December 19, 2010 - Animatics announces the Class 5 SmartMotor featuring Combitronic technology. Not only does the motor contain the entire control system, but a distributed group of SmartMotor units now automatically act as a single, multi-axis controller.Combitronic technology allows a collection of from 2 to over 100 integrated servos to be linked over simple CAN and automatically share all motion, I/O, control and computational resources.
The system integrator doesn't write a stitch of communications code while eliminating data collisions and gaining full deterministic arbitration.Users can discard the concept of Master-Slave and enjoy a unified, multi-tasking programming environment that combines, until now, the previously disparate benefits of Centralized and Distributed Control.Class 5 remains bolt, shaft and connector compatible with its predecessors for the benefit of Animatics' existing customer base. Animatics will continue to sell and support its Class 4 line of products, but customers making the switch to Class 5 will no longer either need a PLC to control the machine, or they can unburden the task of an existing PLC, enhancing its use.
By way of example, ten SmartMotors on a Combitronic Link are a complete motion and machine control System with 10 RS-232 ports, 10 RS-485 ports and from 70 to 170 points of 5V, in addition to, isolated 24V universal analog and digital I/O.
