The EnDat 3 interface detects its absolute position, rather than just its position relative to a reference. This is a big advantage when a machine starts up, as it doesn’t require any machine movement to establish its position—which can be extremely time-consuming for large machines. EnDat 3, therefore, enables faster startup, which means more throughput.
Metrology
HEIDENHAIN Announces EnDat 3 Encoder Interface
Faster and more robust, with black channel support for functional safety
EnDat 3 uses a 200 kHz clock frequency, compared to the 16 kHz of previous versions, and has doubled its supported bandwidth, from 12.5 to a 25 Mb/s. This means that data can be transferred much more quickly.
Like all the versions of EnDat, the new EnDat 3 is bidirectional, so it can support monitoring and diagnostics. This means it can be used for preventive maintenance, for example, alerting the CNC when a fault is detected.
The new interface supports an increased number of temperature sensors to monitor temperatures anywhere, from a robotics arm to inside a cabinet. It has also added support for multidimensional encoders, which enables easier installation and simplifies the downstream calculation that’s involved with using multiple reader heads on a single cable.
(HEIDENHAIN: Schaumburg, IL) — HEIDENHAIN Corp. has announced EnDat 3, a new version of its popular absolute position encoder interface. The EnDat 3 interface has all the benefits of previous versions but is even faster and more robust, with simplified functional safety features.
The new encoder interface has reduced cabling requirements compared to the previous version, going down to a two- or four-wire setup as opposed to the eight wires previously needed. This reduces cabling requirements and hence cost, which is a significant benefit in the machine tool and robotics sector. For robotics applications, the EnDat 3 also offers bus operation, which allows manufacturers to daisy-chain encoders together to reduce cabling and therefore reduce costs, as well as to simplify design and manufacturing.