KR101346690B1 - Multi protocol transmitter - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a multi-protocol transmission apparatus, and more particularly, to a multi-protocol transmission apparatus enabling a user to selectively control a protocol for data transmission between an upper controller and a lower controller using a communication method desired by a user. To this end, switching means 110 for receiving data from at least one of the upper controller and the lower controller, and switching to a communication mode selected by the user among a plurality of communication modes for transmitting data to any one controller; A plurality of communication means 120 for processing and outputting data based on protocols according to a plurality of communication modes; And a selection means (130) for selecting any one of a plurality of communication modes by the switching means (110) and outputting the processed data corresponding to the selected communication mode. do.

Description

Multi protocol transmitter

The present invention relates to a multi-protocol transmission apparatus, and more particularly, to a multi-protocol transmission apparatus that enables a user to selectively control a protocol required for data transmission between an upper controller and a lower controller using a communication method desired by a user. will be.

Conventional industrial network motion controller is a board integrally configured to use only a specific communication method. For example, if the master chip used in the controller is M-Link, the servo driver and servomotor used in the control target can only be used with M-Link compatible products.

This is because when the type of servo driver and servo motor is changed due to the market demand, the entire motion controller must be replaced again, which causes the additional cost as well as the reconfiguration of the controller and the entire electronic part. In addition, when changing the communication method, there is a technical problem in that the entire system needs to be replaced like the servo drive.

According to the Republic of Korea Patent Publication No. 10-2011-0109689 (name of the invention: a multi-axis motion control apparatus and method based on a plurality of channel networks) according to the prior art document relates to the invention to maintain mutual compatibility even using various communication methods will be. The prior art document makes the heterogeneous communication protocols compatible between the master and the slave, and the present invention allows the selection of one of the heterogeneous protocols according to the user's selection so that the protocols of the upper controller and the lower controller can be matched. It is about.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to solve the problems as described above, and to provide an invention that can flexibly cope with changes in a user's environment by allowing a user to select a desired communication method.

However, the objects of the present invention are not limited to the above-mentioned objects, and other objects not mentioned can be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the following description.

The object of the present invention described above is a switching means for receiving data from at least one of an upper controller and a lower controller, and switching to a communication mode selected by a user among a plurality of communication modes to transmit data to any one controller ( 110); A plurality of communication means 120 for processing and outputting data based on protocols according to a plurality of communication modes; And selecting means 130 for selecting any one of a plurality of communication modes by the switching means 110 and outputting the processed data corresponding to the selected communication mode. This can be achieved by.

In addition, it is characterized in that for controlling the address bus between the switching means 110 and the communication means 120 to switch to the communication mode selected by the user.

The data output from the host controller may be motion data for driving a motor.

The data output from the lower controller may be data to which the state of the motor is fed back.

In addition, the communication means 120, characterized in that to output the processed data using at least one communication protocol of EtherCAT, M-Link, and RTEX.

In addition, the selecting means 130 includes: a multiplexer 131 which selects any one of the plurality of communication means 120 and outputs the processed data when data is transmitted from the upper controller to the lower controller; And a demultiplexer 133 outputting data to any one of the plurality of communication means 120 when data is transmitted from the lower controller to the upper controller.

According to the present invention as described above, by simply switching and using a variety of communication modes without replacing the controller, motor, servo driver according to the change of the user environment, there is an effect of reducing the cost of the controller replacement.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate preferred embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to further the understanding of the technical idea of the invention, It should not be construed as limited.
1 is a block diagram showing a configuration between an upper controller and a lower controller according to the present invention,
2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a multi-protocol transmission apparatus according to the present invention.

Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In addition, the embodiment described below does not unduly limit the content of the present invention described in the claims, and the entire structure described in this embodiment is not necessarily essential as the solution means of the present invention.

<Configuration and Function of Multiprotocol Transmitter>

As shown in FIG. 1, the multi-protocol transmission apparatus according to the present invention is a piggy module that is stacked and connected to an upper controller and a lower controller, and selects any one protocol among a plurality of industrial protocols. It is a device for transmitting data. Hereinafter, the configuration and function of the multi-protocol transmission apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 1 to 2.

