NI SoftMotion Support for Kollmorgen AKD-C and AKD-N Drives

Updated Apr 6, 2023

Reported In

Software

  • LabVIEW SoftMotion Module
  • LabVIEW

Other

Kollmorgen AKD-C
Kollmorgen AKD-N

Issue Details

  • Does NI SoftMotion support Kollmorgen AKD-C an AKD-N drives?
  • I am trying to add the Kollmorgen AKD-C drive as an EtherCAT slave to use with NI SoftMotion but I can't get the drive to be recognized by the project. How can I add these drives?
  • I have added a Kollmorgen AKD-C drive to my NI EtherCAT Master but cannot bind the drive to an NI SoftMotion axis. How can I bind the axis?

Solution

Currently, SoftMotion only supports the Kollmorgen AKD-P drives. This means that the AKD-C and AKD-N drives will not work with SoftMotion, axes cannot be bound to these drives and require a separate ESI file to be added to a NI EtherCAT Master. 

Additional Information

  • The AKD-C and AKD-N drives can be interacted with as standard EtherCAT Slaves without SoftMotion. However, you will lose the benefits of the SoftMotion software.
  • SoftMotion can interact with numerous other small electric drives via the SoftMotion Drive Interface (SDI) . If one of these SDI drives meet the application form factor and power requirements then SDI may be a valid alternative. 

Related Links

Archived:Working With the NI SoftMotion Drive Interface (SDI)

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