Archived 3/22/06

1 Millionth Drive Built

ADVANCED Motion Controls (AMC) is pleased to announce a significant milestone in the company's history. On Wednesday, November 23rd, the 1,000,000th servo drive rolled off our production line. This is a major accomplishment considering the company was a two-person start-up 17½ years ago. To celebrate this achievement, the employees of the company built special commemorative units for the actual customer (a builder of high precision high speed semiconductor manufacturing machines) and the original founders, Sandor Barta and Daniel Schoenewald.

Archived 11/29/05

ZDR Series voted 'Best' in Design News Best Products of the Year contest

The editors at the magazine/e-zine publication Design News (www.designnews.com) have voted the ZDR Series drives to receive the 'Best Products of 2004' award in the Motion Control category under Amplifiers & Drives. In order to achieve the final medal, the ZDR received the largest number of votes from Design News readers.

The ZDR drive can output 1kW of peak power. It's also incredibly small. To get an idea of how small this drive is, take a U.S. one dollar bill and fold it into thirds. The footprint fits within this area! This is our smallest digital drive and it includes all the functionality of our larger digital drives.

Specifications:

1. 12A peak, 6A continuous

2. 20-60VDC

3. 50usec current loop

4. 100usec PIDF velocity loop

5. 100usec PID+FF position loop

6. RS232/RS485 Configuration

7. 2.5 x 2.0 x 0.73 inches (63.5 x 50.8 x 18.5 mm)

Promotional Flyer (.pdf)

Archived 10/24/05

Top DARPA Teams have selected Advanced Motion Controls to meet servo needs

The Grand Challenge is a 100+ mile race through the Mojave desert using autonomous vehicles. These vehicles are self guided with no human intervention. This means the vehicles are driven by intelligent computers and use servo control for such things as steering, braking, throttle, sensor stabilization and sensor positioning. The demands are rigorous but Advanced Motion Controls has been available for full support including technical support and material donations.

Teams that have chosen AMC include Axion Racing, Blue Team, CyberRider, Red Team, Team Overbot and Virginia Tech. We wish these teams good luck and success and look forward to the competition on October 8, 2005.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is responsible for the development of new technologies that give our armed forces a decisive edge. DARPA created the Grand Challenge to motivate and accelerate the development of unmanned vehicles that will be used to transport supplies through areas that are too dangerous for U.S. personnel. These technologies may eventually evolve into automated vehicles for civilian use that will make our roads safer to travel.

Archived 9/28/05

Version 3.5 of DriveSuite released

This version includes new oscilloscope functionality, better drive control, more set-up options and has the latest firmware built in. Connect to your drive with this software and select the firmware upgrade button and you will be able to take full advantage of our latest technology.

Archived 9/14/05

800VDC and 460VAC drives available

Previously, the maximum operating voltage available with Advanced Motion Controls drives was 400VDC/270VAC. To increase the available power range we have introduced 800VDC/460VAC drives. Options for these drives include network interfaces for CANopen, SynqNet™ and RS232.

Archived 8/31/05

100 custom digital drives shipped on a moments notice to aid tsunami victims

In December of 2004, two days after the tsunami in South-East Asia, a customer that manufactures medical equipment called us with an urgent request. They were gathering materials to build x-ray machines and had an imediate need for our components. By prioritizing our manufacturing and shiping we were able to ship 100 custom digital drives within a few days.