Has anyone controlled a Piezo Motor with an arduino?

Question

Looking to control a Physik Instrumente M-674 Ultrasonic Piezoelectric linear actuator with a Pontech Board and a Big-Easy Kard (Pontech is very similar to an Arduino, only with card integration). Our lead systems engineer seems to think that it cannot be done, so I was just curious if anyone has tried to control a PM with an Arduino and, if so, what sort of problems did they run into?

Thanks!

Mike

michaelkellett · Answer

I haven't done it and I don't think anyone else will either (at least not with the parts you mention). The Piezo actuator can be driven with PI's own board, C-872, which needs a +/- 10V analogue control signal. If you look around you might be able to find an Arduino shield with the right analogue output and control the C-872 with that.

Driving the piezo motor directly is not like working a stepper motor, you need high voltage (65VRMS) sine wave drive, and for fast traverse at the right frequency, the PI board has an auto frequency lock system so it adapts to the actuator.

MK