PiCPro for Windows Version 12.0 Monitor Edition Readme

IMPORTANT

It is important to read this document. It provides late-breaking product information such as:

• A list of features new to this release
• Tips and helpful hints on using the product
• Information so new it isn't in the documentation
• Known problems and work-arounds

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Technical Support
• PiCPro V12.0 Service Pack 1 Information
  • Notes
  • PiCPro Changes
  • Firmware Changes
• Tutorial
• PiCPro V12.0 New Features/Changes
  • General
  • Communications
  • Project Manager
  • Servo Setup
• Reasons to update your firmware
• How to update CPU Firmware
• Other files in PiCPro Firmware Directory
• Manuals
• Software Notes
• Before Running PiCPro for Windows
• Fixes Since PiCPro V11.0 SP1
  • General
  • Build Dependency List
  • Comment Editor
  • Communications
  • Firmware
  • Ladder Editor
  • Libraries
  • Online | Disk Operations
  • Project Manager
  • SERCOS Setup
  • Startup/Shutdown
• Fixes in PiCPro V11.0 SP1
• Known Problems and Work Arounds

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

For technical support call Giddings & Lewis at 1 800 558 4808, press 4 to speak to an engineer.
You can also send an e-mail to tech.support@ac.giddings.com.

PiCPro V12.0 SERVICE PACK 1 (SP1) INFORMATION

Notes:

• Update all copies/installations of PiCPro for Windows 12.0.
• Once a Service Pack is installed, a prompt will appear to "Rebuild all UDFBs". Respond yes to this prompt.
• Update your firmware.
• Check Addendum.pdf for information on Profibus modules and Profibus configuration.

PiCPro Changes:

• Profibus module items have been added to hardware declarations.
• Under some scenarios, animating a UDFB that was declared in one of the two expanded data segments will cause animation data in another window to be wrong. Example: Open and animate a main ladder. Open and animate a UDFB within the main ladder that is declared in another data segment. Scroll the UDFB and then go back to the main ladder and scroll the main ladder. Animation in the main ladder is wrong.
• SERCOS Position Error Cyclic Update Offset information is displayed on the SERCOS page of Axis Properties in Servo Setup.
• In software declarations, the '?' help button will bring up the correct help based on the mouse/column position. Before this fix, help was being returned for the column with the active focus and not the cell containing the mouse position.
• Leading spaces are being stripped that may have been entered before a valid IP address. The parser was interpreting this as a destination IP of 0.0.0.0 that would cause a communications failure.PiCPro now works in a dual processor environment. Before this fix, communication timeouts would occur.
• Servo Setup and SERCOS Setup now support up to 32 SERCOS slaves on a ring for the MMC for PC SERCOS control. The PiC and MMC still have a maximum of 8 SERCOS slaves on a ring.
• Compatible with Windows Millennium Edition (ME).

Firmware Changes:

• A change was made to correct an issue with the flash ladder on MMC for PC.
• A change was made to correct an issue with the reset of ASIUs.
• Changes have been made to improve serial PiCPro communications over modems.
• There was an issue with SERCOS on the MMC for PC only. Slave errors could be returned with the wrong encoding of error number and slave number. This has been corrected.
• A control "lock up" or scan loss issue on all 486 processors has been corrected.
• The firmware now supports up to 32 SERCOS slaves on a ring for the MMC for PC SERCOS control. The PiC and the MMC controls still have maximum of 8 SERCOS slaves on a ring.

TUTORIAL

PiCPro V12.0 NEW FEATURES/CHANGES

This release contains the features and changes listed below. Features are documented in the Version 12.0 manuals (.pdf) files found on your CD and/or in the on-line help found in PiCPro.

General:

• MMC for PC support
• Windows 2000 Compliant
• Utilities Folder - The utilities folder has been renamed to firmware.
• Version number has been removed from the title bar. Version number can be found by selecting Help | About
• Set Node ID and Connect To Node no longer exist in the menus, toolbars or help. Node is no longer displayed on the status bar.

Communications:

• Added additional network information to the Comm Settings dialog. This will help determine if a network connection is available before trying to connect to it. It will also display IP address and Computer Name of connection.

Project Manager:

• Allow all extensions to be added to the 'OTHER FILES' branch of a project tree.
• Allow help files to be compressed that are associated with a project's libraries. This is an option that can be toggled in the properties dialog. When checked, help files associated with a project's libraries will automatically be included when the project is compressed. Help files include files with extensions '.chm' and '.htm'. This feature assists the user so they do not have to manually enter help files associated with a project. Version differences:
  • Projects created prior to V12.0 and opened in V12.0, will have the 'compress help' option de-selected by default.
  • New projects created in V12.0, will have the 'compress help' option selected by default.
  • Projects created/saved in V12.0 and reopened in V11.0 will retain the 'compress help' setting, but it will have no effect on projects compressed with V11.0. Once opened back in V12.0 again, the compress help setting will be active again.
    
    
• In NT, Project Manager can now launch a different version of PiCPro when that version was installed by a different NT user.

Servo Setup:

• An 'Export' button has been added to the axis data property sheet below the OK, Cancel, Apply and Help buttons. Selecting export prompts the user for a file name and writes axis data to a file in csv (comma separated value) format. This file can then be opened and modified in Excel.
• Previous versions of PiCPro cannot read Version 12 Servo Setup files.

REASONS TO UPDATE YOUR FIRMWARE

• To improve PiCPro communications over Ethernet.
• To correct a problem (on all CPUs) with the BACKUP/RESTORE operation of an application program.
• To correct a scan loss problem that occurred when running a ladder with task based I/O that used extended data segments.
• To include support for Profibus
• To correct an issue with the flash ladder on MMC for PC.
• To correct an issue with the reset of ASIUs
• To improve serial PiCPro communications over modems
• To correct a control "lock up" or scan loss issue on all 486 processors.
• To correct an MMC for PC problem with slave errors.
• To include support for 32 SERCOS slaves on a ring for the MMC for PC SERCOS control.

HOW TO UPDATE CPU FIRMWARE

NOTE: If the current firmware in the control is dated newer than the .hex file that you want to download, do **NOT** update the control's firmware with this file unless you're sure you want to downgrade. You can determine your control's firmware date by selecting Online | Status from the main menu in PiCPro for Windows. Use Windows Explorer to find the hex file in the Firmware directory to determine its date.

• For CPUs with loadable firmware (MMC for PC, standalone MMC, 94X or 904X), download the appropriate hex file by selecting the following from PiCPro's main menu bar: Online | Download Hex. The hex files are installed in the Firmware directory.
• If you have an MMC for PC processor, use the MMCPCA02.HEX file for an Analog CPU, or MMCPCS02.HEX for a SERCOS CPU.
• If you have a standalone MMC, use the MMC03.HEX file.
• If you have a PiC900 with a 486 processor (941, 943, 945, 947), use the P94X10.HEX file.
• If you have a PiC90 with a 486 processor (9041, 9043), use the P904X07.HEX file.
• For PiCTurbo2, part number 502-3814-00, with a 486DX processor, please contact Giddings & Lewis for an EPROM update kit.
• All other PiC CPU models with a 186 or 486SX processor, are not compatible with PiCPro version 11.0 or later. Use PiCPro version 10.x or earlier.

OTHER FILES IN PICPRO FIRMWARE DIRECTORY

There are several other firmware and memory configuration .HEX files in the PiCPro Firmware directory.

• Firmware files are provided for updating Ethernet and SERCOS modules.
  • If you need to upgrade the firmware in the Ethernet module (either the PiC rack module or the standalone MMC option module), use the TCPIP01.HEX file.
  • If you need to upgrade the firmware in the SERCOS module (either the PiC rack module or the standalone MMC SERCOS configuration), use the SERCO02.HEX file. DO NOT load this SERCOS firmware file into an MMC for PC SERCOS configuration. If you do, please reload MMCPCS01.HEX.
    

