PCI and PCIe motion control card (plug-in board for a host PC)

01

Choose a pulse-train card or a fieldbus-master card for your slot

Advantech's PCI-1245L is a 4-axis pulse-train card for the Universal PCI V2.2 bus, accepting both 3.3 V and 5 V signal slots. It outputs pulse/direction or CW/CCW pulses at up to 1 Mpps, switchable by jumper between differential and single-ended, with 2-axis linear interpolation, T- and S-curve profiles, a step count range of ±2,147,483,646, a hardware emergency input and a watchdog timer. Advantech describes one unified user programming interface and graphical utility for all its motion controllers. [1]

A fieldbus-master card moves the axis count off the card's connectors. Zmotion's XPCIE1032H is a PCI Express EtherCAT card for 6 to 64 axes combining pulse and EtherCAT axes, with single-ended pulse/direction output at up to 500 kHz on its pulse axes, encoder measurement configurable as a handwheel input, and expansion to 512 isolated inputs and 512 outputs over EtherCAT; Zmotion pairs it with its MotionRT7 real-time kernel to run real-time control under Windows. [2] Delta's PCI-DMC-B01 acts as a DMCNET master controlling up to 12 stations for 12-axis motion, completes communication at a 1 ms cycle time, and offers 2 groups of real-time capture and compare for latching positions and triggering a camera at set pulse positions. [3]

Editorial note: a pulse card's axis count is fixed by its connectors and output channels, while a bus-master card's count depends on the network and the drives on it; give the supplier the axis count you need now and later, the drive models and their command interface, and the host PC's slot types before choosing.

Give the supplier the host PC and free slot types (PCI or PCIe, lane width), the operating system and programming language, the number and type of axes, drive models and their command interface (pulse/direction, CW/CCW, EtherCAT, other fieldbus), interpolation needs, encoder types, digital I/O count, position capture or compare needs, and the cable lengths to the drives.

02

Plan connectors, wiring boards, encoders and I/O

The PCI-1245L brings all four axes out on one 100-pin SCSI female connector; Advantech lists a 100-pin DIN-rail 4-axis wiring board, 50-pin 2-axis boards, 1–3 m cables and 2 m cables made up for specific servo drive families as accessories. Its encoder interface takes quadrature (A/B) or up/down signals at x1, x2 or x4 counting, an input range of 3–10 V, 2,500 VDC isolation, and up to 4 MHz in 4xAB mode (1 MHz for CW/CCW). Its local I/O lists machine interfaces LMT+, LMT− and ORG and servo-driver interfaces ALM and INP. [1]

The same datasheet gives the card's board-level conditions: 175 × 100 mm, typical 5 V at 0.6 A and maximum 5 V at 1 A, 0 to 60 °C operating, −20 to 85 °C storage and 5 to 95% RH non-condensing. [1] Zmotion states its XPCIE1032H general digital outputs can deliver up to 300 mA, enough to drive some solenoid valves directly. [2]

Editorial calculation: at the PCI-1245L's 1 Mpps maximum output and a drive set to 10,000 command pulses per motor revolution, the card can command at most 1,000,000 ÷ 10,000 = 100 rev/s, or 6,000 rpm; with a finer electronic gear the speed ceiling falls in proportion, so check pulse rate against the resolution and top speed you need. [1]

03

What sits on a motion card: bus interface, pulse channels, fieldbus port and encoder counters

04

Card ratings to check against the host PC and drives

Position accuracy and ingress protection belong to the machine and the host PC rather than the card; the other rows are card ratings.

05

List the host PC, axes and wiring

Paste it into your enquiry below or into an email to a maker, then replace every bracket.

Host: [PC model; free PCI/PCIe slots; OS; language]
Axes: [count; pulse or fieldbus; drive models]
Motion: [interpolation; top speed; resolution]
Feedback: [encoder type and frequency; capture or compare]
I/O: [inputs; outputs; current]
Wiring: [terminal boards; cable lengths]

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