First, the structure of a controller for driving a motor includes a centralized controller structure and a distributed controller structure. In the centralized controller structure, an algorithm for driving a motor is installed in the upper controller to directly control the motor, and the lower controller only drives the motor by receiving a controlled signal. On the other hand, the distributed controller structure is responsible for motor control in the lower controller and the upper controller gives only the command for driving the motor.

Such a centralized controller structure and a distributed controller structure are roughly classified according to their use environments. Hereinafter, the present invention will be described with reference to a distributed controller structure. However, the Piggy module according to the present invention may be used in a centralized controller structure as necessary.

According to the distributed controller structure, the upper controller generates motion data defining the movement of the motor. As a result, a motion system on chip (SoC) chip is implemented, and the lower controller receives the motion data generated from the upper controller. Actually drives the motor. The lower controller is connected one-to-one with the motor, and a motor SoC chip is implemented that analyzes the motion data and generates PWM signals for driving the motor. Therefore, the lower controller is provided to correspond to the number of motors that are loads.

FIG. 1 shows piggy modules 100a stacked on the upper controller 1 and piggy modules 100b, 100c and 100n stacked on the plurality of lower controllers 3b, 3c and 3n. It can be seen that the plurality of lower controllers are connected to the plurality of motors 5b, 5c, and 5n again in a one-to-one manner. Hereinafter will be described with respect to the piggy module.

As shown in FIG. 2, the piggy module 100 stacked on the upper controller is roughly divided into a switching means 110, a communication means 120, a selection means 130, an RJ-45 140, and a connector 150. It can be configured and the piggy module 100 'of the lower controller is also the same configuration.

The connector 150 of the piggy module according to the present invention is a connector for passing motion data generated from the upper controller to the piggy module so that the connector of the upper controller and the connector of the piggy module are connected to each other to interface. In an embodiment of the present invention, a 84-pin connector may be used, and the 84-pin pin assignment may be configured as 2 pins for setting a communication mode, 78 pins for signals, and 4 pins for power. The two pins to set the communication mode are defined in Table 1, and the overall 84-pin pin assignments are defined in Table 2.

Communication mode Explanation 00 User button diable Set according to the data sent by the Windows application without using the user button 01 RTEX mode Use RTEX as Communication Protocol 10 M-Link mode Use M-Link as a communication protocol 11 EtherCAT mode Use EtherCAT as a Communication Protocol

In Table 1, the two pins for setting the communication mode can be implemented by generating a high signal (+ 3.3v) or low signal (0v) signal using a pull-up or pull-down resistor. Can be. In other words, the RTEX mode is defined as one pin voltage is low and the other pin is high, and the M-Link mode is defined as the opposite of the signal voltage of the RTEX mode.

name I / O Explanation Pin count ED [31: 0] B Data bus


78pins



EA [21: 0] I Address bus RD I Lead control WR I Light control CS I chip select CTR [7: 0] B extra control pins EtherCAT_SPI [4: 0] B IRQ, CS, CLK, SOMI, SIMO RSV [7: 0] B reserved pins VCC / GND Power Power pins 4pins (VCC / GND 2pin)

As shown in Table 2 above, the most problematic problem when exchanging data with the host controller in the piggy module is that the address bus, data bus, and other signals used in each communication mode are different. In order to match these signals with each other, the switching means 110 described below is used, and Table 2 has been described based on the M-Link having the largest number of data buses among industrial protocols.

The switching means 110 according to the present invention transmits motion data from the upper controller to the lower controller or vice versa in case of transmitting data fed back from the lower controller to the upper controller. , M-Link chip). The switching unit 110 reads the communication mode setting pin values as described in Table 1 above to know which communication chip (communication protocol) the user wants to use.

Address decoding is required for each communication chip to be selected. For example, RTEX chip has an address of 0x1000 ~ 0x1FFF, EtherCAT chip has an address of 0x2000 ~ 0x2FFF, and M-Link chip selects a specific communication chip by decoding it to have an address of 0x3000 ~ 0x3FFF.

In addition, the switching means 110 is a signal according to the communication mode defined by the user to select the input of the multiplexer 131 (hereinafter referred to as mux) and the output of the demultiplexer 133 (hereinafter referred to as demux) described later. It is transmitted to the mux 131 and demux 133.

