DriveCM Tutorial: Setting Up Software for LS Electric iX7 Servos

Looking for a comprehensive all-in-one motion control solution? Automation Direct offers a fully integrated option with the LS Electric software family. Both XG5000 and Drivec are available for free at automationdirect.com. Go to the support section and then click downloads. You can also find a link on the item page for each compatible device. In this video, we'll install Drive CM and connect it to an EX-7 drive. The process is identical for any of the servos in the LS electric family. If you'd like more details about the hardware system used here, be sure to check out our EX-7 servo build video. After downloading Drive CM, make sure to extract the entire software package from the compressed archive before installing. This prevents installation issues. Once installed, launch Drive CM to access the home screen. The interface includes a setup wizard and drive information panel on the left, the main configuration workspace in the center, and a realtime auxiliary control panel on the right used for jogging, IO monitoring, motion triggering, and more. Toolbars across the top provide quick access to communication settings, main window tools, auxiliary controls, commandon features, and a software emergency stop. To connect to the IX7 servo drive, only control power for the drive is required. However, since we will eventually want to jog the motor and set up basic motion, we'll provide main power as well. You can connect to the servo using drive CM over USB. After plugging the cable into the drive's USB port, select USB as the connection method and click the offline to online button. Drive CM will automatically detect the drive model and display firmware details and identification information. At this stage, confirm that your drive is running the latest firmware revision. Available firmware versions can be downloaded from the drive CM downloads page at automationdirect.com. Be sure to carefully review the associated readme files. Improper firmware or FPGA version installation is one of the quickest ways to render a system temporarily inoperable. Finally, let's take a look at some of the nifty features of the drive CM interface. If we go to the object dictionary where the drive parameters are listed, we can hover over the parameter group buttons and it will display what hex addresses are in each tab. It makes it much easier and faster to find a specific parameter referenced in the manual or quick start guide. When we enter a value in any of the fields in the software, we see the default value is green and if we change the value, it turns red as we have made an update but have not sent it to the drive. If we then save the value to the drive, we see it turn yellow, indicating the parameter contains a non-default value. This is a very valuable way to see any updated parameters quickly. We also have the option to use the search index tool near the top of the parameter window. If we want to see all parameters in this group that are used for brake control, as an example, we can simply type brake into this search and it instantly updates the parameter list with the various brake parameters. And that's it. With DriveCM installed and connected, you're ready to proceed with the configuration wizard, parameter setup, basic drive control, and much more. All through an intuitive and easy to use software environment. For further details, please refer to the quick start guide available at automationdirect.com. It condenses key information from the LS manual into an easyto use format. While the full manual remains the best resource for detailed technical reference. Just another reason Automation Direct is the number one value in automation. If you have further questions, please contact our free award-winning technical support team. If you want to see EtherCAT Motion products, click here. If you want to see more videos on EtherCAT motion control, click here. If you want to subscribe to our YouTube channel, click here.