PMD's NavigatorTM Motion Processor Developer's Kit is an integrated board and software package available to designers who need to do electro-mechanical and software design for a system using PMD's Navigator Motion control ICs. The kit can be used as a platform to develop software, as a stand-alone chipset excercisor/test bed, or as a general-purpose motion development system. The flexibility of the kit allows designers to evaluate and exercise the functions of all of PMD's Motion Processors in the Navigator family.
The developer's kit is a PCI board containing a Navigator Motion Processor (specified by the user) that is motor type specific. The motion processor can support up to four axes, including motor outputs (DAC or PWM), pulsed encoder inputs (incremental or absolute), limit switches and home indicator. It also has eight analog inputs and up to 256 user-defined descrete I/O. By interfacing to external components, including amplifiers and motors, via two 50-pin header connectors (provided with the kit) the user can create a complete motion system. The PCI bus directly provides power to the board.
The developer's kit supports the maximum number of axes allowed for each motion processor type. A system with fewer axes can be emulated with the kit by disabling the unused axes in the motion processor. As a result, software that is written for one chipset can be used for another chipset, even though the motor type, feedback, and/or motor output method is different. The software package provided in the developer's kit contains several important components for the designer. The Pro-Motion® software, with Windows™ graphical user interface, makes setting and modifying system parameters fast and easy. In addition, Pro-Motion can graphically monitor trace data and simplify motor tuning. The Command Line Interface (CLI) allows the user to enter PMD Motion Processor instructions and have them immediately executed on the board. The CLI is also used for setting-up and debugging motors, amplifiers, and other hardware. The developer's kit also contains PMD's C-Motion® Application Programming Interface (API), C-source code for developing applications using the Navigator Motion Processor in either an embedded DOS or Windows environment. C-source code is also provided, containing the instructions for PMD's MC1xxx Family of Motion Processors to provide backward compatibility. The C-Motion API can provide a basis for writing complex applications using the Navigator Motion Processor.
A complete set of technical manuals accompanies each kit, including installation information, a description of all motion processor functions, board characteristics, an instruction summary, software libraries, and troubleshooting tips. A complete set of electrical reference schematics, including Programmable Array Logic (PAL), JEDEC and listing files, is also included.