The switching means 110 described above may be generally implemented using a commercially available Zirings or Altera product as a programmable logic device (PLD). However, the PLD has a limited logic implementation because the number of logic gates is not so large, but it can be sufficiently implemented using a product having a large number of logic gates according to a user's needs.

Communication means 120 according to the present invention means a communication chip as an example, the communication chip is a chip that supports a protocol such as M-Link, EtherCAT, RTEX as a chip provided with various protocols for controlling the motor.

The PLD decodes an address according to a communication mode defined by a user, and selects any one of the communication chips. The selected communication chip processes the motion data according to the definition of its own protocol and the MUX 131 described later. )

In this case, when the data is transmitted from the upper controller to the lower controller, the motion data transmitted from the upper controller is processed according to each protocol to output the mux. In addition, when transmitting the data fed back the motor state (hereinafter referred to as motor data) from the lower controller to the upper controller, the motor data is input to the demux 133 according to the communication protocol selected by the piggy module of the lower controller. The demux outputs motor data to the communication chip suitable for the communication protocol selected from the piggyback module of the lower controller, and transmits the motor data to the final higher controller by causing the address-decoded communication chip to transmit the data back to the PLD. For example, if the communication mode selected in the piggy module of the lower controller is RTEX, the piggy module of the upper controller should also be selected. This can be achieved by setting the same communication mode pins in Table 1.

The mux 131 and the demux 133 described above need 2 bit signals of the PLD to determine the input of the mux 131 and the output of the demux 133 as components of the selecting means 130. The mux is usually called a multiplexer, and the demux is called a demultiplexer.

RJ-45 according to the present invention (140,140 ') is a type of connector transmits the data output through the mux to the piggy module of the lower controller (Tx), and receives the data output through the piggy module of the lower controller (Rx) Receive. At this time, in addition to RJ-45, other connectors can be used according to the needs of the user.

Here, the piggy module Rx terminal of the upper controller should be connected to the piggy module Tx terminal of the lower controller, and the piggy module Tx terminal of the upper controller should be connected to the piggy module Rx terminal of the lower controller.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to the embodiment thereof, the present invention is not limited thereto, and various modifications and applications are possible. In other words, those skilled in the art can easily understand that many variations are possible without departing from the gist of the present invention.

1: host controller
3,3b, 3c, 3n: lower controller
5b, 5n, 5n: motor
100,100 ', 100a, 100b, 100c, 100n: Piggy module
110: switching means
120: communication means
130: selection means
131: Multiplexer
133: Demultiplexer
140,140 ': RJ-45
150: connector

Claims (6)

Switching means (110) for receiving data from at least one of an upper controller and a lower controller, and switching to a communication mode selected by a user among a plurality of communication modes for transmitting the data to any one controller;
A plurality of communication means (120) for processing the data based on a protocol according to the plurality of communication modes and outputting the multiplexer (131); And
Selecting means 130 for selecting any one of the plurality of communication modes by the switching means 110, and outputs the processed data corresponding to the selected communication mode;
Each of the plurality of communication means 120 processes the data based on a protocol according to each of the plurality of communication modes,
The selection means 130,
The multiplexer (131) for selecting any one of the plurality of communication means (120) to output processed data to the lower controller when data is transmitted from the upper controller to the lower controller; And
And a demultiplexer 133 for outputting data to the upper controller in any one of the plurality of communication means 120 when data is transmitted from the lower controller to the upper controller.
Controlling an address bus between the switching means 110 and the communication means 120 to switch to the communication mode selected by the user,
The data output from the host controller is motion data for driving a motor.
The data output from the lower controller is a multi-protocol transmission apparatus, characterized in that the data fed back the state of the motor.
The method of claim 1,
A connector 150 for transmitting the motion data output from the upper controller to the switching means 110 or for transmitting the data fed back to the state of the motor output from the lower controller to the switching means 110. Multiprotocol transmission device comprising a.
delete delete The method of claim 1,
The communication means 120,
A multi-protocol transmission apparatus characterized by outputting processed data using at least one communication protocol of EtherCAT, M-Link, and RTEX.
delete

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