Read our April newsletter!

1. 30@30
9 New intelligent RD1xA rotary actuators gain motor brake
loop cycle performed at every 1 ms Among the others: separate power
Recently introduced to mar- and the current loop cycle perfor- supply for motor and controller;
kets, intelligent RD1xA rota- med at every 200 µs. Preset and Jog buttons to manually
ry actuators add new valua- The internal trajectory generator move and calibrate the unit; incre-
ble benefits and gain motor (boasting a 64-bit double precision) mental jog function; general pur-
allows the operator to set new tar- pose I/Os; LEDs meant to show
brake. get position even on-the-fly. visually the operating or fault sta-
Controls on overtemperature, over- tus of the interface and the device;
New RD12A models are today current, undervoltage and bus DIP switches to set the node ID, the
equipped with an integrated elec- communication failure (because of baud rate and the termination resi-
tromagnetic power off brake (per- a broken or disconnected cable or a stance; software tool to configure
manent magnet) operated at faulty wiring) are further imple- and test manually the unit via USB
24VDC capable of a maximum mented. port including boot-loader feature
braking torque between 4.8 Nm to upgrade the DRIVECOD unit fir-
and 19.2 Nm, according to gears. RD12A positioning units can be mware.
The brake is designed to activate as easily integrated into fieldbus net- New RD12As can be easily fitted
soon as the motor comes to a stop works thanks to the wide choice of into equipment with constrained
and safely protects from uncontrol- industrial bus protocols: Profibus- and tight mounting space and
led movements, especially in mobile DP, CANopen DS301 and Modbus even for modernizing existing
stops and vertical mounting instal- RTU. In addition, Profibus and systems as the mounting assembly
lations and axes. CANopen models are equipped is exactly the same used for digital
with a RS-232 service interface. position indicators and handwheels
RD12A rotary actuators come in a RD12A rotary actuators also commonly installed in manual
robust and compact design encompass a large number of key adjustable shafts.
(degree of protection IP65, 14 mm features offered at no charge. They can be used in a wide range
hollow shaft) and integrate a 31 of applications in any industrial
W BLDC brushless motor fitted sector and are suitable to drive
with planetary gears (T48, T24 positioning and auxiliary axes such
and T12 gear ratios available) and a as in mould changers, mobile stops,
real 20-bit high-accuracy (±0.9°) tools changers, filling machines,
multiturn encoder installed in the suction cups motion units, spindle
output axis and therefore not positioning devices, conveyors and
affected by backlash errors of the packaging & woodworking machi-
gears. neries, among others.
Nominal torque is up to 5 Nm (star- At any rate a single command can
ting torque up to 12 Nm). provide multiple precise adju-
The controller, fully developed by stments in just one cycle and a very
Lika Electronic, offers two cascade short time.
control loop systems, the position
A P R I L

2. 30@30
Multifunction LD300 series for incremental encoders: much more than
10 a mere display
New LD300 series from Lika +10V according to setting and
Electronic is not only a mere LED includes offset and gain fun-
display. ctions;
- LD302 encompasses two opto-
It can be rightly defined as coupler / transistor digital out-
multifunction and versatile puts with adjustable hysteresis
for preset function;
because of the number of - LD303 boasts a serial
benefits it includes. set through the three keys located RS-232/RS-485 interface for
LD300 is a bright and easy- on the front panel. communication with a PC or
to-read LED display LD300 series can operate at data output transmission (cyclic
DC/AC multi-voltage power sup- or manual).
featuring six 15 mm high ply (24VDC and 115/230VAC
digits and can show nume- standard, 24/42VAC on request) In addition thanks to the advanced
ric values in the range from and further provides +24V/+5V configurations LD300 series can be
-199999 to 999999. power to supply an external enco- used to convert signals from digital
der through the auxiliary output. to analogue; check the encoder sta-
In a customary configuration LD300 tus through the monitoring of the
It is designed to accept digital qua-
display comes with three configu- digital outputs; transmit values in
drature signals from incremental
rable PNP or NPN inputs in HTL or serial string format.
encoders or sensors both rotary and
TTL/CMOS level designed for input Among the key features, the easy
linear having PNP/NPN or Namur
frequencies up to 100 kHz (all display scaling to any engineering
characteristics (HTL level +10 + 30V
counter modes) and up to 25 kHz unit and the selectable linearization
and TTL level +5V).
(all other operating modes). with 16 interpolation points and
Thus it is mostly used as an either
It is offered in four configurations "Teach" function, useful to convert
rotational or linear position display,
to meet the requirements of many a non-linear input signal into a
a tachometer / frequency meter, a
different applications. linear representation and vice versa.
stopwatch, a start/stop speed
- LD300 is a display only version;
display or an event counter.
- LD301 further features an adju- LD300 multifunction display is sea-
Functions and parameters (such as
stable analogue output operating led to IP65 standards in the front
multiple operation modes, frequen-
in the range 0 ... +10V or –10V... side for use in severe industrial
cies, resolutions, filters, scaling fac-
environments.
tor, counting direction etc.) can be A P R I L

3. 30@30
Modbus interface available for the whole range of
11 Lika's DRIVECOD rotary actuators
munication in several industrial - it is significantly more inexpensi-
automation systems. ve to deploy than other industrial
It allows for communication betwe- fieldbus protocols and requires
en up to 247 nodes in a true multi- less resources;
drop network over a serial EIA-485 - it is open and can be used
physical layer, ensuring high speeds royalty-free.
Lika Electronic extends the range and long distances.
of fieldbus interfaces for its The Modbus Serial Line protocol is a DRIVECOD rotary actuators with
intelligent DRIVECOD rotary Master – Slaves protocol. Modbus RTU come with a program
actuators. One only Master is connected to expressly developed and released by
the bus and one or several Slave Lika Electronic: it allows the opera-
Modbus RTU over RS-485 nodes are also connected to the tor to set the working parameters
protocol interface is today same serial bus. of the device; control manually
A Modbus communication is always some movements and functions;
available for the whole RD- initiated by the Master. and monitor the work cycles of the
series positioning units The Slave nodes will never transmit unit. The program is supplied for
along with Profibus-DP and data without receiving a request free and can be installed in any PC
CANopen DS301 protocols from the Master node. fitted with a Windows operating
MODBUS RTU messages (registers) system (Windows XP or later).
to allow direct and easy are simple data strings with 16-bit In this way you can easily and
integration with a wide CRC (Cyclic Redundant Checksum quickly programme, set up and
variety of PLCs, microcon- for error checking). start the positioning unit even
trollers, terminals, operator The simplicity of these messages is before mounting at your conve-
to ensure reliability. nience.
panels, fieldbuses and
supervising computers. The main reasons behind such large It is noteworthy that RD1xA series
implementation and diffusion of Profibus and CANopen models are
Lika DRIVECOD rotary actuators are the Modbus interface are: further equipped with a RS-232
Slave devices and implement the - Modbus bases on RS-485/ service interface to ease installa-
Modbus application protocol (level RS-232 serial communication tion and debug.
7 of OSI model) and the “Modbus which is well established and
over Serial Line” protocol (levels 1 & universally supported;
2 of OSI model). - it is basic yet complete, flexible
Modbus RTU is a serial communica- and most of all reliable;
tion open protocol developed in the - it is really simple to implement
seventies of the last century by and easy-to-use;
Modicon which is now widely used
in the industry and has become a
standard for device-to-device com A P R I L