CMR N/M CALCULATIONS

GL960124
CMRDMR.DOC

The purpose of this document is to instruct you in how to calculate CMR and N/M for servo
applications. It will begin with a discussion of what CMR and N/M is and how to calculate it. The rest
will include examples and exercises.

CMR converts the move command into detection units (DU). N/M relates the number of feedback pulses
the control is seeing to the distance traveled in DU. This is illustrated by their respective positions in the
following diagram.

Position Detection
Command Units Position
CMR Control
Least Command Pulsecoder
Increment
Motor
Table

Detection Units Position Pulses

N/M

Before we go through how to calculate and setup CMR and N/M I need to point out a few things:

1. When referring to CMR I will be discussing its calculated value. To set the parameter
you should multiply the calculated value by 2.

2. If you need to or wish to set DMR you can multiply your N/M by 4 to find it.

3. I will refer to complete cycles of A quad B feedback as lines and to individual pulses of
A or B as pulses. Beware, FANUC calls both pulses depending on what you are talking
about.

EX. A 2500 Pulse A quad B encoder has 2500 lines/rev while a Serial 40,000
pulse encoder has the equivalent of 10,000 lines/rev.

The procedure for calculating CMR and N/M is the following:

1. Find out what kind of feedback you have and it’s resolution.
2. Find the mechanics of the system; gear ratios, screw pitches, etc.
3. Use the above to find the pulses of feedback per inch/mm/deg of travel.
4. Use the customer’s chosen least input increment and detection unit to find CMR.
5. Use the pulses of feedback per inch/mm/deg and the detection unit to find N/M.
6. Use the customers grid (distance traveled between marker pulses) and DU to find the
reference counter capacity.
7. Use the mechanics to find the pulses of feedback per motor revolution to be used in
setting PPLS.

FANUC Drives & Motors

CMR N/M Calculations
Page 1 of 8
GE FANUC AUTOMATION
DETERMINING SETTINGS FOR SEMI-CLOSED FEEDBACK LOOP
(Motor encoder used for position feedback)

1. Find out what kind of feedback you have and it’s resolution.

When using motor feedback this involves checking the motor number to find what encoder it
has. The information needed to do this is in Chapter 2 Section 2 of the Servo Description
Manual GFZ-65002E.

Ex. Motor number A06B-0313-B072#7000 Pulse coder has 1,000,000 pulses of resolution.

2. Find the mechanics of the system; gear ratios, screw pitches, etc.

This will need to be gotten from the machine tool builder’s information. It should not be
determined by experimentation or trial and error.

Ex. The motor is coupled to the screw via a 2:1 gearbox and the pitch of the screw is 1 inch.

3. Use the above to find the pulses of feedback per inch/mm/deg of travel.

This can be done by simply canceling units to get the units you want.

Ex. You have 1,000,000 pulses of feedback per motor revolution. (Serial A encoder)
2 revs of the motor per 1 rev of the screw.
1 inch of travel per rev of the screw.

Unit cancellation

Pulses of Feedback = 1,000,000 Pulses X 2 Motor Revs X 1 Screw Rev

Distance Traveled 1 Motor Rev 1 Screw Rev 1 inch Traveled

= 2,000,000 Pulses
1 inches of Travel

= 2,000,000 Pulses per inch of Travel

4. Use the customer’s chosen least input increment and detection unit to find CMR.

You can see from the previous chart that CMR relates the Least Command Increment to the
Detection Unit. The relation is Least Command Increment divided by CMR equals the Detection
Unit.

Ex. Least Command Increment = .0001 inch.

Detection Unit = .0001 inch

CMR = Least Command Increment = .0001 inch = 1 (Setting Value of 2)

Detection Unit .0001 inch

Note: The selection of Detection Unit depends on the system resolution the customer requires.
On most standard machines .0001 inch is adequate for the accuracy requires. For precision
applications a finer detect unit may be required by the machine tool builder to get higher
accuracy. That is, however, if their machine is built to the tight tolerances required. If you have
3 tenths lost motion then no matter what your Detect Units are your machine will only be
accurate to 3 tenths.

CMR N/M Calculations GE FANUC AUTOMATION

Page 2 of 8
5. Use the pulses of feedback per inch/mm/deg and the detection unit to find N/M.

From the previous operations we have determined a Detection Unit and the Pulses of Feedback
per distance traveled. They have the same units but one is the inverse of the other. N/M
equates Pulses of Feedback to Detection units so the relationship between the three is:

1 = N/M X Pulses of Feedback per Distance Traveled

Detection units

Ex. 1 = N/M X 2,000,000 pulses / inch

.0001 inch / pulse

Rearranging the equation we get

N/M = 10000 pulses/inch = 1

2,000,000 pulses/inch 200

Note: When N/M equals 1, every feedback pulse is used. For our example only 1 out of every
200 feedback pulses is used, the rest being discarded. Should N/M be set to greater than 1 then
we would be creating resolution that is not really there.

