DESCRIPTION

The Trinamic Motion Control Language (TMCL) motor controllers come in many models, as described at the Trinamic website. The controllers are supported by spec over serial (RS-232C), USB and CAN-bus interfaces. (The USB interface appears as a serial device to spec.)

The current spec release has been tested with models TMCM-1140 and TMCM-3110. The code may need tuning for some other models in the series. Contact CSS for details.

CONFIGURATION

Configure the motor controllers on the Devices screen of the configuration editor as follows, choosing the CAN bus or serial/USB entry, as appropriate:

Motor and Counter Device Configuration (Not CAMAC)

MOTORS     DEVICE   ADDR <>MODE NUM                      <>TYPE
   YES /dev/tmcl0     <>   9600  10  Trinamic TMCL (Serial|USB)
   YES                 0         16     Trinamic TMCL (CAN bus)

The TMCL serial interface is RS-485, so requires use of an RS-232 to RS-485 converter to connect to the usual serial ports available on computers.

The TMCL USB interface identifies itself to the computer as a modem-type device. On Linux, the kernel driver will create special device nodes named /dev/ttyACM0, /dev/ttyACM1, etc. The spec udev rules (see /etc/udev/rules.d/10-spec_usb.rules) will automatically create links with corresponding names /dev/tmcl0, /dev/tmcl1, etc. Set the baud rate in the MODE column. The hardware default is 9600.

If using the CAN-bus interface, configure the CAN-bus controller in the field-bus section of the Interfaces screen of the configuration editor. spec allows multiple field-bus controllers to be configured with each assigned an index number starting from zero. The ADDR field for the TMCL device holds the index number of the field-bus controller to be used. One may need to Use the USB interface temporarily to set the CAN bus parameters on the TMCL controller to other than the default (1M bit rate, ID 1).

On the Motor screen of the configuration editor, choose TMCL or TMCL_E as the controller type. TMCL_E indicates an encoder is used with the particular channel. The TMCL motor channels require unit/module/channel configuration. The unit numbers refer to the entries on the Devices screen for the controller configuration and start at zero for each type of controller. That is, the first TMCL controller is unit 0, even if other controller types appear before it in the listing. The module number is the configured module address. The channel numbers run from 0 to one minus the number of motor channels. Modules are available with 1, 3 and 6 axes.

The TMCL firmware includes over a hundred parameters. Some of them are standard parameters set by spec, but others are associated with special functions of the controller. The parameters can be set using motor_par() as described below. The parameters can also be configured as non-standard optional parameters using the configuration editor.

Parameters that can be stored in EEPROM will be saved to EEPROM when set using motor_par() or when configured as nonstandard optional parameters in the config file. To prevent excessive writing to EEPROM, spec will always preread the value from EEPROM and only store values that are to be changed. EEPROM parameters are indicated in the output of the "dump" and "gdump" commands below with an E in the Access column.

FUNCTIONS

motor_par(mne, "reset")

Restores all settings stored in the EEPROM to their factory defaults. After using this command, execute a reconfig or restart spec to synchronize spec's settings with that of the TMCL.

motor_par(mne, "last_restore")

Returns the time in seconds since a power cycle was detected for the controller associated with motor mne, or if no power cycle detected, the time since the most recent hardware configuration. The value can be used to detect if there has been a power cycle which would have restored user programmed parameters.

motor_par(mne, "gdump")

Displays the current values of the global parameters for the controller associated with motor mne.

motor_par(mne, "dump")

Displays the current values of the axis parameters for motor mne.

motor_par(mne, "par#" [, val])

Sets or returns the value of the axis parameter number specified by #.

motor_par(mne, "gpar#" [, val])

Sets or returns the value of the global parameter number specified by #.

motor_par(mne, "PeakCurrent" [, val])

Sets or returns the absolute maximum current value.

motor_par(mne, "PowerDownCurrent" [, val])

Sets or returns the standby current value.

motor_par(mne, "SE_current_min" [, val])

Sets or returns the smartEnergy minimum current value.

motor_par(mne, "SE_current_down" [, val])

Sets or returns the smartEnergy current down step value.

motor_par(mne, "SE_hysteresis" [, val])

Sets or returns the smartEnergy hysteresis value.

motor_par(mne, "SE_current_up" [, val])

