Real-time Monitor Port
The Real-time Monitor Port has many uses in optimizing system tuning, debugging your machine software, characterizing your mechanics, etc. What differentiates this feature from the more common PC screen monitor supplied by other servo systems is its real-time nature.
First, it provides rapid feedback when tuning the servo compensator or when optimizing your command profiles. Literally hundreds of trials can be accomplished in a less than an hour. Accelerator keys (within Teknic’s drive configuration software, QuickSet) that permit you to change key tuning variables while watching an oscilloscope screen make for an extremely rapid way to tune. You can accomplish in moments what would take days with other servo systems.
Second, the Real-time Monitor Port is truly a "live", real-time reporting signal so you can use it to watch how your motion is synchronized with other machine events like sensor outputs, machine timing signals, etc.
Improve Machine Timing
Because you use the Real-time Monitor Port with your oscilloscope, it’s easy to get both an average and worst case picture of how motion and other events are timed. This tool can help you reduce your software development by speeding the debug of your machine timing software. Additionally, the Real-time Monitor Port signal is easy to trigger on because of a "sync-pulse" provided at the start of a move, no matter what internal variable you are looking at. The sync-pulse makes it easy to overlay multiple variables using a digital storage oscilloscope.
Get the "Whole Picture"
The Real-time Monitor Port can be used to view Commanded Velocity, Actual Velocity, Position Accuracy, Commanded Torque, Actual Torque, and more. All of these variables can be scaled over a very wide range so you can "zoom-in" to look at fine detail or "zoom-out" to get the big picture. The Real-time Monitor Port’s viewed variable and the scaling, once set, are non-volatile, so the SSt-servo drive can be set up at your factory to produce a "standard" diagnostic signal for customer technicians to use. For example, if you leave the variable set for Actual Torque, a technician can monitor system friction or endpoint force very conveniently.
The Real-time Monitor Port is especially useful for monitoring machine mechanics for wear, misalignment, backlash, stretch and bearing pre-load, both in production and in the field. As an engineering aid, the Real-time Monitor Port, together with the drive’s built-in tuning stimulus, has many uses, including: measuring the reflected inertia and friction of the mechanics, and verifyinf engineering calculations or torque headroom.