6. Use the customers grid (distance traveled between marker pulses) and DU to find the reference
counter capacity.

The customers grid is found by canceling units on the following:

Grid (inches) = 1 Inch X 1 Screw Rev

Screw Rev 2 Motor Revs

= .5 Inches
Motor Rev (In semi-closed feedback the marker pulse is the once per
rev
signal from the motor)

Reference counter capacity is the RCC

RCC = Grid Distance

DU

= .5 Inches
.0001 Inches

= 5000

7. Finding the setting values for PULCO and PPLS.

PULCO is the number of velocity pulses per revolution of the motor and PPLS is the number of
position pulses per revolution of the motor. Set these numbers as shown in the setup flowcharts
in the Servo Maintenance Manual (GFZ-65005E).

Ex. For a Serial A (1,000,000 count) encoder you would set PULCO to 8192 and PPLS to
12500.

FANUC Drives & Motors

CMR N/M Calculations
Page 3 of 8
GE FANUC AUTOMATION
 DETERMINING THE SETTINGS FOR A FULL-CLOSED SYSTEM
(This would be a system using separate feedback such as a linear scale or separate encoder)

The technique for calculating the CMR and N/M for the system with separate rotary encoder is
exactly the same as you did for semi-closed, except for the value or PPLS. The procedure for
linear scales is slightly different, we will go through it now.

1. Find out what kind of feedback you have and it’s resolution.

Since we already know our type of feedback is linear scale we only need to concern
ourselves with the resolution. Scale manufacturers often give the resolution of their
product in terms of pitch gradient and multiplication factors. The pitch gradient refers to
the spacing between slits in an optical scale, a common distance is 20 um. The
multiplication factor refers to the setting of an EXE box which takes the signal from the
scale’s reader head then amplifies and multiplies it by some preset factor.

Ex. We have a scale with a pitch gradient of 20 um and it is connected to the CNC
through a 5X multiplier box.

Resolution = 20 um/cycle = 4 um/line = 1um/pulse (4 pulses per line)

5

So this scale would have a resolution of 1 um.

2. Find the mechanics of the system; gear ratios, screw pitches, etc.

You will need to know this data to calculate the PPLS setting.

Ex. Gear Ratio is 2:1 (Motor to Screw)

Screw Pitch is 1 mm per revolution

3. Use the above to find the pulses of feedback per inch/mm/deg of travel.

With linear scales the feedback pulses are just the inverse of the resolution since the
scale is mounted directly to the table.

Ex. Resolution = 1um/pulse

Feedback pulses per mm = 1/(1um/pulse) = 1000 pulses/mm

4. Use the customer’s chosen least input increment and detection unit to find CMR.

This is done the same as it was for the semi-closed system.

Ex. The customer has chosen the standard least input increment of .001 mm and
desires a detection unit of .001 mm.

Least Command Increment = .001 mm

Detection Unit = .001 mm

CMR N/M Calculations GE FANUC AUTOMATION

Page 4 of 8
 CMR = Least Command Increment = .001 mm = 1 (Setting Value of 2)
Detection Unit .001 mm

5. Use the pulses of feedback per inch/mm/deg and the detection unit to find N/M.

This is also done the same way as it was for the semi-closed system.

1 = N/M X Pulses of Feedback per Distance Traveled

Detection units

Ex. 1 = N/M X 1000 pulses / mm

.001 mm / pulse

Rearranging the equation we get

N/M = 1000 pulses/inch = 1

1000 pulses/inch 1

6. Use the customers grid (distance traveled between marker pulses) and DU to find the reference
counter capacity.

Most scales have only one marker pulse so the setting of reference counter capacity is
somewhat arbitrary. You can select any grid interval that is long enough to allow the axis to stop
on the same grid point after coming off the switch but short enough that it stops inside the
overtravel limits. People will often set the RCC based on the distance traveled per revolution of
the motor, same as semi-closed feedback, because this provides a standard setting method and
normally works fine.

Ex. It takes .06 mm for the axis to decel from the reference FL rate to stop and there are 10 mm
between the switch and the stop. We choose the interval of .5 mm since it is greater than .06
and well less than 10 and is an integer. (plus it is the distance the table travels per revolution of
the motor)

RCC = Grid Distance RCC is the Reference counter capacity

DU

= .5 mm
.001 mm

= 500

7. Use the mechanics of the system to find the pulses of feedback per motor revolution to be used in
setting PPLS.

PPLS is the number of position pulses received per revolution of the motor. In the case of semi-
closed loop the motor feedback is the position feedback so it was easily obtainable. Since in full-
closed loop the position feedback is separated from the motor by gearboxes and screw pitches
we must use these to calculate PPLS.

Ex. Position feedback pulses = 1000 pulses per mm of machine travel

Gearbox is a 2:1 gearbox motor to screw.
The screw pitch is 1 mm per revolution of the screw.

