PiCPro Version 16.1-SP1 Professional Edition and MMC-Limited Edition Readme

IMPORTANT

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

• A list of new features in 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
• V16.1-SP1 RELEASE NOTES
• V16.1-SP1 New Features/Changes
• V16.1-SP1 Reasons To Update Your Firmware
• V16.1 RELEASE NOTES
• V16.1 New Features/Changes
• V16.1 Reasons To Update Your Firmware
• KNOWN PROBLEMS AND WORK-AROUNDS
• SOFTWARE NOTES
• BEFORE RUNNING PiCPro V16.1

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

For technical support call G&L Motion Control at 1 800 558 4808, 1 920 921 7100, or send an e-mail to glmotion.support@danahermotion.com.

V16.1-SP1 RELEASE NOTES

V16.1-SP1 New Features/Changes

PiCPro V16.1-SP1 contains the features and changes listed below.

• Correction to Digital MMC firmware affecting 2 and 4 axis version of the MMC-Dx resident control.

V16.1-SP1 Reasons To Update Your Firmware

• Digital MMC Smart Drive (MMC-Dx Resident Control R603.HEX)
  • To correct a problem where Ethernet did not work on 2 and 4 axis versions of the MMC-Dx resident control. This issue was introduced with PiCPro V16.1.

V16.1 RELEASE NOTES

V16.1 New Features/Changes

PiCPro V16.1 contains the features and changes listed below.

• Added support for Windows Vista.
• Corrected a problem on digital systems using extended data memory where a scan loss would occur as soon as the scan was started.
• Modified installation directory structure. Due to security changes in Windows Vista, we modified our directory locations for files that a user can change – such as custom motor files and application files. Vista does not want users to write/modify files under the C:\Program Files directory – where PiCPro and Applications previously resided. This directory structure change affects ALL operating systems. The installations of all PiCPro Editions and PiCPro Applications have changed to include the creation of a data directory. For example,
• If PiCPro V16.1 is installed to ‘C:\Program Files\G&L Motion Control\PiCPro V16.1 Professional Edition’, a data directory will be created in ‘C:\G&L Motion Control Data\PiCPro V16.1 Professional Edition’. All firmware, libraries and personalities will be placed in subdirectories in the data directory.
• Changed the default for Compile and Download to ‘patch’ rather than ‘stop scan’.
• Replaced the Offset slider in the oscilloscope with an ‘Auto Scale’ pushbutton.
• Modified alignment mode for a digital drive. When alignment fails, all known data will be displayed along with the specific error.
• Added a 4th feedback configuration to the digital drive feeback configurations. In this configuration Motor Commutation is assigned to F1, Velocity Loop:F1, Position Loop:F2 and Digitized Feedback:F1.
• Added support for user defined digitizing scaling to the digital drive.
• Made a change to the way a UDFB executes. This change should have very little or no impact on existing ladders. Execution of a UDFB that contains a data input that is a pointer (i.e. string, array, or structure) is prevented until power flow to the EN has occurred at least once. In addition under this scenerio, the power flow at the first output (OK) is forced to off until power flow to the EN has occurred at least once.
• Added READ_SV/WRITE_SV variables 93 & 94 to allow the ladder to write the feedback of a virtual axis.
• Added READ_SV variable 95 to provide the distance between the last two good registration marks.
• Added READ_SV variable 96 to provide the most recently applied registration compensation value.
• Added READ_SV/WRITE_SV variable 97 to provide the number of consecutive good registration marks.
• Added READ_SV variable 98 to provide the master axis’s axis number.
• Corrected a problem in which STRTSERV may return its OK output reset when a resolver feedback axis is declared in Servo Setup.
• Added the new ladder function NO_OFFST that defines a no-offset zone. Master/slave offsets are not applied while the axis’s actual position is in the no-offset zone.
• Added READ_SV variable 99 to provide the Actual Velocity, sampled every 256 msec, in ladder units / minute.
• Added WRITE_SV/READ_SV variable 100 to allow the ladder to specify a fast input response time in usec. The control will compensate for this time delay when latching a position with the fast input.
• Corrected a problem in PiC 900 Turbo3 controls in which SERCOS axes may generate a SERCOS Cyclic Data Synchronization Error E-stop 8020H shortly after STRTSERV completes.
• Changed the length of the IPZ string returned from IPRECV to include the null terminator. This change only affects MMC Digital controls.
• Corrected a problem with the FMS disk on the MMC-Dx Resident Control.
• Removed support for TCP/IP in the MMC-D1 Resident control to eliminate scan start delays on this control. This control hardware does not support TCP/IP.
• Corrected a problem with loading MMC for PC firmware. This problem was introduced with V16.0 SP1.
• Added support for BiSS feedback on MMC Digital drives. This requires new drive hardware.
• Added support for MMC PLUS 2 Ring SERCOS.
• Added support for running servo tasks less than 1ms. A new micro-second time constant is provided to allow sub-millisecond times. The constant will be specified as follows T#250US. Values of 500us and 250us may be used today. The inputs to SERVOCLK and User Defined Tasks have been changed to allow micro-second time constants to be used.
• Added Overtravel Plus Warning and Overtravel Minus Warning to READ_SV variable 69.
• Added variables 16-Digital Drive Analog Input and 17-Digital Drive Current to CAPTINIT.
• Application software (formerly the Applications Software CD) is now included on both the Professional and Limited Edition CDs.

