Anyone have any documentation on the Seiberco AIM HX series stepper motor controller? I can't seem to find any in the whole world.

How is this thing controlled? can it be controlled by the PLC? I see a picture and it has 8 connectors labeled as CN1 to CN8, one connector for a motor (I guess the stepper), and a serial RS232 connector. Does this mean the thing can be controlled by a cheap PC? Anyone know where I can find some softwares?

 

On November 11, 2003, Sam Kaan wrote:
<clip>
> Anyone have any documentation on the
> Seiberco AIM HX series stepper motor controller?
> I can't seem to find any in the whole world.

I believe that Sieberco went out of business some years ago. I had some familiarity with the AIM 2300 and AIM 4000 series. I'm not sure if these were the same as an HX.

> How is this thing controlled? can it be controlled by the PLC? I see a
> picture and it has 8 connectors labeled as CN1 to CN8, one connector for a
> motor (I guess the stepper), and a serial RS232 connector. Does this mean
> the thing can be controlled by a cheap PC? Anyone know where I can find
> some softwares?
<clip>

The way the AIM 2300 and AIM 4000 were controlled was to trigger "sequences" via digital I/O. The sequences were short programs which you would enter into the controller. To program the controller, you would connect to the serial
port using a terminal emulator (I believe it was something fairly standard, such as 9600,8,1,N).

When you connected a terminal to the controller, you would be presented with a series of menus which allowed you to access various features. Certain menu options allowed you to enter or edit sequences or other configuration data. There was no special programming software, as none was required.

If you would like to continue this discussion, let us know and I will see if I can be of any further assistance.

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Michael Griffin
London, Ont. Canada
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I see what you mean. What I would like to do is
to be able to control such a unit from a PLC or perhaps a PC. As I am fairly a newbie to PLC I am not sure of what is required. I appreciate your experience with the thing however. My guess would be that to control this from a PC, I would need to write a C program which can talk to the serial port. There is definitely a serial port on the unit its a DB9 connector. How are PLC normally connected to a stepper motor driver? Do they output a serial port of some kind?

 

On November 14, 2003 00:38, Sam Kaan wrote: <clip>
> I see what you mean. What I would like to do is
> to be able to control such a unit from a PLC or perhaps a PC.
<clip>

With the models that I worked with, the unit is a combined drive and controller. You can trigger sequences by turning digital inputs on.

Do you have an AIM 2300 or AIM 4000? (These are the ones I used some years ago). Can you find the full model number information on the nameplate anywhere? I may be able to find some connection information if you can find what model you have.

> My guess would be that to control
> this from a PC, I would need to write a C program which can talk to the
> serial port. There is definitely a serial port on the unit its a DB9
> connector.

With the models I worked with, the serial port is a programming port, and could not be readily used to control the drive. It is theoretically possible to write software which would parse the screens and menus and send appropriate commands to the controller (essentially emulating what you would do manually). This would be quite a difficult project though.

> How are PLC normally connected to a stepper motor driver? Do
> they output a serial port of some kind?
<clip>

I believe that some models of Sieberco had step and direction inputs (these may not be present in some versions). The use of these was optional, and I never tried them on a Sieberco.

Step and direction control is one of the standard methods of controlling stepper drives, and some newer servo drives will accept this as well (this is intended to allow simple upgrade of existing stepper systems to servo). Step and direction works as follows. The "step" input is sent a series of pulses (50% duty cycle) and the motor will move one increment (step) for each pulse. The direction input determines the direction of rotation. The step frequency will often go as high as the tens of kHz for full speed, so a stepper controller is required rather than an ordinary PLC output. Many newer low cost "shoebox" PLCs (e.g. Siemens S7-200) have a step and direction controller built into the CPU, so this can be quite a low cost solution.

Some stepper systems will accept commands via the serial port, but unfortunately I don't believe the Sieberco did so (although I am not sure about your particular model). Some stepper systems will also accept commands via a fieldbus such as Profibus.

Finally, many stepper systems have a controller built into the drive unit and are programmable. A PLC can trigger any of a series of user programmed sequences by applying a voltage to one or more of the drive's digital inputs. This is how the Seiberco was meant to be used.

It sounds as though you were given an old Sieberco drive and motor and wish to connect it to your computer and play with it. I believe the programming cable I used was as follows. The Sieberco connector was - pin 2 TX, pin 3 Rx, pin 6 CTS, pin 7 GND. Try 9600 baud, 8, 1, N. Any terminal emulator should work. When you connect, try pressing enter or space to get a response from the drive. The drive firmware will send a menu which will display on your terminal. You can issue move commands via the menus to see if the system works.

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Michael Griffin
London, Ont. Canada
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Michael,

It sounds like you have some old literature for Seiberco.

If so, can you email me at [email protected] as I would love to get some torque data and part number info.

Thanks in advance.

Ron Campbell
Rocklin, CA

 

I tried to download a aim file to an AIM5000 controller. The file is about 22KB size. It always failed with timeout error. I used both methods: typical Termainl and AIM5000.exe (ver. 5.0) provided by Seiberco. None of them working. Anyone had better experience for such file downloading to Controller? Any suggestion? Millions Thanks.

 

Hello Michael,

I found your old thread below. I, too, have a problem with programming an AIM5000HX unit.

I cannot get the "menus" to come over, but the unit DOES write to the terminal emulator when SEIBERCO is powered up.

Is there some special way to open the port on the SEIBERCO?

Thanks,
Greg Anderson

 

I think you need to press the "escape" or "return" key a few times to get the menus. If I recall correctly, you can't change anything when it is in run mode. You have to get it into stop mode (via the keyboard), and then the menus will appear. I don't think that I ever worked with a 5000, but that probably isn't too much different from the older models.