FANUC Drives & Motors

CMR N/M Calculations
Page 5 of 8
GE FANUC AUTOMATION
 To find the position feedback pulses/motor revolutions we set up the following equation.

PPLS = 1000 pulses X 1 screw revolution X 1 mm

1 mm 2 motor revolution 1 screw revolution
By canceling units we get:

PPLS = 1000 pulses X 1 screw revolution X 1 mm

1 mm 2 motor revolution 1 screw revolution

= 500 pulses/ motor revolution.

EXAMPLE N/M SETTING FOR A ROTARY AXIS WITH SEMI-CLOSED LOOP

The process for calculating the setup for a rotary axis is the same as for a linear axis
except that our units are degrees instead of millimeters or inches. The following is a
rotary axis sample calculation.

We know the following about the axis.

It is a rotary table
Feedback is a 2000 line encoder (this is equal to a 8000 pulse encoder)
Gearbox ratio is 200:1 motor to table
Least command increment is .001 degrees
Desired detection unit is .0005 degrees

We find the pulses of feedback per distance traveled

Pulses of Feedback = 8000 Pulses X 200 Motor Revs X 1 Table Rev

Distance Traveled 1 Motor Rev 1 Table Rev 360 Degrees

= 1600000 Pulses
360 Degrees

= 40000 Pulses
9 Degree

We find the CMR setting from the least command increment and detection unit.

CMR = Least Command Increment

Detection Unit

= .001 Degree
.0005 Degree

= 2 (Setting value of 4)
Use the pulses of feedback per inch/mm/deg and the detection unit to find N/M

1 Pulse = N/M X Pulses of Feedback per Distance Traveled

Detection units

CMR N/M Calculations GE FANUC AUTOMATION

Page 6 of 8
 1 Pulse = N/M X 40000 Pulses
.0005 Degrees 9 Degree

N/M = 2000 Pulses X 9 Degrees

Degrees 40000 Pulses

= 18000
40000

= 9
20

The Reference Counter Capacity is found using the customers grid and Detection Unit.
Grid is the distance between marker pulses which in this semi-closed loop example
is distance traveled per revolution of the motor.

Grid (degrees) = 360 Degrees X 1 Table Rev

1 Table Rev 200 Motor Revs

= 1.8 Degrees

RCC = 1.8 Degrees

.0005 Degrees

= 3600

PULCO and PPLS should be set as instructed in the setup flowcharts in the Servo
Maintenance Manual (GFZ-65005E). In this case since the system is semi-closed and
the encoder is a 2000 line A quad B encoder, PULCO and PPLS would both be set to
8000.

FANUC Drives & Motors

CMR N/M Calculations
Page 7 of 8
GE FANUC AUTOMATION
 CMR-DMR DEFINITIONS
1) Least Command Increment

The Least Command Increment (LCI) is the smallest amount that the CNC can be programed to
move. This can easily be determined by looking at the position page and noting the least significant
decimal place that is displayed. This can also be determined by parameters settings (refer to parameter
table attached).

Example: Display reads '0.0000'. The LCI would be 0.0001, the smallest amount that can be
programmed.

2) Feedback Pulse Unit:

The Feedback Pulse Unit (FPU) is the distance the axis moves per one feedback pulse. This is
derived, when using a rotary pulse coder, by dividing the machine distance moved per one rev of the
pulse coder by the # of pulses per rev of the position pulse coder.

3) CMR / DMR

The CMR and DMR are used to internally scale the feedback data from the position detection device
and to internally match that signal with the commanded move to the motor. The CMR and DMR scale
the commanded move and feedback , respectively, and the units obtained are detection units.

4) Flexible Feed Gear Factors N and M:

In some machine set ups it is impossible to match the scaled command and feedback using the
available settings in the CNC for CMR and DMR. In those situations when it is impossible to use the
standard values, the system offers an alternative scaling factor for DMR which enable scaling of the
feedback to be very flexible. GE Fanuc recommends that this method be used in all machine setups that
have this function available. This method involves setting two parameters labeled 'N' and 'M', which
replace the DMR scaling factor (refer to the equations below). The Flexible Feed Gear function is only
available in 9030 software edition J or later (this feature is not available in 16 bit 0-C control; however, it
must be used with serial feedback).

5) Detection Unit

The detection unit (DU) of each axis is used internally to calculate system resolution. This is the unit
that the commanded move distance (via CMR) and the actual feedback distance (via DMR) must be
scaled to.

6) Reference Counter

The reference Counter is used to set up an internal software grid system which the CNC uses when
referencing the machine.

7) Grid Interval

The Grid Interval (GI) is equal to the machine movement per pulse coder rotation, assuming a pulse
coder is used for position feedback. Actually the Grid Interval is equal to the machine movement per
marker pulse of the feed back device or it can be lees in integer amounts. The GI is determined by the
RCC and can be varied depending on the machines referencing cycle.

CMR N/M Calculations GE FANUC AUTOMATION

Page 8 of 8