NEE's first motion controller

NEE first became involved with machine control in 1975 when we were asked by Burroughs Machines Inc. a predecessor of Systime Inc. to replace the paper tape programmed controller on a Gardner Denver printed circuit board drill with a mini computer, to improve the machines performance and reliability. NEE designed the interface between the mini computer and the machine and built the controller using more than 300 integrated circuits.

In 1976, just at the time the project was completed, Intel introduced their 8080 microprocesor chip. NEE purchased a development board and used it as the heart of their own 2 axis point to point machine controller 'ATLAS', the controller interface, including a control panel and display, used only 39 integrated circuits.

The first ATLAS motion controller controlled an XY table, driving stepper motors. The table was fitted on an automated drilling machine. The machine quill was manually operated, each time the quill was raised the machine moved to the next position.

The motion controller was housed in a small cabinet having a single line LED display and a 24 key keyboard. Atlas features were generally accessed from the front panel using a range of key codes. Drilling programs were input at the motion controller keyboard and saved on a domestic tape recorder as a stream of tones, a high tone represented a '1', and a low tone, a '0'.

At the time the motion controller was quite a breakthrough, it reduced the cost of a precise and automated drilling machine dramatically. Some years later NEE were able to buy an Atlas controlled 2 axis drilling machine, it is now in our 'museum', and still works.

Since then the performance and versatility of our motion controllers has increased enormously as we have always devoted a large portion of our resources to product research, innovation and development. We now have some 10,000 motion controllers in use in a host of applications throughout the world, all contributing to our customer's profits and longevity.