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Motion control

Servo Drives and Motion Control

Understand servo systems and how to wire, tune and program them, with motion in Studio 5000 and Siemens technology objects.

Servo Drives and Motion Control is a free, self-paced online course from EDWartens for engineering students, apprentices, technicians and working engineers in machine building and automation. It has 15 modules and takes about 17.9 hours, with written notes, a practice task per module, a practical project and a final assessment of 15 questions (pass mark 60%). Learning costs nothing and needs only a free account. The optional EDWartens Certificate of Completion, verifiable by code, is a one-off US$28.99 for you; it is not a vendor credential. Updated 1 November 2026.

  • Free
  • Intermediate
  • 17.9 hours
  • Self-paced
  • Certificate optional
  • Lab practice in your browser
See what you learn

No card, no trial. The course is free for good. Certificate US$28.99, optional.

Who it is for
Engineering students, apprentices, technicians and working engineers in machine building and automation
Jobs
Roles that use this skill: drives engineer, motion control engineer, service technician and commissioning engineer. No course guarantees a job.
Tools
SureServo2 Pro (free) for the drive modules; for the PLC motion modules, optionally Studio 5000 Logix Designer (paid) or TIA Portal V21 (21-day trial). Hardware: none required. A small servo kit makes tuning and homing real.
Updated
Servo Drives and Motion Control course cover
Servo Drives and Motion Control course cover

After this course you can

By the end you will be able to:

  • Explain servo motors, drives and feedback and choose a system
  • Wire and jog a servo drive
  • Use position, speed and torque modes
  • Home, position and tune an axis
  • Program Logix motion and configure Siemens technology objects

Who it is for, and what you need first

Who it is for

Engineering students, apprentices, technicians and working engineers in machine building and automation.

Level: Intermediate. Intermediate. PLC programming assumed.

What you need

Software: SureServo2 Pro (free) for the drive modules; for the PLC motion modules, optionally Studio 5000 Logix Designer (paid) or TIA Portal V21 (21-day trial).

Hardware: None required. A small servo kit makes tuning and homing real.. What to download, and how.

How this course works

  1. Watch the lessons

    Short video lessons, one module at a time, at your own pace.

  2. Read the notes

    Open the Reading tab for the written notes and diagrams of the module.

  3. Practise in the 3D labOptional

    Try the module in the free 3D lab, in your browser.

  4. Check yourself

    Answer the questions to see what stuck before you move on.

  5. Final assessment

    Pass the final once you have been through the modules.

  6. Certificate, if you want oneOptional

    Optional, with a page anyone can use to verify it.

What you learn

15 modules in order, at your own pace. 17.9 hours of video lessons, with written notes and a practice task in each module.

  1. 1Servo Systems and Selection23m
  2. 2Hardware, Wiring and First Jog30m
  3. 3Control Modes: Position, Speed, Torque55m
  4. 4Homing, Absolute Positioning, Gearing, with lab practice: 25m
  5. 5Tuning, with lab practice: 27m
  6. 6Braking, STO and E-Stop, with lab practice: 40m
  7. 7Networking a Servo Drive50m
  8. 8Studio 5000 Motion: From Scratch, with lab practice: 1h 41m
Show the other 7 modules
  1. 9Conversion Constants and Mechanics, with lab practice: 41m
  2. 10Motion Instructions and Profiles, with lab practice: 53m
  3. 11Homing, Gearing, Groups and Faults, with lab practice: 1h 1m
  4. 12Siemens: S120, Telegrams, Technology Objects1h 16m
  5. 13Siemens MC_ Blocks, with lab practice: 41m
  6. 14Siemens Gearing and Its Dangers26m
  7. 15Final Assessment

Software you need

What to download, where from, what it costs and how to install it. Every link goes to the maker's own site, never a mirror.

Studio 5000 and TIA Portal are only for the PLC motion modules.

Show what to download (3 tools)

Required

  1. 01

    SureServo2 Pro

    AutomationDirect

    Free
    Runs on
    Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10 or 11
    Account
    None needed
    Size
    about 81 MB download

    AutomationDirect describes SureServo2 Pro as free software for configuring, tuning and monitoring SureServo2 drives. Use is under the AutomationDirect end user licence agreement shown on the download page.

    Official download pageautomationdirect.com

Optional

Useful, not needed to finish the course.

