Phillip Jansen van Rensburg (aka Beano) was a key man in OSW development process and he has been closely working with Granite Devices to squeeze every possible info and performance of their servo drives. He shared his last information.
Argon and current limitation:
I had a discussion with Tero about current limits on Argon before, and also had a test FW set at 24A for the last 10 months or so. Trouble is not really that the MOSFET output stage cannot handle a bit more current, issue is to do with the current sensing resistor/circuit being at its limit, and is prone to burning when exposed to high current levels…..
If this would be an issue in our application, where we are only driving the servo at high current levels for shorts bursts, I am not sure. But Tero thought it might be a problem with failures sure to happen.
It also may very well be the case that Tero could redesign this circuitry on Argon, like he recently did for IONI Pro HC – afterall, it is the same as the IONI Pro, but with a new current-sense resistor and high-quality MOSFET output stage.
IONI General:
IONI was first designed to serve smaller printer devices that required no more than 8A POS. after meetings with Tero over 1 year ago, we discussed possibility to increase current limits to something better that could also support Lenze and bigger servos to full capacity.
I have asked also here the questions about what should be included, and feedback was the community needed something in the 24A or 25A range. This way, we can now drive Lenze and other bigger servos almost to full capacity, and with new IONI Pro HC, for the first time we can drive those servos to their maximum specification.
Do we need that much torque? Most people doing simulator racing will not, that is for sure. Even 20NM is more than sufficient for most. But for very fit guys, and race car drivers, like your own Wolfgang Reip, they will prefer something in the 24NM to possibly 30NM range, as this will be a good training and conditioning setup for them.
Guys, there are significant developments coming in hardware support for IONI, and hopfully, after Bernhard and Tero discuss Bernhard’s requirements, there might even be a possibility to have API support for IONI.
If it do or doesn’t happen is for Bernhard to decide, I truly value and respect the work and effort both him and Michael MMos has put into making Discovery and API versions available, to the benefit of the bigger community.
There is room for both these solutions, and I have 2 argon systems now running on my 2 systems at home, as well as an IONI setup I use from time to time. Both are great systems, both are very capable to provide for our current needs.
What I can clearly say now though is that IONI will rapidly move up as the system for choice, there are big things happening in supporting hardware background, as well as on FW level. In the end, if you have current Argon or IONI, be happy, they are great systems.
In future, they both will be great systems, what you choose will depend on your needs. If you are a big strong guy needing more then 21 or 22NM, you have IONI. For the rest, you have Argon.
Ripple-torque control in IONI: Is it needed? probably not for very high quality servos like AKM, or Lenze, but it might make a difference in lesser servos, like the MiGe and other variants. There are both Sine and CoSine algorithms available, with adjustable period to impose on current SP and smooth ripple out.
For certain applications, this is a big plus, if useable to us, needs to be determined. But let’s not shoot this down before it is tried and tested. It might be a gimmick for us, it might be useable I had some emails with MMos some months ago, and after the exchange, I felt it would be good to discuss such a feature with Tero, as Michael also felt that there was definitely ripple torque present when operating the motor.
Some will be able to feel the ripple in operation, some won’t, but it is there, in differing amplitudes depending motor design, I firmly believe this feature would be a worthy addition to our controller output behaviour.
In General:
One benefit Argon has over IONI is the separate IO processor, with it’s open-source FW This is good and bad. Good, because Devs like Bernhard can really work magic and create a nice API interface to Argon, and customise Drive Controller IO behaviour.
Bad, because this introduces extra latency on controller side. Will this matter in the ultimate controller? It might, if we were to start controlling the existing iRacing oscillatory behaviour.
For IONI, there will in all likelihood be a separate FFB firmware altogether, and with Tero willing to work with the community, there are only positives, no negatives, to be had.
IONI PSU development:
I see one of the arguments against IONI is the ‘ expensive’ PSU for HV side that has to be purchased…..for up to 20NM, I have been using a relatively inexpensive Meanwell 600W PSU, which does a great job. Only around Euro 80-90, does a great job and been working very well for the past 6 months.
For the future, one option I have been discussing with Tero, that will go hand in hand with the supporting ‘hardware’ infrastructure coming for IONI, would be the ability to use standard 12V PC PSU’s…..those can be had up to 1500W and at a relatively affordable price……just leaving this out here for those that are wondering
Anyway, enough rambling gents, enjoy whatever version you have, as they are today, they are both great options, and in future, it will only get much better.
Cheers,
Beano
Also, don’t forget it is already available new firmware for IONI and a new Granity version.
This website uses affiliate links which may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
