Newport Corporation, a provider of lasers and photonics solutions, has unveiled the ESP301 three-axis motion controller and driver.
The ESP301 is the successor to the ESP300 motion controller, providing the same functionality but with a standard USB interface and an improved, integrated-manual front-panel interface.
The company's ESP-stage auto-detection and auto-configuration and two-character software commands combine to deliver backward compatibility for integration into new or existing motion systems.
The ESP301 can drive and control up to three axes of motion using any combination of DC or two-phase stepper motors up to 3A per axis.
It uses a 64-bit floating-point DSP processor for high-precision, synchronised control.
A digital PID-FF (feed-forward) servo loop is intended to ensure precise velocity profile tracking and accurate positioning.
A 1,000x programmable micro-step resolution is claimed to provide ultra-smooth, low-speed, stepper-positioning capability, while the 18-bit DC motor command output is intended to ensure improved stability for precision applications.
Beda Espinoza, product line manager for Newport's motion products, said: 'Affordable and easy to operate, it offers faster USB communication and a new, intuitive front panel menu.' The ESP301 provides several modes of positioning, including synchronised and non-synchronised point-to-point, jogging, linear or circular interpolation and continuous path contouring.
With electronic gearing, any axis of the ESP301 can be 'slaved' to any other axis, even if it has different motor/gear ratios or lead screw pitches.
Other features include on-the-fly position, velocity or trajectory changes for complex motion and alignment routines.
Software limits can be set to improve system safety.
A search routine includes encoder index pulse consideration for precision homing.
Backlash and linear error compensation are claimed to eliminate repeatable system errors.