT slave Universal Drive Module that directly drives oneor two axes.  Designated the SPiiPlus UDMnt, the Universal Drive Module operates as an EtherCAT slave device to any SPiiPlus EtherCAT mastercontroller. The SPiiPlus UDMnt supports AC servo, DC brushless, DC brush,closed and open loop 2- and 5-phase step motors. In addition, many UDMnt devices can be linked together on a network, allowing up to 32 axes of fully coordinated control.

"The SPiiPlus UDMnt drive is an economical, yet high performance productthat can be used as part of a completely distributed control network or asan auxiliary drive to complement an ACS MC4U integrated control system,"said Jason Goerges, sales and support manager at ACS Motion Control.  "ACS'SPiiPlus EtherCAT family of products offer advanced, high-level machinecontrol with a smaller footprint and lower cost when compared to competingcontrol solutions. Our universal drive technology provides a flexiblesolution for all motor topologies, helping to reduce costs by enabling usersto run multiple axes from one drive module."

The SPiiPlus UDMnt is available in a 5A, 10A, or 20A peak current rating atup to 60Vdc bus voltage, and has dedicated encoder and limit inputs as wellas general purpose I/O and robust fault protection. The drive performsreal-time control of position, velocity and current at a 20kHz update ratefor each axis.