Control Techniques

Overview

Meeting the demands of modern lean manufacturing environments requires smaller more flexible machinery. Digitax ST is the first ever drive designed to help machine designers and system integrators meet these challenges; optimised for servo applications requiring high peak torque, dynamic response, ease of use and flexible integration features. Four product variants ensure that the drive's personality perfectly matches your servo applications.

Digitax ST - Base

Optimised for centralised control, to operate with motion controllers, motion PLCs and industrial PC based motion systems using a wide range of digital or analogue interface technologies.

Digitax ST - Indexer

Designed for simple standalone positioning applications using an onboard position controller. Fieldbus, Ethernet and IO enable connectivity to other automation components.

Digitax ST - EZ Motion

This drive offers a stand alone solution for many common indexing and synchronised motion applications. This is achieved using a unique PC programming interface that guides the user through the drive, I/O and motion configuration.

Digitax ST - Plus

Features a full functionality motion controller, optimised for high performance machine cells requiring drive-to-drive networking and precision synchronisation. The motion and communications are configured within a flexible IEC61131-3 software development environment using PLCopen function blocks. Fieldbus, Ethernet and I/O connectivity enable interfacing with other automation components and intellectual property protection ensures that your valuable knowledge remains secure.

Typical Applications

Printing
Packaging
Pick and Place
Material Handling
Indexing
Conveyor Positioning
Cut-to-length
Labelling
Rotary Knife
Flying Shear

Benefits

Onboard position controller offers superior performance and reduces cubicle space
High-speed drive to drive network reduces wiring and improves system performance
Familiar programming environments reduce development time
Real-time servo networks such as EtherCAT, SERCOS and CANopen allow the drive to operate with most motion controllers
Ethernet and Fieldbus connectivity enable the drive to integrate with other parts of the automation system
Onboard universal encoder input is able to connect to incremental, SinCos, Hiperface, EnDAT and SSI encoders as standard
The drive features a safe torque off input which disables the output stage of the drive with a high degree of security. This reduces the cost of complying with machine safety standards such as EN954 Cat 3 and enables the drive to integrate easily with the machine safety system
Designed to operate with Unimotor FM, a complete range of high-performance servo motors for industrial environments

Software

Our Software makes it easy to access the drives features. It allows you to quickly setup the drive, optimise the tuning, back-up the configuration, program the onboard automation controller and setup communications links.

CTSoft - Drive configuration
CTScope - Software oscilloscope
SyPTLite - Ladder program editor
SyPTPro - Full automation system programming tool
CTOPCServer - OPC compliant server for interfacing with Control Techniques drives

The Software tools communicate using Ethernet, Serial or USB connections. Ethernet allows the software tools to easily use the internet infrastructure allowing Control Techniques drives to be accessed remotely from virtually anywhere around the world.

CTSoft
CTSoft is a configuration tool for commissioning, optimising and monitoring Control Techniques drives. It allows you to:

Easily configure the drive using wizards
Read, save and load drive configuration settings
Manage the drive's smartcard data
Visualise and modify the configuration with live animated diagrams

CTSoft is free of charge and can be obtained by clicking the download tab on this page.

Index Motion Controller
Digitax ST - index motion controller is programmed within CTSoft using industry standard Sequential Function Chart (SFC) language. The user can quickly configure a range of motion commands such as homing and various index moves. The focus is on reducing development time and ease of use.

The status of the program can be monitored and the speed of the motion reduced for commissioning and testing purposes:

CTScope
CTScope is a full featured software oscilloscope for viewing and analysing changing values within the drive. The time base can be set to give high speed capture for tuning or intermittent capture for longer term trends. The interface is based on a traditional oscilloscope, making it familiar to engineers across the globe.

CTScope is free of charge and can be obtained by clicking the download tab on this page.

SyPTLite
SyPTLite is an easy to use ladder logic program editor, suitable for simple drive applications. SyPTLite is ideal for controlling basic logic and sequencing with Commander SK LogicStick PLC.

SyPTLite is free of charge and can be obtained by clicking the download tab on this page.

SyPTPro

SyPTPro is a full featured automation development environment that can be used for creating solutions to single or multiple drive applications. The programming environment fully supports three industry standard programming languages: Function Block, Ladder and Structured Text. Motion is configured using PLCopen function blocks that support a master and slave axis configuration.

SyPTPro is also used to configure CTNet, a high speed drive-to-drive network that links together multiple drives, SCADA, operator panels and I/O to form an intelligent networked system.

Click here to download a demo version of SyPTPro, the full version can be purchased through your local Drive Centre.

CTOPCServer

CTOPCServer is an OPC compliant server that allows PCs to communicate with Control Techniques drives. The server supports communication using Ethernet, Serial RS485 and USB. OPC is a standard interface on SCADA packages and is widely supported within Microsoft products. The server is supplied free of charge and can be obtained by clicking the download tab on this page.

Options

A wide range of option modules are available to allow you to customise Digitex ST for your application.


Keypads
	Digitax ST Keypad Removable keypad

Communication
	SM-EtherCAT EtherCAT slave option module for high performance servo applications
	SM-CANopen CANopen interface supporting various profiles including several drive profiles
	SM-SERCOS Sercos Interface
	SM-Ethernet Ethernet option module supporting Ethernet/IP and Modbus, and with built in web server.
	SM-Profibus Profibus DP slave option module
	SM-DeviceNET DeviceNET option module
	SM-Interbus Interbus interface option module
	SM-CAN User programmable CAN option module - allows you to develop your own CAN protocols

Feedback
	SM-Universal Encoder Plus Combined encoder input and output interface supporting Incremental, SinCos, Hiperface, EnDAT and SSI encoders
	SM-Encoder Output Plus Incremental encoder output option module to enable connection with external motion controllers
	SM-Encoder Plus Incremental encoder input option module
	SM-Resolver Resolver option module for robust feedback in demanding environments
	SM-SLM SLM option module for integration with SLM enabled motion controllers

IO
	SM-I/O 32 Extended digital I/O adding 32 bi-directional I/O points
	SM-I/O Plus Extended I/O interface to increase the number of I/O points on a drive
	SM-I/O Lite Extended I/O interface
	SM-I/O Timer Extended I/O option module with real time clock
	SM-I/O PELV Namur standard I/O interface with high speed I/O
	SM-I/O 120 120 volt I/O option module