V16.1 Reasons To Update Your Firmware

• Digital MMC Smart Drive (MMC-SD-xxx-D Digital MMC Smart Drive R0800.HEX)
• To support BiSS feedback.
• To support user defined digitizing scaling.


• MMC-Dx Resident Control (MMC-Dx Resident Control R0602.HEX)
• To change the length of the IPZ string returned from IPRECV to include the null terminator.
• To correct a problem with the FMS disk.
• To remove support for TCP/IP in the MMC-D1 Resident control to eliminate scan start delays on this control.
• To support running servo tasks less than 1ms.


• MMC-Dx Standalone Control (MMC-Dx Standalone Control R0602.HEX)
• To change the length of the IPZ string returned from IPRECV to include the null terminator.
• To support running servo tasks less than 1ms.


• PiC900 (PiC900 94X CPU R0518.HEX)
• To correct a problem in PiC 900 Turbo3 controls in which SERCOS axes may generate a SERCOS Cyclic Data Synchronization Error E-stop 8020H shortly after STRTSERV completes.
• To support running servo tasks less than 1ms.


• PiC90 (PiC90 904X CPU R0515.HEX)
• To support running servo tasks less than 1ms.


• MMC or MMC PLUS (MMC-Sx SERCOS MMC R0511.HEX or MMC-AX Analog MMC R0511.HEX)
• To support MMC PLUS 2 Ring SERCOS.
• To support running servo tasks less than 1ms.


• SERCOS (SERCOS R0309.HEX)
• To support MMC PLUS 2 Ring SERCOS.


• MMC for PC (MMC for PC-Sx SERCOS R0516.HEX or MMC for PC Analog R0513.HEX)
• To correct a problem with loading MMC for PC firmware.
• To support running servo tasks less than 1ms.

See PiCPro Online Help "Download a Hex File" to update the various firmware files.

KNOWN PROBLEMS AND WORK-AROUNDS

• Storing a Constant in a Variable in Structured Text

In a Structured Text or Ladder Network, storing a constant in a variable, whose value is out of range for the data type of the variable, does not presently produce an error or warning message. Only the least significant bits of the constant equal to the number of bits in the variable data type will be stored in the variable and the most significant bits of the constant will be ignored. For example, if A is defined as an SINT and the Structured Text statement "A := 3889;" is executed, then the value 49 will be stored into A. In the future, we plan to correct this problem by issuing an error message that will prevent you from doing this.

• 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, 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 your project files 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.

• Changing UDFBs:

If you change the inputs and/or outputs to a UDFB that is already in your main or another UDFB ladder, you must close and reopen that main or UDFB ladder in order for the changes to appear.

• Power Save Option:

The Power save 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.

SOFTWARE NOTES

• It is highly recommended that you Rebuild all UDFBs and servo setup files in your system before using version 16.1. If they aren't recompiled, there could be problems with operation. If the source files aren't available, get the source files or a new compiled library from whoever wrote the program.
• 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 V16.1

• 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 2000/XP:

  1. Right click My Computer.
  2. Choose either Open or Explore.
  3. 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". (In Windows XP uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types".)
  4. Click OK. Your extensions will now appear on your files.

• 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.)