Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

Shear limit switches are used differently than most other axes' limit switches. Usually limit switches are put into a place that is slightly past the usual range of motion because it's trying to stop the axis before it damages the machine. Shear limit switches on the other hand are in the range of motion because shears don't usually have a true feedback. So a lot of the times the user will just have the shear go from its home limit to its forward limit and then back to the home limit. The problem is these limits were not set up for directional stopping. So if the shear moved past one of the limits and the input turned off the shear will stop again when the input turns on when coming back.

The fix to this was to look at the direction the shear was moving. If the shear is moving in the direction that matches the direction the switch is supposed to be then stop the shear. If not then let the shear keep moving.

Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

There was a bug in the I/O port handling section of the 5226 controller where it made interrupts unusable. For reference refer to:

SCN 4488 5226; I/O Port Handling Bug Fixes

The band-aid to get around this for most inputs were to make them polled instead of interrupts. One of these inputs to become polled was the Clamp Pressure Reached input. This made the clamp drive down further than needed to say the clamp reached pressure.

Making the Clamp Pressure Reached input an interrupt made the clamp stop much faster when trying to reach pressure on a system that had a pressure switch for the clamp.

Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

The 5226 controller has two separate open loop algorithms used for controlling axes. The main factor for which algorithm an axis will use is whether or not there is analog speed control set up on the machine for that axis. If not then the axis is most likely using only I/O for movement.

The analog controlled algorithm had some changes made to make a shear stop faster. For more information refer to:

SCN 4467 - 5226; Make a Speed Controlled Shear Stop Faster

The problem is that all of the changes put into the analog algorithm could also be very useful in the discrete I/O algorithm. Therefore these changes were also added for discrete I/O controlled shears.

Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

Some hydraulic axes using that were using the pressure relief during a move had a problem stopping quickly if the pressure relief stayed on during the coast to stop process of the move algorithm. The fix to this problem was to turn off the pressure relief output once the axis entered the coast to stop state. This is so far only happening for axes with no analog control.

Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

There was a bug in the communication between the 5226 controller and the Indra Drive CS where the controller was able to send a command before the drive was done processing the previous command. For more information on the fix refer to:

SCN 4345 - Add Command Value Acknowledgement for Indra Drive CS Ethernet/IP

The problem is that the Kinetix 300 Ethernet/IP driver did not get this change which caused the algorithm for sending commands to freeze in one state. This would cause a move timeout and not let the user complete the step. This has now been implemented into the Kinetix 300 driver in the 5226 as well.

Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers. On some double folder machines the backstop of the backgauge is adjustable to be able to take advantage of the grippers. The biggest advantage is that it can get the material closer to the zero point without having to change the position of the backgauge. This allows the user to get closer to the clamp with the material gripped, which means a different form of backstop(finger or the grippers closed for gauging) does not need to be used. For more information refer to:

SCN 4356 - 5226; Added Gripper Backstop Logic

The problem with the logic though was that the clamp was allowed to move down when the backstops were out and close to the clamp. This means the clamp could hit and damage the backstops. To ensure this doesn't happen an error message has been created to halt the machine and let the user know what they are doing is wrong. This error message is 377 Gripper Backstop Must Be Retracted. If the backgauge is within 5 inches of the clamp the error will be thrown.

Changes made for Pathfinder 5226 controllers.

The 5226 controller has a function used for checking axis conflicts that allow multiple axes to move at the same time and protect the machine if something ends up or is out of place. These conflicts are mostly based on parameters and states of I/O. Each axis checks it's conflicts each time it wants to initiate a move. Once all conflicts all cleared the axis is allowed to move. If the axis is the last one standing and still has a conflict the controller will error out and drop out of run. Turns out there was one spot this is not the case. When using a pedal to move the clamp down the conflict test does not occur. This is not a huge problem because in this case all axes should already have finished their move into tolerance.

The enhancement though is to still do the conflict testing in this case. This allows for other error conditions to be checked and gives at least one more check just in case other axes did not end up where they were supposed to.