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The SSC1B Stepper Motor Control Interface

Control up to 16 Stepper Motors on a Network Using 1 Serial Port

The SSC1B interface is a microstepping bipolar motor controller that utilizes pulse width modulated current controlled motor drive output circuitry and a switchmode DC-DC converter for logic power. These features make the interface very efficient in power dissipation. The SSC1B interface circuit board controls one 2-phase bipolar stepper motor and 8 digital I/O lines with commands sent from a computers serial port. Up to 16 SSC1 system circuit boards can be connected to form a network that is controlled by commands sent from a single serial port. Stepper motor motion is performed by the SSC1B interface in the foreground while it receives commands in the background. You can send commands to read the stepper motor status word, or read the remaining step count while the stepper motor is in motion. There are 4 general-purpose digital inputs and 4 general-purpose digital outputs on each SSC1B system interface circuit board for a total of 64 digital inputs and 64 digital outputs in a network. The digital inputs have both latched and unlatched states that you can read with a system command. The digital input logic can be reversed if needed at any time with a command so that a logic high state can be interpreted as a logic low state. The digital inputs can also be individually programmed as sense inputs to stop the motor automatically when a digital input logic state changes. In addition, there are 2 digital inputs that are dedicated to sensing the stepper motors mechanical limits of travel. The mechanical limit input logic can be reversed during initialization if needed. The 4 general-purpose digital output states are controlled by a system command. The digital outputs can be configured with jumpers on the circuit board as either TTL or high current open drain transistor outputs.

Figure 1 illustrates how the various components of the SSC1 system are interconnected to the SSC1B interface circuit board.

Figure 1. SSC1B Interface Interconnect

The SSC1B Interface Technical Manual provides a detailed description of the commands, how to connect the components of the SSC1 system, and a listing of a simple QuickBasic program that illustrates how easy it is to command and control the stepper motors and digital I/O in the system. Stepper motor exerciser programs written in QuickBasic and Visual Basic are provided as a tool to help you get started with your own application program. ActiveX controls along with Visual Basic and Visual C++ programming examples that utilize the controls are also provided on the SSC1 programming examples disk. The SSC1 System ActiveX Controls documentation describes how to use the SSC1 System ActiveX  controls in your Microsoft Visual Basic and Visual C++ applications.

The SSC1B Interface Circuit Board

2-Phase Bipolar Microstepping 1.25 Amp

Circuit board dimensions: 5.0" x 4.0" x .75". 

SSC1B Interface Technical Specifications

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