I was looking through the available modules and drives online today, and all of the Softmotion hardware is listed as "Mature", and many devices have a Last Order Date of 6/30/2020 (for example, the motor drive modules, integrated stepper motors, and stepper/servo drives). I don't see any new devices. NI says that they do not recommend "Mature" devices for new development, but there aren't any "Active" motion control devices anywhere on NI's website. The 74xx's are now totally obsolete as well. I can't find anything PXI relating to motion control *at all*. What is the current state of SoftMotion? Does NI still plan on doing motion control? Is it just the dedicated devices that are going away? Do we need to just use dedicated digital I/O devices for step and direction, allowing the built-in FPGA and RT processor to do the actual motion control work? I have two projects coming up that both need some degree of motion control, and I don't want to pitch a new project that uses cRIO cards I can't buy after June.

Update for those reading this: I spoke with NI support and they told me that NI is not planning on making replacements for these devices, and that they indeed to not recommend starting brand new designs based on this platform. They did tell me that they have reached out to existing customers already to help them transition, but if you're like me and have no existing systems you should not start new projects using this hardware as it will not be replaced when it reaches End of Life.

Motion Control and Motor Drives

What modules are recommended for new development? (Everything online is "not recommended for new development")

Solved!

Hi Emboar,

Absolutely, that's the plan. We're working out the logistics of having an English e-commerce website, so that customers worldwide can purchase from. Estimated kick-off time would be Q3 2020, I'll keep everybody posted. Meanwhile, if you have a particular feature in mind that you would like to know about, such as breakpoint, contouring, etc., let me know and I can follow up with you. Having been LabVIEW developers and users of NI Motion ourselves, we based our WPC motion products to have at least the same functionality as NI's. This was really to address the needs of our local Taiwan customers, since NI Motion went EOL ... please stay tuned.

-Jason

WPC Systems