National Instruments 778440-08 Motion Controller Device

The National Instruments 778440-08 is a high-performance motion controller device designed for both simple and complex motion applications. As a member of the PCI-7358 Model series, it provides sophisticated motion control capabilities for as many as eight separate axes of motion. Motion trajectory control is made possible by this controller's support for a wide range of motion types, such as vector space, point-to-point, linear, and circular.

With its sinusoidal commutation feature, the 778440-08 can smoothly and accurately regulate brushless motors. It supports both stepper and servo motors and may operate in either an open or closed loop. As servo axes are compatible with a range of servo devices, such as DC-brushed or brushless servo motors, stepper axes support full, half, and microstepping applications.

The controller utilizes advanced dual-processor technology for embedded real-time control, ensuring high-speed communications and off-loading complex motion functions from the host PC. With enhanced PID control loop and PIVff control loop, it offers high-speed servo update rates, optimizing command throughput and system performance.

Each axis of the 778440-08 features dedicated motion I/O for limit and home switches, as well as additional I/O for general-purpose functions. Motion I/O includes end-of-travel limit and home switch inputs, breakpoint output, trigger input, hall effect sensor input, and encoder feedback. Additionally, non-dedicated user I/O includes digital I/O and analog inputs for ±10 V signals, joystick inputs, or analog sensor monitoring.

In order to facilitate high-speed communication amongst NI products for the synchronization of motion, image collection, and data acquisition operations, the controller supports the Real-Time System Integration (RTSI) bus. Enhancing system integration and synchronization capabilities, users can simply synchronize many devices to a shared trigger or timing event using the RTSI bus.

The 778440-08 provides a user-friendly interface for motion control programming with its add-on motion VI libraries for LabVIEW and simple software tools. Users can specify acceleration and velocity profiles for each axis and start simultaneous motion across all axes by using it with NI-Motion driver software.