The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 22, 1998
Filed:
Sep. 22, 1997
J Randolph Andrews, Campbell, CA (US);
Douloi Automation, Inc., Campbell, CA (US);
Abstract
A multiplexing circuit which rapidly shares a single rate generator among up to 16 different motors. The circuit utilizes an addend memory block with n-bit by m-deep memory structures. Each memory address represents a particular stepper motor in the system. An axis scanning state machine 9 drives the memory structure address lines in a circuitous manner. At each memory address visit, the state of the circuit is re-established based on information stored from the last visit. The addition operation is performed to change the accumulator value in memory block 102. Any possible edge event is noted by edge detector 11. An edge produces a step and position monitor count. The axis-scanning state machine then moves on to the next address representing the next motor. The axis-scanning memory address influences memory structures throughout the device including accumulator value in memory block 102, addend memory values 12, device configuration 13, and step monitor counter 14. The complete axis-scanning cycle frequency of N Hz supports step rates of N Hz.