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SERCOS North America was founded in 1994 to
facilitate and promote the use of the digital SERCOS interface™ standard (IEC
61491) -- the only internationally approved
communication standard for motion control.
The SERCOS interface development tool offers a
practical, timesaving approach to development and debugging of SERCOS compliant
master and slave devices. The development tool provides three different
functions: SERCOS master emulator, SERCOS slave emulator and SERCOS bit
recorder, operating at 2 and 4 Mbit/s.
Even though the present Development Tool operates at 2 and 4 Mbit/s,
it is useful for development with the new SERCON816 ASIC (speeds up to 16 Mbit/s),
as this ASIC supports 2 and 4 Mbit/s
for compatibility reasons. Many field transmission errors and problems are
reproducible at the 2 and 4 Mbit/s
rates, and can be troubleshot using this tool.
A development tool set consists of a PC-based communications card, software on a
PC disk and a User manual. If tools are to operate in parallel (e.g., emulator
and bit recorder in the same system), additional communications cards are
required.
Master Emulator
In the Master Emulator mode, the communications card acts as a SERCOS interface
master (i.e., a CNC or motion control) in the SERCOS fiber optic ring. Operating
as a master, the tool allows the developer to thoroughly test all functions of a
SERCOS slave, generating all commands and even inducing specific errors. This is
especially helpful in testing for the proper behavior of a slave in response to
errors that rarely occur. The master emulator can check for precise transmission
of SERCOS telegrams and precise monitoring of receiving time. It can be used for
extensive testing of the transmission methods of the service channel (user
on-demand data and non-cyclic transmissions).
The PC software is a LISP-type interpreter. LISP is an interpretive language
popular in the artificial intelligence area. Master emulator commands are input
via command lines, which are processed by the LISP interpreter, which sends
commands to and receives commands from the communication card. The LISP
interpreter can be used to program powerful macros to automate the testing and
qualification of slave devices.
Slave Emulator
In the Slave Emulator mode, the communications card takes the place of SERCOS
interface slaves in the fiber optic ring. The slave emulator simulates a slave
with up to eight drives, providing an environment for thorough testing of a
SERCOS master.
Bit Recorder
In Bit Recorder mode, the communications card is connected in the SERCOS
interface fiber optic ring as a passive component. It can check SERCOS telegrams
and service channel information, capturing the data stream bit-wise. Later, the
transmitted data can be examined and displayed using various commercially
available software. The bit recorder is useful during the development phase and
can be especially useful in locating errors in installed SERCOS interface
systems.
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