Introdruction
Maxon MiniMACS is a low-cost multi axis controller from maxon. With maxon MiniMACS you can control stepper motors, DC motors, BLDC motors with or without encoders. Using the EtherCAT interface you can connect this with ctrlX CORE and implement low-priced aumotion solution. This How-To demonstrates how to use MiniMACS with one stepper motor.
Prerequisites
ctrlX CORE, V 1.20 with Motion and EtherCAT Master app
maxon MiniMACS
2 phase stepper motor
ApossIDE + Device description file of maxon MiniMACS
ctrlX WORKS, V 1.20
Program to control stepper
Step-by-Step Guide
Step 1: Connect the electric cables according to hardware reference document. In this case see following picture:
Connection diagram
Step 2: Download and open the attached .zip data using ApossIDE. Then upload this program to maxon MiniMACS hardware.
ApossIDE
Step 3: Upload maxon MiniMACS device description (see link) to ctrlX I/O Engineering (Tools -> Device Repository -> Install).
Add maxon to ctrlX I/O Engineering device repository
Step 4: Right click on "ethercatmaster" and click on "scan for devices..." and download the EtherCAT configuration to ctrlX CORE (Online -> Download).
ctrlX IO Engineering
Step 5: Create axis profile in Motion app.
Setting axis profile 1
Setting axis profile 2
Step 6: Change the scaling information of the axis profile in Data Layer. See description for more information.
Setting up scaling information
Step 7: Add the axis profile to an axis in Motion app and you can now commission the axis.
Commissioning Motion app
Have fun and good luck 😉
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