  1. 02

    Studio 5000 Logix Designer

    Rockwell Automation

    Paid only
    Runs on
    Windows (check the Studio 5000 entry on the Product Compatibility and Download Center for exact versions)
    Account
    A Rockwell Automation account plus a purchased licence (serial number or subscription)

    Rockwell sells Studio 5000 Logix Designer as a perpetual licence or a paid subscription. Rockwell's product page offers no public free trial or free edition.

    Rockwell Automation product pagerockwellautomation.com

    Legitimate free routes

  2. 03

    SIMATIC STEP 7 Professional and WinCC (TIA Portal) V21 Trial

    Siemens

    Free trial: 21 days
    Runs on
    Windows 11 Pro or Enterprise 64-bit (24H2), Windows 10 Enterprise 2021 LTSC, or Windows Server 2022/2025. Windows 11 Home is supported only for the Basic editions.
    Account
    A free Siemens account registered for Industry Online Support (SiePortal)
    Size
    about 8.1 GB for the main ISO, plus an optional 3.1 GB DVD 2 with hardware support packages

    Siemens lets registered users download the V21 trial of STEP 7 (Basic and Professional), STEP 7 Safety and WinCC and test it for 21 days. The same package is used for the full product; after 21 days you need a purchased licence to keep working.

    Official download pagesupport.industry.siemens.com

    Alternatives

    • TIA Portal Cloud trial: 21 days free in a cloud virtual machine, no install. Sessions are limited to one hour and it is not available in every country.

Checked against each maker's own page on 27 September 2026. Trial lengths and editions change; the maker's page is the final word.

Practise in the 3D lab

Practise the commissioning half of the course in the lab: scale and home a servo axis, set its limits, write the command sequence, tune it on a trend and prove the E-stop.

Jog with the pendantWatch

Optional. Skip it whenever you like: it never blocks your progress or your certificate.

Course project, about 22 hours

Twelve-station indexing turret on a pharma filler: size, tune, make safe and prove one servo axis

Size, tune, make safe and prove the single servo axis that indexes a twelve-station rotary turret on a pharmaceutical filling line. You deliver a sizing spreadsheet, the drive parameter file, a tuning record, a safety requirements specification and a factory acceptance test record. It uses SV1 to SV6 and a short PLC handshake; the Logix and Siemens motion blocks of SV8 to SV14 are stretch work.

This project at a glance
  1. 8documents in the pack
  2. 9steps to follow
  3. Laboptional: in the 3D lab
  4. 6things to hand in
  5. 22 hof work, at your pace
  • Axis listAxis List and Motion Profile: Turret Index Axis A1
  • ReportServo Sizing Report: Turret Index Axis A1
  • Control narrativeControl Narrative: RF-1 Turret Index and Station Sequencing
  • I/O listI/O List: PLC to Drive Handshake, Station Sensors and Safety
  • Drive parameter listDrive Parameter List: ASDA-A3, Axis A1, as Commissioned
  • Test reportTuning Report: Axis A1 Inertia Estimation, Gains, Settling and Resonance

Do it in the lab: 5 steps.

The project is optional practice. The certificate needs only the modules and the final assessment.

After the course, your next step

Show what you can do, then keep going in the same field.

Sample EDWartens Certificate of Completion for Servo Drives and Motion Control

Sample. The issued certificate carries your name, your final score, a certificate ID and a QR code that opens its verification page.

Optional

A certificate you can verify

Finish the modules and pass the final assessment (15 questions, pass mark 60%) and you can add a certificate with a public verification page. One-off, US$28.99 for you. It is not a vendor credential.

Want a free certificate? Do the matching Free internship: 4 weeks, nothing to buy, with a free certificate of completion.

An engineer in a hard hat checking neat, labelled wiring on I/O racks inside an open control cabinet.
Free · 4 weeks · free certificate

PLC Programming

Eight short weeks of PLC ladder logic on free simulators: notes, diagrams, a few videos and auto-tested tasks. Finish weeks 1 to 4 and the final, then claim a free Internship Completion Certificate with your real dates and study hours, and a QR code anyone can scan to verify it. Training, not employment.

See the internship

Part of a learning path

Courses in a planned order, so each one builds on the last.

More free courses

Roles that use this skill

  • Drives engineer
  • Motion control engineer
  • Service technician
  • Commissioning engineer

These are the kinds of roles where the skill is used. We make no promise of a job or an interview.

Plain notes

  • Free: the whole course, the notes, the practice tasks, the final assessment and support from practising engineers.
  • Paid, and optional: the course certificate, and the Engineer-verified internship (the Free internship costs nothing).
  • No job promise: the course teaches a skill. It does not place you in a job.
  • Lessons by: AutomationDirect, Shane Welcher, Jason Watts AE. Independent creators; the lessons stream from their own channels. EDWartens wrote the study plan, notes, practice tasks and assessments.

