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Huber Slit Controllers
I just thought I would let people know that I have taken delivery of 8 of
the HSC-1 Huber Slit controllers from X-ray Associates. These units are
self contained stepper motors AND controllers that bolt on to a Huber X-Y
slit. Power and communications are supplied through a DB-9 cable and the
units can be daisy chained together. (This has some real advantages since
now you only need 1 DB9 cable instead of 8 motor cables to run to your two
theta arm on a Huber). Control is via daisy chained ascii RS232 so it
would be straightforward to incorporate this into any control system that
you have. Each unit is (I believe) $750 and you need a power supply and
adaptor for $200 per 8 motors or so. Each unit has 2 motors so you need
two of them for an X-Y slit. However, the power supply is a $14.00 supply
that you can purchase from Jameco (part no. DC2412F1) and the 'adaptor'
is a DB9 connector with some jumpers on it (I opened up my adaptor to see
what they did). Clearly, X-ray Associates is charging for the labor to
put one of these together since my adaptors are all hand soldered.. They
should just build a little PC board for it. Anyway, the power supply is a
linear supply and the HSC units turn off power to the windings to minimize
noise. These bolt right on to the new Huber X-Y slits that you can buy
from Blake. So, what is the value here. An X-Y slit from Blake is
$1500.00 If you want one with motors on it, it is $2600.00. So, if
you just purchase the slit and two HSC-1's, you get the motors AND
control for $1500+$1500+$200 = $3200 max. You can save yourself
about $150 if you do the adaptor yourself. So for ~$450.00 to $600.00
more than buying the motorized slit from Blake, you get the control for 4
motors. That is before you consider the savings in motor connectors,
cables etc...
If they meet our expectections regarding noise, I can see some immediate
advantages for EPICS users since you can get back a number of your Step
Pac and OMS channels and motor connectors for very little money.
I am working with these in my office if you want to see them.
---
John Quintana Phone:630-252-0223
Northwestern University FAX: 630-252-0226
DND-CAT email: jpq@nwu.edu
APS/ANL Building 432/A001
9700 South Cass Avenue
Argonne, IL 60439