Esmacat Mini Torque Driver 250
One of the Smallest EtherCAT Based Motor Drivers for High Speed Robotic Applications
Obsolete as of May 2022
The Esmacat Mini Torque Driver 250 is a miniature, yet powerful brushed and brushless motor driver for high speed control that robotic applications demand, especially when safety around humans is a priority. It is capable of up to 250 W continuous (750 W peak) with integrating quadrature encoders and hall sensor inputs. It also includes digital IO pins and analog inputs for integration with any other sensors used in the motor system. The EtherCAT protocol and Power-over-EtherCAT (POE) technology allows high speed communication and flexible connectivity by supporting daisy-chain wiring. The Mini Torque Driver 250 is a part of the Esmacat suite and is the ideal motor control solution for both novice and expert robotics engineers due to its easy programmable master software and hardware setup!
*Note: The Esmacat Mini Torque Driver 250 uses a PoE input voltage rating of 24VDC. Please see datasheet for more details.*
Feature Highlights
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BLDC/DC Motor Driver for 250 W continuous and 750 W peak operation.
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Nominal Operating Voltage: 10 - 50 VDC
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Continuous Current: 5 A, Peak Current: 15 A
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Miniaturized size for robotic applications (W: 61.4 mm, L: 42.4 mm, H: 18.1 mm)
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Weighs 35.8 g
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High speed communication (200 Mbps, 200x faster than CAN bus) with an industrial standard protocol, EtherCAT
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Daisy chain connection and Power-over-EtherCAT (POE) simplifying wiring topology
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Uses Molex Milli-Grid connectors instead of typical RJ45 Ethernet ports for a more compact solution
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Various peripheral interface for incremental encoder, absolute encoder (SSI), load cell, analog input, digital input/output
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High speed low-level controller for current control (53.6 kHz), torque control (5 kHz), velocity control (5 kHz)
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Easy setup, diagnosis and auto-tuning with Maxon ESCON studio
Incorporating the Esmacat Mini Torque Driver 250 Into Your Project
The Esmacat Mini Torque Driver 250 is fitted with an ESCON module for motor control. The module can be easily setup/tuned with Maxon's ESCON studio.
Once the motor parameters are set on ESCON studio, the motor driver is correctly powered via a 24 V PoE Injector (separate from the motor power supply), and the EtherCAT software is coded to your needs, you are ready to incorporate the motor driver into your project!
We have supporting material for the original Esmacat Motor Driver 250 on our tutorials page that is sufficient enough to create your own application , including this YouTube video and many more, on how to get started with the motor driver. All our material uses the Esmacat Master software for simple setup but the motor driver is compatible with all EtherCAT masters via a few extra steps.
Software
Master Software
Esmacat provides EtherCAT master software to control the motor driver (position control and velocity control included) through a daisy-chain topology filled with Ethernet cables from an EtherCAT master. Our free open-source master software compatible on both Windows and Linux can be found on our Software page. Our motor driver is also compatible with 3rd party EtherCAT master devices.
*The current master software does not have specific examples for the mini torque driver but the code used in the Esmacat Motor Driver 250 examples may be used as reference.*
Maxon's ESCON Studio
ESCON studio is used to set the motor parameters and tune the motor driver according to your needs. More information on how to use ESCON studio with the Esmacat Mini Torque Driver 250 can be found on our Guidance of ESCON Studio Setup document.
