The Argon firmware release 2.0 beta version together with Granity 1.8 preview is now available for public testing!
For complete list of changes and downloads, see this page. We’re reading every feedback, so please send some of your thoughts in comments here, or by email :-)
Due to popular demand, we brought BL series servo motors back in stock!
They have little bit different specifications than the earlier BL series motors. Now these motors are rated between 24 and 48 VDC which makes them ideal match with IONI drives. Also BL70 series motors have been upgraded from 4 000 CPR to 10 000 CPR encoders for smoother and stiffer operation.
Servo motor selection
The awaited IONICUBE 1X has been now released and available through the web shop! Also documentation is online in the Wiki.
IONICUBE 1X
On-board features include:
The new IONI firmware version has been released! It adds long awaited SinCos encoder support to the drive.
See the video below as comparison of SinCos and incremental encoder. The main advantages of SinCos are: silent (no dither), more stiffness and more precision. The only drawbacks are the availability and price of such encoders.
The other added features include application specific functionality for torque mode. This includes rotation limit (added safety) and torque setpoint scaling by analog input. These may be useful especially for OpenSimWheel project builders.
IONI drive firmware release 1.1.0 brings a new useful feature that automatically measures motor characteristic resistance and inductance and completely takes the guesswork out of torque controller tuning.
It takes single click to auto-set resistance and inductance
The definition of inductance
Using automatic measure is the new recommended approach to set MR and ML parameters accurately even when motor data sheet would provide these values. This is because many data sheets unfortunately provide inaccurate values. Some manufacturers have apparently characterized motor inductance at high frequency range (hundreds of kHz) which typically gives a value more than 50% off from the real inductance.
Having accurate values also opens doors for sophisticated stepping motor control features such as advanced vibration damping which rely on accurate motor characteristics. This is a subject for another update!
We have been quietly experimenting on a special IONI motherboard that has discrete power stage to extend IONI power capability. We already have a proof-of-concept board that is equipped with leftover VSD-E mosfets (61A 200V rated). After couple of weeks of use, we could not tell the difference between integrated and external power stage by observing motor control performance and smoothness.
IONIZER proof-of-concept board
Bottom side showing the discrete power MOSFETs
IONIZER has been considered to be available as DIY board (bare PCB) and a reference design where users could modify it to match virtually any power need. However, it’s not ready and many changes are needed to have our approval (such as galvanic isolation of all I/O, short circuit protection and switch to PCI-E 8x socket for newer IONI). Finishing this might be a subject for another crowd funding project.
Some pros are:
And cons:
Tell me in the comments how useful do you see IONIZER and which voltage & current range would be your preference :)
The IONI Indiegogo campaign is now finished and has exceeded our most wishful original goals. I can’t figure out a way to express how thankful I am to all the contributors and word-spreaders that made it happen! So thank you!
Our next task is to oviously to fulfill all the shipments :) If you haven’t entered/duplicated your perk order to Granite Devices web shop already, please do it now as instructed in this post. That will help us great deal and will speed up the deliveries.
Contribution over time
Contributions by country
Oh, and happy easter too! :)
We are now starting to ship the purchases from the IONI Indiegogo campaign! In order to speed up the shipping and handling, we kindly ask you to replicate your Indiegogo order to our web shop – no payment needed. Instructions:
Thank you!
PS. Everyone will be fulfilled even if they don’t do this procedure. However, the ones entering order on web shop will be served faster.
The stretch goal rewards will be also available for those who want shipment early:
Everything is ready for launch now, so we don’t hesitate to do it! IONI and IONICUBE products can be obtained with very attractive launch campaign prices through INDIEGOGO crowdfunding site and at normal prices through the web shop.
Indiegogo campaign ends in after 21 days and purchases are realized if campaign goal is met during that time. So please share the link and get people involved to make it happen!
They are ready! Are you?
We are going to launch an Indiegogo campaign where one may obtain IONICUBE and IONI Pros for a very attractive prices for a ~20 day period. I would put a countdown timer in here, but I’m not sure if there is some form of acceptance for IGG projects before they appear publicly. Anyway, it shall become online within this week! Same time these will appear on the web shop for immediate purchasing.
Meanwhile, please take a look on the latest video: