12-gramme EtherCat servodrive is ‘the world’s smallest’

Published: 24 November, 2017

The Swiss precision motion specialist Technosoft claims to have produced the world’s smallest EtherCat servodrive. The iPOS2401 MX-CAT drive weighs only 12g and measures 19 x 50 x 10mm. It can be used in precision positioning applications based on any motor technology – brushless, stepper, DC/voice coil or linear – that needs no more than 1A continuous at 24V.

The drive’s plug-in design offers flexibility in terms of motherboard design and connector choice, for either single- or multi-axis applications. The drive supports the full CoE (CAN application protocol over EtherCat) protocol and can provide open- or closed-loop control of two- and three-phase stepper motors. It has five digital inputs, two digital outputs and an analogue input.

An even lighter CAN version is also available, with an embedded motion controller that can execute complex motion sequences programmed in TML (Technosoft Motion Language), stored at drive level and called by specific CANopen commands to reduce the bus traffic in multi-axis applications.

Technosoft’s tiny servodrive is aimed at high-end positioning applications where space is critical