AutomationDirect · Shane Welcher · Jason Watts AE. If you are one of these creators and want a lesson removed or credited differently, write to info@edwartens.com.

Practise what you learn in the free 3D lab

Technical work is judged on what you can do: wiring, commissioning, finding a fault. Doing a task yourself teaches more than watching it a second time, and a lab lets you try it safely before you meet real equipment. It does not replace working on real hardware.

See the 3D lab
  • Practise safely, so a mistake costs nothing.
  • The lab checks your work like a site test, so you know when it is right.
  • Free, in your browser, with nothing to install.

Why learn with EDWartens

What you get with this course, and what comes after it.

  • Free from the first lesson to the final assessment.
  • Practice in a free 3D lab in your browser, with nothing to install.
  • Video lessons with written notes and a project.
  • An optional certificate that anyone can verify online.
  • Free internships to keep practising afterwards.

Common questions

Do I need a servo?

No. The drive modules can be followed with the free configuration software offline; a small servo kit makes tuning and homing hands-on.

Which vendors are covered?

AutomationDirect SureServo2 for the drive fundamentals (the same concepts apply to Delta, Yaskawa, Panasonic), Rockwell Kinetix for Logix motion, and Siemens S120 with TIA Portal technology objects.

How much maths?

Conversion constants and gear ratios: arithmetic. The rest is behaviour you see on a scope.

Is this safe to practise?

Servo axes move fast and hard. Practise with limits set, low speeds and torque limits, and never in torque mode without a speed limit.

Is the Servo Drives and Motion Control course really free?

Yes. Every module, practice task and assessment. You create an account so your progress is saved and the assessments can be marked. The certificate is the only paid item, and only if you want it.

What certificate do I get, and is it a vendor qualification?

An EDWartens Certificate of Completion, issued when you pass the final assessment, with a verification code anyone can check. It is not a vendor credential and is never described as one.

Who made the video lessons in the Servo Drives and Motion Control course?

The creators named in the Credits block at the foot of this page, on their own YouTube channels. EDWartens did not make the videos and the creators are not affiliated with EDWartens. What EDWartens wrote is the study plan, the notes, the practice tasks and the assessments.

Do I have to use the lab?

No. The lab is optional practice. You can skip it whenever you like, and it never blocks your progress, the final assessment or your certificate.

Is the lab free?

Yes. Every lab level for this course opens in your browser, free, with nothing to install.

What topics does the Servo Drives and Motion Control course cover, module by module?

The Servo Drives and Motion Control course has 15 modules. It opens with "Servo Systems and Selection", goes through "Hardware, Wiring and First Jog", "Braking, STO and E-Stop", "Motion Instructions and Profiles" and "Siemens Gearing and Its Dangers" and ends with "Final Assessment". The full list with minutes is under "What you learn" on this page.

What can I do after the Servo Drives and Motion Control course?

After the Servo Drives and Motion Control course: Choose a servo system by torque, speed, inertia ratio and feedback; Wire, configure and jog a servo drive; Use position, speed and torque modes and know the runaway risk. These are the practical outcomes the course is written around, and the final assessment of 15 questions checks them.

What software and hardware do I need for the Servo Drives and Motion Control course, and does it cost anything?

For the Servo Drives and Motion Control course, software: SureServo2 Pro (free) for the drive modules; for the PLC motion modules, optionally Studio 5000 Logix Designer (paid) or TIA Portal V21 (21-day trial). Hardware: none required. A small servo kit makes tuning and homing real. The course itself is free.

Is the Servo Drives and Motion Control course suitable for me, and what level is it?

Servo Drives and Motion Control is rated intermediate. Intermediate. PLC programming assumed. It is written for engineering students, apprentices, technicians and working engineers in machine building and automation, and takes about 17.9 hours at your own pace.

Which jobs use the skills from the Servo Drives and Motion Control course?

Skills from the Servo Drives and Motion Control course (for example: choose a servo system by torque, speed, inertia ratio and feedback) are used in roles such as drives engineer, motion control engineer, service technician and commissioning engineer, and in motion control engineer work. The course gives you practical evidence of the skill; it does not promise a job, and employers decide on experience and interview.

Start free today

Servo Drives and Motion Control, at your own pace. Add the certificate only if you want one.