National Instruments UMI-4A User Manual - Introduction

UMI Accessory User Guide

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Introduction

The UMI products are connectivity accessories you can use with your 

motion control boards for up to four or six axes of simultaneous or 

independent control. Ideally suited to industrial and laboratory 

applications, UMI accessories connect power supplies, servo amplifiers 

or stepper drivers, motors, encoders, and limit switches to National 

Instruments plug-in motion control boards.

A UMI accessory simplifies field wiring with separate encoder, limit 

switch, and amplifier/driver terminal blocks per axis. All terminal blocks 

are industry standard and do not require any special tools for wire 

installation. The UMI accessory connects to the motion controller via a 

single interface cable. The UMI accessory has a host bus monitor power 

interlock that automatically disables the amplifiers if the host computer is 

shut down or the interface cable is disconnected.

The UMI-4A and UMI-Flex4 come with an integrated DIN-rail mounting 

base. The UMI-Flex6 is encased in metal and comes with attached rubber 

feet for desktop use; a DIN-rail mounting kit is available separately. The 

UMI-7764 is encased in a metal box with a hinged lid and comes with 

attached rubber feet for desktop use.

Note

Throughout this document, overlined text indicates that a signal is active-low.

What You Need to Get Started

To set up and use your UMI accessory, you will need the following items:

❑

One of the following UMI accessories:

–

UMI-7764

–

UMI-4A

–

UMI-Flex6

–

UMI-Flex4

❑

Universal Motion Interface (UMI) Accessory User Guide