About
About the Devices
maxon motor control
1-8
Document ID: rel8003
EPOS4 Positioning Controller
Edition: May 2018
EPOS4 Module/Compact 50/5 Hardware Reference
© 2018 maxon motor. Subject to change without prior notice.
1.2
About the Devices
Capabilities of the
device, included fea-
tures, and supported
motors.
maxon motor control’s EPOS4 Module 50/5 and EPOS4 Compact 50/5 are small-sized, full digital, smart
positioning control units. Their high power density allow flexible use for brushed DC and brushless EC
(BLDC) motors up to approximately 250 Watts with various feedback options, such as Hall sensors,
incremental encoders as well as absolute sensors in a multitude of drive applications.
The devices are specially designed to be commanded and controlled as a slave node in a CANopen net-
work. In addition, the units can be operated via any USB or RS232 (the Module requires an external
transceiver) communication port of a Windows or Linux workstation. Moreover, the integrated extension
interface allows pooling with optionally available communication interfaces, such as EtherCAT or other
additional functionalities.
Latest technology, such as field-oriented control (FOC) and acceleration/velocity feed forward in combi-
nation with highest control cycle rates allow sophisticated, ease-of-use motion control.
Thanks to its smart design, the EPOS4 Module 50/5 can either be used in combination with EPOS4 CB
50/5 connector boards as a compact, integrated solution or be incorporated into customer-specific moth-
erboards for single axis or multi axes motion control systems. The controller is available in the following
configurations:
•
EPOS4 Module 50/5 (534130)
Plug-in module for use with maxon motor control EPOS4 connector boards or customer-spe-
cific motherboards
•
EPOS4 CB 50/5 CAN (534133)
Connector board for initial commissioning or combination to a compact solution providing all
connectors, including CANopen interface
•
EPOS4 Compact 50/5 CAN (541718)
Fully integrated, compact, ready-to-use assembly of plug-in module and CANopen connector
board
Figure 1-2
Configuration overview
For easier legibility, in the later course of this document naming of components will be as follows:
Table 1-4
Abbreviations
Short form
Meaning
CB
a connector board (EPOS4 CB 50/5 CAN, EPOS4 CB 50/5 EtherCAT,
available shortly)
Compact
any type of Compact 50/5 version
Compact CAN
EPOS4 Compact 50/5 CAN
Compact EtherCAT
EPOS4 Compact 50/5 EtherCAT (available shortly)
EPOS4
all controller versions (Module and Compact) as well as other EPOS4
positioning controllers as a whole
Module
EPOS4 Module 50/5