Motor Controllers

Motor controllers receive supply voltages and provide signals to motor drives that are interfaced to motors. They include a power supply, amplifier, user interface, and position control circuitry. Motor controllers are used with several types of motors. Brushed motors commutate with physical contacts. Brushless motors do not. For example, induction motors induce current into the rotor windings without any physical connection to the stator windings. Synchronous motors, no-slip devices that operate at constant speed up to full load, include both reluctance motors and servomotors. Pole changing motors (PCM) use pole number control, a method for changing the number of poles on the primary winding. Vector drive motors provide independent control of both the voltage and frequency. In some designs, encoders or resolvers are used to provide feedback about position and speed. Linear motors generate force in only the direction of travel. Common technologies include moving coil and moving magnet designs. Many types of stepper motors use motor controllers. Examples include full-step motors, half-step motors, mini-motors, micro-motors, unipolar stepper motors, and bipolar stepper motors. Motor controllers are also used in pneumatic and hydraulic motion control systems.

Selecting motor controllers requires an analysis of application categories. Multi-axis controllers are used to control and monitor multiple, independent axes of motion. Motor speed controllers are application-specific devices used to control machines such as conveyors. Robotic motion controllers use digital motion control hardware and software for the coordinated multi-axis control of industrial robots and robotic systems. Servo amplifiers are electronic modules that convert low level analog command signals to high power voltages and currents. Inverter drives convert AC power inputs to DC outputs. High frequency drives supply power to AC motors at frequencies that are considerably higher than those used in standard-power applications. Regenerative drives support motor braking. Variable speed drives support speed control and adjustment. Motor controllers that use microcontrollers, silicon controlled rectifiers (SCR), digital signal processors (DSP), and pulse width modulation (PWM) are also available. 

Motor controllers differ in terms of electrical ratings, operating parameters, configurations, and features. Electrical ratings include maximum output voltage, rated power, continuous output current, peak output current, AC supply voltage, and DC supply voltage. Motor controllers use either single-phase or three-phase inputs at 50, 60, or 400 Hz. Operating parameters include specifications for setup and control. Some motor controllers have manual controls such as knobs, DIP switches, jumpers or potentiometers. Others include a joystick, digital control panel, computer interface, or slots for PCMCIA cards. Control programs are stored on removeable, nonvolatile storage media. Hand held devices are designed to be programmed remotely. Wireless and web-enabled controls are also available. Configurations for motor controllers include several mounting styles. Most devices mount on a chassis, DIN rail, panel, rack, wall, or printed circuit board (PCB). Standalone devices and integrated circuit (IC) chips that mount on PCBs are also available. Features for motor controllers include soft starting; dynamic, injection, or regenerative braking; brake outputs or auxiliary inputs/outputs (I/O); auto-tuning, self-diagnostics, and status monitoring; and alarms for overvoltage conditions. 

Computer-based motor controllers use many different types of buses and communication standards. Bus types include advanced technology attachment (ATA), peripheral component interconnect (PCI), integrated drive electronics (IDE), industry standard architecture (ISA), general-purpose interface bus (GPIB), universal serial bus (USB), and VersaModule Eurocard bus (VMEbus). Communications standards include ARCNET, AS-i, Beckhoff I/O, CANbus, CANopen, DeviceNet, Ethernet, small computer systems interface (SCSI), and smart distributed system (SDS). Many serial and parallel interfaces are also available. 

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Part Numbers for Motor Controllers