• Memory Configuration Files are provided for configurable memory in PiC94x or MMC for PC processors. (The following memory sizes represent the approximate number of bytes.)
  • For 512K application memory and 256K RAMDisk memory, use the CON512.HEX file (this is the factory default).
  • For 640K application memory and 128K RAMDisk memory, use the CON640.HEX file.
  • For 384K application memory and 384K RAMDisk memory, use the CON384.HEX file.
    
    
• For standalone MMC and MMC for PC processors, if you need to clear out a ladder application that is not scanning correctly, use the CLRAPP.HEX file.
• To clear the flash memory in the controller, use the CLRFLASH.HEX file.

MANUALS

The following manuals can be found in the folder "Manuals" on your CD:

• 12.0 PiCPro Software Manual (PiCPro for Windows Software Manual)
• 12.0 F-FB Ref (Function/Function Block Reference Guide)
• 12.0 PiC900 Hardware Manual (PiC900 Hardware Manual)
• 12.0 MMC Hardware Manual (Standalone MMC Hardware Manual)
• 1.0 MMC for PC Hardware Manual (MMC for PC Hardware Manual)
• 1.0 Block I/O Modules Manual (Block I/O Modules Manual)

They are .pdf files and can be opened, read, and printed using Adobe Acrobat Reader. You MUST use Acrobat Reader 4.0 or newer. It can be downloaded free of charge from Adobe at http://www.adobe.com/supportservice/custsupport/download.html.

If you would like to order a hard copy of any manual, call 1 800 558 4808 from within the US or 920 921 7100 from outside the US and Canada.

Part Numbers for the hard copies are:

• M.1300.7088 PiCPro for Windows Software Manual Version 12.0
• M.1300.7114 Function/Function Block Reference Guide Version 12.0
• M.1300.7124 PiC900 Hardware Manual Version 12.0
• M.1300.7165 MMC Hardware Manual Version 12.0
• M.1300.7171 MMC for PC Hardware Manual Version 1.0
• M.1300.7194 Block I/O Modules Manual Version 1.0

SOFTWARE NOTES

Minimum PC Requirements for connecting to:

• A PiC or Standalone MMC Controller:
  • A 486 or Pentium processor with Windows 95,98, or NT4.0. Windows 2000 requires a Pentium processor.
  • 32 MB of RAM, minimum; 64 MB of RAM recommended; a minimum of 64MB of RAM is required for Windows 2000.
  • VGA or higher resolution display adapter
  • Typically 60 MB of hard disk space required
  • RS232 port (COM1 or COM2)
    
• An MMC for PC Controller:
  • A 133 MHz Pentium processor with Windows NT4.0 or 2000
  • 64 MB of RAM, minimum; 128 MB of RAM recommended
  • VGA or higher resolution display adapter
  • Typically 60 MB of hard disk space required
    

• Winsock 2.2 required. Most newer computers or operating system software (such as Windows 2000) use this file. Newer Winsock.dll versions can be located on the Microsoft website if needed. If Winsock 2.2 is not installed, a message will be displayed when PiCPro is started.
• During installation there is a field to enter a serial number. This field requires 1 alpha character followed by 5 digits. For example, a12345. It is recommended that you enter the serial number from your registration card.
• PiCPro defaults to serial communications on restarting unless you were connected to a local MMC for PC.
• Use the DOS 8.3 format naming convention for Project compressed files if you will be saving those on FMSDISK.
• Do NOT move, rename, replace, or delete PiCPro Library files (.LIB) from outside of PiCPro while PiCPro is running. If you do this, you MUST open the Libraries dialog (File|PiCPro Libraries) and click on the OK button to rescan the Library files; otherwise unpredictable results may occur. After rescanning, close and reopen all open files.