Sets or returns the smartEnergy current up step value.

motor_par(mne, "stop_on_stall" [, val])

Sets or returns the stop-on-stall value.

motor_par(mne, "SE_threshold_speed" [, val])

Sets or returns the smartEnergy threshold speed.

motor_par(mne, "SE_current_slow" [, val])

Sets or returns the smartEnergy slow run current value.

motor_par(mne, "AccelerationCurrent" [, val])

Sets or returns the boost current value.

motor_par(mne, "PowerDownDelay" [, val])

Sets or returns the power-down delay time.

motor_par(mne, "set_pullup", 0|1)

Switches the pull-up resistors for all inputs off (0) or on (1).

motor_par(mne, "set_bit", val)

Set output port number val to high.

motor_par(mne, "clr_bit", val)

Set output port number val to low.

motor_par(mne, "put_bits"|"set_bits"|"put_byte", val)

Set output ports that correspond to bits set in val and clears output ports that correspond to bits not set in val.

motor_par(mne, "get_bit", val)

Returns 0 or 1 based on whether the input port corresponding to bit number val is high or low.

motor_par(mne, "get_bits"|"get_byte")

Returns an 8-bit value that reflects the setting of the input ports.

RESTORING PARAMETERS ON POWER CYCLE

Motor position and parameters related to motor speed are stored in volatile registers on the TMCL controllers. These registers get reset to zero when the power to the controller is cycled. When initializing a TMCL controller, spec writes a signature value to general purpose register 255. When that register is read back as zero, it is an indication that the power has been cycled.

As of release 6.08.03, spec will (by default) automatically restore motor positions and the other registers if it detects the TMCL controller power has been cycled. The check is performed whenever spec reads the position register and gets a zero. If the signature register value is zero, spec will restore the controller position registers using the values spec has saved in memory (or from the settings file if spec is just starting up). spec will also restore any parameters set in the config file. Note, any volatile parameter values that may have been set with motor_par() from the command line will not be restored, as spec does not keep a record of those values.

The custom controller parameter "check_interval" is still available to configure checks on the signature register. These checks are performed before moving, reading positions, on the sync command, and before changing parameters with motor_par(), but no more often than the specified interval. The "check_interval" parameter can be configured to add the additional checks beyond the new automatic checking triggered when the position register is zero.

To set the custom controller parameter "check_interval", go to the controller configuration line on the Devices screen of the configuration editor and type p to enter the parameter:

Custom Parameters for "Trinamic TMCL (Serial|USB)"

NAME                      VALUE
check_interval            2

The above example configures the checking at no more often than every two seconds. The parameter needs to be separately configured for each controller for which checks are to be enabled.

As of release 6.08.03, if "check_interval" is set to a negative number, both the interval checking and the automatic checking are disabled. Note, though, it is not necessary to create and set the "check_interval" parameter at all, as the default behavior should suffice for most applications.

ENCODERS

spec release 6.03.10 includes encoder support for TMCL motors. Select controller type TMCL_E on the Motor screen for channels with encoders. For such channels, spec will take the current position from axis register 209 "Encoder Position".

As a default, spec will use relative rather than absolute moves for positioning for motors configured as TMCL_E. Absolute positioning can be selected by setting the nonstandard optional motor parameter "encoder_move_mode" to the string "absolute" (as of spec release 6.04.01). To set the parameter, go the associated motor column on the Motor screen of the configuration editor and type p to reach the custom parameter screen. Then enter strings for the parameter name and value:

Custom Parameters for Motor 10 "TMCL" (tmcl)

NAME                      VALUE
encoder_move_mode         absolute

If the standard optional motor parameter "encoder_step_size" is set, spec will use that parameter instead of the standard "step_size" to scale the readings. The chg_dial() function (used by the set_dial macro) will modify register 209 in addition to the commanded position registers 0 and 1, again, scaling by "encoder_step_size", if set. Note, as always, the units of "step_size" and "encoder_step_size" are actually the number of steps per degree, not the size of a step.

Currently, spec does not set the encoder prescaler register (number 210) or the encoder mode register (number 201), available on some models. Use motor_par(), as described above, to set the numbered parameters, if needed. Include the numbered parameters in the config file as nonstandard optional motor parameters if desired.

The encoder support will be refined based on user feedback received at CSS HQ.