Tewkesbury, UK ‚– London based Windmill Studios provide audio-visual solutions for the conference, live events and attractions industry and when Trio Motion launched its recent special offer for evaluation kits, it seemed an ideal opportunity to try out the MC206X motion controller while saving costs for a special effects project that involved animating Daleks in a visual panorama of synchronized graphics and motion for the phenomenally popular Dr Who Up-Close Exhibitions.
Organized by Martin Wilkie of Experience Design and Management of Shepperton Film Studios with the close cooperation of the BBC, these exhibitions showcase props, costumes, monsters and creatures from the hit BBC TV show in animated and interactive stand-alone displays that feature TV episode sets with life-sized models of the TARDIS and other gadgets, plus monsters and villains such as the Daleks, Cybermen and the Slitheen. Windmill Studios are sub-contractors for all the audio visual content and special effects for the exhibitions which are currently showing across the UK in London, Cardiff, Liverpool, Blackpool and Land’s End (http://www.doctorwhoexhibitions.com/).
The MC206X Starter Kit includes the motion controller configured to suit the axis count and drive technology required along with all the cables, SD card memory, software and manuals required for the job in hand. Currently priced with an average saving of up to 38% off recommended list prices, the kit is aimed at all new customers on a one-per-customer basis.
For Windmill Studios, the MC206X controlled each Dalek‚’s floor movement via a two-axis servo motor driven carriage and with its own on-board digital I/O and an additional 16 channel CANbus I/O module, also sequenced the start-stop positioning of several brushed DC motor driven axes for the rotating and vertically actuated head, the Dalek‚’s famous ‚‘gunstick‚’ and manipulator arms, as well as handling a variety of synchronized lighting and mechatronic effects.
The din-rail mounted MC206X uses Trio‚’s high performance 32-bit floating point DSP technology to provide high-speed, flexibility and connectivity for up to 4 axes of stepper or servo motor control plus a master encoder input and two virtual axes. An expansion connector is also included for an optional fifth motion axis module or a daughter board to enable digital drive networks such as Sercos, Control Techniques SLM or CAN to be used to add additional axes, increase I/O or provide an interface for factory communications.
With a complement of 16 opto-isolated I/O (8 in, 8 bi-directional), high-speed registration inputs for each axis and an adaptor for a fiber optic network for adding Trio HMIs, the flexible MC206X is aimed at small to medium sized control applications in manufacture and test, process control, and research.
::Design World::
Filed Under: Motion control • motor controls
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