BEFORE RUNNING PiCPro for Windows

• It is helpful to have your extensions appear on your files. Ensure that Windows Explorer is setup to display three-letter extensions on all filenames. Follow these steps to do this:

In Windows 95/98/NT:

1. Right click My Computer or the Start menu and choose either Open or Explore.
2. Click View | Folder Options in the window's menu bar. The Options box appears. Click on the View tab and choose "Show all files" and uncheck "Hide file extensions for known file types.".
3. Click OK. Your extensions will now appear on your files.

In Windows 2000/ME:

1. Right click My Computer or the Start menu and choose either Open or Explore.
2. Click Tools | Folder Options in the window's menu bar. The Options box appears. Click on the View tab and uncheck "Hide file extensions for known file types".
3. Click OK. Your extensions will now appear on your files.
   

• If you are opening an .LDO file created in the DOS version of PiCPro in this PiCPro for Windows version, you need to establish the library path before you attempt to run your ladder program. Follow these steps to do this:

1. In PiCPro choose File | PiCPro Libraries from the menu bar.
2. Click Add.
3. Locate the library directory in the Browse for Folder dialog.
4. Click OK in the Browse for Folder dialog to accept your selection.
5. Click OK in the PiCPro Libraries box to define the path.
   

• After installation is completed, but before you run PiCPro, modify the properties of your virus scanning program and exclude any *.tmp files in your Windows temporary directory. For example, temporary files are usually found in \WINDOWS\TEMP or \WINNT\TEMP directory. You would add this directory to the exclude list in your virus scanning program's properties. (This prevents any confusion for the scanning program when you compile a binary file in PiCPro that might resemble virus binary sequences.)
• If you want to open a ladder by clicking on the .LDO file in Windows Explorer, and it does not start PiCPro, you will have to follow these steps after installing a new version of PiCPro so that the application can be found:
  
  In Windows 95/98/NT:
  1. In Windows Explorer, choose View | Folder Options.
  2. Click on the File Types tab.
  3. Find the PiCPro Ladder Document in the list and double click to edit it.
  4. Click on Edit.
  5. Click on Browse and find the location of your PiCPro.exe (default installation location is C:\Program Files\Giddings & Lewis\PiCPro for Windows...).
  6. Select Open.
  7. Select OK.
  8. Select Close.
  9. Repeat Steps 3 to 7 for all PiCPro file types (srv, src, prj).
     
  
  In Windows 2000/ME:
  1. In Windows Explorer, choose Tools | Folder Options.
  2. Click on the File Types tab.
  3. Find the PiCPro Ladder Document in the list and click on it.
  4. Click on Change....
  5. Click on Other... and find the location of your PiCPro.exe (default installation location is C:\Program Files\Giddings & Lewis\PiCPro for Windows...).
  6. Select Open.
  7. Select OK.
  8. Select Close.
  9. Repeat Steps 3 to 7 for all PiCPro file types (srv, src, prj).

FIXES SINCE PiCPro V11.0 SP1

General:

• Invalid error messages containing the text "ViewTopLeftXPos" have been corrected.
• Using the Online | Animate menu should turn animation on/off for all split views like using the animate toolbar button does.
• In Windows 98 fixed a defect where the PiCPro status bar was not always completely displayed.
• Corrected a ladder problem that hung an open function to a file on the PC that was opened with a PC program. Even if the PC program closed the file, the PiC program was still hung.

Build Dependency List:

• The PiCPro crash that resulted when the output filename was set to a nonexistent file name and the other file was set to the same name has been replaced with the display of a message box.

Comment Editor:

• Removed the bottom scroll bar since the comment editor is limited to 80 characters per line and will never scroll off screen.

