Making the Connections

To get your Rotator connected and spinning, you only need a few things: Your Rotator, of course!, a Stagehand Apprentice 5HP motion controller, a Showstopper Base e-stop system, and to start programming your show, a Windows Laptop or Computer networked to your Stagehand Apprentice with an ethernet switch and cable. For additional control, order a Showstopper consolette too in order to have your GO button and E-stop in a convenient location.

Once you got all your gear:

  1. Connect your Apprentice Motor cable and Signal cable from your Stagehand Apprentice to your Rotator

  2. Make sure you showstopper cable is connected from your Showstopper Base to your Apprentice

  3. Power up your Stagehand

  4. Release your E-stop

And you’re ready Make it Move! Check out the details for the motor and signal pin-outs below.

Motor & Brake

Power output for both the motor and brake have been combined into a single IRC - 44mm X 27mm (6B) 6P 16A Male Pins connector. The motor and brake connectors are available from several manufacturers and suppliers. The wiring of the connector will vary slightly depending on the Stagehand Apprentice Model. The 5HP, 208VAC three phase Stagehand Apprentice power cord will output 220VAC across pins 5 & 6. Refer to the following diagram for details. The pins for the motor cables are Han E style, with the motor output(pins 1-3) being 12AWG and the brake output(pins 4-6) being 16AWG

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Signal

Connecting the Encoder, Forward/Reverse/Ultimate limits is accomplished through a single locking connector (IRC - 44mm X 27mm (6B) 24P 10A).

The limit switch inputs are used to protect against the motor traveling too far in any direction. This prevents damage to the machine and scenery and can prevent injury. When running your machine, this keeps you from accidentally traveling too far. In the Rotator, the limits are jumped out to allow you to spin your rotator as many revolutions as you would like. If you have a requirement to be able to add limits into your system, drop us a line or give us a call. We can manufacture breakout adapters(squids) that can allow you to incorporate limits into your system.

The encoder connected to the machine uses a quadrature differential line driver encoder to give incremental position feedback to Spikemark.

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