How To Control a Sure Step Stepping System with a CLICK PLC from AutomationDirect

In this video I'll be showing you how to control a Sure Step Stepping system using a CLICK PLC. We'll be using the built-in indexer in the step drive number 80100, because CLICK doesn't have a high-speed pulse output capability. I'll assume you have the Stepper power supply wired to the drive and the motor connected correctly. Please refer to the stepper product manual for details. The first thing we need to do is setup the stepper drive. To do that you need to have the Sure Step Pro software installed on your PC. You can download the free software on Automation Direct's website. Once you have installed the software go ahead and launch it. Make sure that you have connected the drive to your computer using the included serial cable. In the Sure Step Pro software, make sure the 80100 drive is selected. Next click on Motion & I/O. Then click on Serial Command Language or SCL. Everything that we need here should be set up by default. So you can go ahead and hit ok. Now go ahead and click on Motor, and select the Sure Step motor that you are using. Go ahead and hit ok. That is all it takes to setup the drive, the only thing left is to click the download button . In the CLICK programming software we need to configure our PLC so it can send data to the stepper drive. To get to the setup menu go to setup and then com port setup. We need to configure Port 2 so go ahead and click on setup. The drive communicates through ASCII not Modbus so go ahead and change the protocol. The baud rate needs to be changed to 9600. The parity needs to be changed to none. Stop Bit make sure it's at 1 and make sure communication data is at 8. Once you are done entering that go ahead and hit ok and then ok again. First drag in an edge contact on the first rung and type in C1. Hit ok. Then drag in another edge contact onto rung 2. Type in C2. Go ahead and bring in another edge contact onto rung 3. Type in C3 and finally drag in the last edge contact onto rung 4 and then type in C4. In the coil area of the first rung go ahead and drag in a send command. Make sure that Port 2 is selected. In this command I'll be setting the acceleration rate to 25 revolutions per second. In the text box type the following. Alright once you have that typed in go ahead and click on the termination code box and then in the first character go ahead and type in dollar sign zero D. Status flags let you know the condition of the command. I'll set Sending as C5, and Success as C6. When the command is Sending C5 will energize, when the command is Successful C6 will energize. We are all done in the send command and you can go ahead and hit ok. In the coil area of the second rung go ahead and drag in a send command. Make sure Port 2 is selected. And in the text box we're going to type the following. Don't forget the termination code. Which again is dollar sign zero D. I'll set sending as C7 and success as C8. Here I'm setting the deceleration rate to 25 revolutions per second. So when you're done go ahead and hit ok. In the coil area for the third rung go ahead and drag in a send command. Make sure Port 2 is selected. And then in the text box type in the following. Don't forget the termination code. Which is once again dollar sign zero D. I'll set sending as C9 and success as C10. In this command I am setting the velocity to 1 revolution per second. So in the coil area of the fourth rung go ahead and drag in another send command. Make sure that Port 2 is selected. Type in the following and type in dollar sign zero D as the termination code. I'll set sending as C11 and success as C12. So here I am telling the motor to move 20,000 steps in the clockwise direction. 20,000 steps equals one revolution on the motor. So go ahead and hit ok. Don't forget to add your end statement, and then go ahead and download your program to the PLC. Now you want to open up the Data View window. And you want to add the following tags; C1, C2, C3, and then finally C4. Go ahead and click on the edit button. Double clicking the on button energizes the associated rung and sends that command. So go ahead and toggle C1, C2, and C3 on and then back off. Now, when you toggle C4 on the motor should move 20,000 steps in the clockwise direction. So let's go ahead and do that. And sure enough the motor moves exactly one revolution or 20,000 steps. This was a very simple demonstration of what the CLICK PLC and the Sure Step System are capable of. So now that you know how to send commands to the drive the possibilities are endless.