Communications:

The following network problems have been fixed and are all related to network communications with a host that is on the network and 'pingable', but there is no control available:

• Close UDP sockets after unsuccessful communication. Eventually this would lead to a locked up or extremely slow system.
• Communications can be switched between network and serial without waiting for a 10 second timeout.
• Fixed problem of sometimes not being able to connect to a computer name (as opposed to an IP address).
• Fixed possible lockups that can occur (never ending hourglass cursor) when changing the communications type from TCP/IP to Serial, TCP/IP to TCP/IP, or Serial to TCP/IP.
• Fixed an occasional crash during shutdown because communications did not shut down correctly.
• Fixed possible 'no-connect' situation where you normally had to stop and restart PiCPro to connect successfully.
• Fixed the crash that can happen when entering IP/Computer Name of over 20 characters.

Firmware:

• There was a problem with the BACKUP/RESTORE of the application program. The wrong address ranges were being backed up, and therefore improperly restored. This has now been corrected.
• Firmware change to correct crash problem if there was a mismatch of declared hardware.
• Firmware change to correct a scan loss when TASK I/O was run in an extended data segment.

Ladder Editor:

• Fixed a problem in find where A(0).U could be found in B(A(0).U).U but not in A(A(0).U).U

Libraries:

• Modified to prevent duplicate library paths from being entered.
• Change to correct a problem where UDFBs that were removed from libraries, were shown in the View | UDFB list when declared in software declarations but not used in the ladder.
• Corrected a problem when a task was deleted from a library, the type of the library would change from UDFB to standard.

Online | Disk Operations:

• Fixed "Paste List" to FMSDisk. If there was an error in processing the list file, 3 FMSDisk icons would be displayed.
• Fixed file exception that occurred while copying a file to a root drive. This happened under Win95/98 machines. This did not happen under Windows 2000 machines.
• Internet Explorer, Control Panel, Recycle Bin, and My Documents are no longer displayed on the File Tree side and the File List side. These created interesting problems including attempted deletion and renaming of system folders.
• Fixed file folder paste. Could not paste files to an empty folder.
• Fixed filename length problems that would not allow deleting a folder containing other files/folders. An error message was being displayed 'File in Use'.
• Turned off rename on tree side. It would allow and attempt to rename drives, Network Neighborhood, etc. Rename is only allowed on the file list side.
• Made a change to prevent recursive copies. 'Copy' does not copy the files content to a clipboard. 'Copy' looks at files when 'paste' is performed. If we paste to a directory or subdirectory that is selected as the 'copy' (source) directory, a nested copy takes place and either errors out and/or creates no-name folders.
• Display error when copy/cut/delete/rename fail. There was no indication of this before.
• Fixed problem of the FMSDisk icon disappearing if the 'Paste List' function errors or the user cancels the function during operation.
• When multiple files were being copied to RAMDisk and then cancelled, the tree side of the dialog was not being updated to show the change. An update now takes place.
• Fixed problem of the FMSDisk icon disappearing from the file tree when a file being copied to FMSDisk was cancelled.
• When copying to FMSDisk and the copy is cancelled, a partial file is still created on FMSDisk. Changed file cancel error message to indicate this.
• Fixed a problem caused by canceling a Hard Disk file copy to RAMDisk. Sometimes a 'File in Use' error message would be displayed, which was being caused by trying to delete the file before the PiC closed the file.
• Fixed problem when a user would rename a file and the final filename was the same as before the rename. An error box was posted saying that the file cannot be renamed because a file of that name already exists (which was itself).
• Added delete key functionality inside the rename edit field.
• On multiple file copies, if a duplicate file exists and prompts for overwrite, choosing 'NO' will not cancel the rest of the copies.
• Checks are made for legal file specs before copying to RAMDisk. Before this, it was possible for communications loss if a 'larger than allowed' file spec was specified.
• Right click will work on the 29th file in the file list.

