Soft Servo Systems was one of the first motion control companies to adapt a Panasonic Realtime Express™ high-speed servo network (an Ethernet-based, 100 Mbps network). The Panasonic Realtime Express (RTEX) interface system allows the control of up to 32 axes of MINAS A4N servo drives at a cycle time of 0.5 ms to 1 ms.

One of the advantages of the RTEX system is its ability to meet a wide range of I/O needs. There is I/O inherent in the system: each A4N servo drive provides 4 uncommitted inputs and 2 uncommitted outputs (for up to 16 servo drives).

Plus, there are two options for including additional I/O:

1. A VersioBus II fiber-optic I/O network connected to the dual-link FPA-200 adapter board, daisy-chaining one to four IM-305 I/O modules (for between 64 and 256 general digital I/O points).
2. Optional I/O via an AnyWireBus Gateway included in the RTEX Ethernet servo network. Up to 320 I/O points (digital, analog or pulse I/O) can be connected to the AnyWireBus Gateway with the AnyWire DB protocol.

The maximum number of I/O points available for an RTEX interface system is 672: 352 inputs and 320 outputs.

A 32-axis Realtime Express motion control product will be exhibited in Matsushita Electric's booth at the SEMICON Japan 2007 trade show, the world's largest international exhibition of semiconductor equipment and materials.

Exhibition Information:

SEMICON Japan 2007
Exhibitor: Motor Company, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
Location: Makuhari Messe, Chiba, Japan
Hall: Hall 11
Booth Number: 11C-1004
Dates: Wednesday, December 5 to Friday, December 7, 2007

Click here for more information on the Panasonic Realtime Express servo network.

Soft Servo Systems is happy to announce the imminent release in January 2008 of the FPA-400, an adapter board that achieves 64-axis coordinated motion control.

The FPA-400 uses two channels of the Panasonic Realtime Express™ (RTEX) interface system – Ethernet-based, high-speed digital synchronous servo communications (100 Mbps) for MINAS A4N servo drive systems from Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Each of the two RTEX servo networks connected to the FPA-400 can accommodate up to 32 servo drives, for a total of 64 axes. On-board FPGA completely synchronizes these two servo networks for fully coordinated interpolation of all 64 axes.

This FPA-400 adapter board is provided with the SMP6400, a general motion controller with 64 axes of high-end general motion control, an industry-standard PLC and a Windows-based GUI — all in a single package. Ideal for motion control applications in the semiconductor, printing and packaging industries, the SMP6400 is a truly PC-based, all-software motion and machine control solution that runs on Windows 2000/XP/XPe. A Motion Development Kit makes it easy for users to create or customize their own application in C/C++ and Visual Studio 6.0.

No motion control or PLC boards are required, just the FPA-400 adapter board that is easily inserted into the PC and provides the communications between the servo drives and the PC.