Project Manager:

• The following has been fixed: A sample project is opened. 'Save-As' is clicked. User types in project name and compressed filename. No paths or extensions are used. On save, error is displayed for both entries indicating that a path needs to be typed in. On 'OK', the two errors are repeated. There was no way out of this besides killing the task or rebooting.
• Corrected a crash which occurred when auto loading a project that had a view or force list displayed.
• OPINTER.lib will now be included in the list of dependent UDFBs if a function/function block in a dependent UDFB requires OPINTER.lib.

SERCOS Setup:

• If a corrupt entry was found in a drive IDN file, a message would be displayed indicating the error and then the file would continue to be read. This sometimes resulted in an endless series of error messages. With this release, the user will have the option of continuing to read the IDN file or aborting use of the file. If the file read is aborted, none of the information read from the file will be used.
• Printing - Corrected a problem where sometimes only a subset of the startup IDN list data was printed. Other minor printing problems were also corrected.
• Error messages in the slave dialog were modified to indicate that the drive file could not be found if it isn't present, instead of indicating that a specific IDN could not be found.

Startup/Shutdown:

• Starting PiCPro and immediately exiting no longer causes a crash.

Fixes in PiCPro Version 11.0 SP1

The following lists the changes that were made in Version 11.0 SP1. These changes are also a part of this release

PiCPro Changes

• Compress project temp files are now cleaned up.
• SRC files with startup IDN lists can now be printed.

Firmware Changes

• The firmware (p904x04.hex) for 904x processors has been updated. The hardware handshaking had been inadvertently disabled while changing RS422/485 communications for MMC in the 11.0 release.
  

KNOWN PROBLEMS AND WORK AROUNDS

• Saving .G&L Files From E-mail

  Please be aware that if you attempt to save a compressed project file (.G&L) from within an e-mail by right-clicking and then selecting "Save As" from the popup menu, the "&" is removed from the filename extension in the Save Attachment dialog.
  To fix the problem, you must manually add this "&" back in. This problem has been diagnosed in Microsoft E-mail and has not been observed in other e-mail packages.
  To avoid this problem, save a .G&L file attachment by double-clicking on it and selecting "Save it to disk" on the Opening Mail Attachment dialog.

• Serial or Ethernet Connection Icons May Disappear

  If your connection icon or IP address does not appear on the status bar. To remedy this situation you need to display the Communication Settings dialog (Online | Comm Settings) and select OK.

• Dependencies in a Compressed Project File

  To make sure that all of the files that your project requires are actually included in the compressed file,

  1. Perform an Update Project tree (select this from the File menu) to list all missing source files (.LDO, .SRV, .SRC, .PRO) to the Information Window.

     If you were to compress your project without these files, you won't be able to build the associated function/function blocks. Make sure that if you really need these files, they are in the locations specified in the project library paths.

  2. To ensure that all required functions are found, do a rebuild all (Compile | All UDFBs found) and also compile your main .LDO. If any errors are found, correct and compile again. When all errors are resolved, now you can compress your project.

     Note: Step (2) can only be done if the version of PiCPro you are running matches the version of PiCPro in the project.

• Printing Help Windows

  Printing help windows that contain graphics using Windows 95 and Windows 98 may produce unexpected results. The problem does not occur when using Windows NT 4 or Windows 2000.

• Infrared Communications Drivers

  If your system PC has Infrared Communications Drivers, you need to be aware that under Windows default settings, COM1 and COM3 use the same interrupts, and COM2 and COM4 use the same interrupts. The communications settings option in PiCPro for Windows, when checking for valid communications ports, may initiate execution of some Infrared Drivers. Communications problems will occur if the Infrared Driver is using one member of the above pairs and PiCPro for Windows is using the other.
  To avoid communication problems, either (1) disable the Infrared Driver in the control panel or (2) change the communications port used by the Infrared Driver so that it does not conflict with the communications port used by PiCPro.

• Power Save Option: The Power saver option in BIOS should not be set when using an MMC for PC as it will cause a communications error when it shuts the computer down.