There are two types of Fp and Integer controls. There is one type that requires a Record Object for reading, writing and formatting values and one that uses supplied functions.

The List control only had the type that relies on a Record Object. A type that relies on supplied function has now been created.

The EtherCat options are only available on V5 hardware but almost all of the code is present in both V4 and V5.

Two Model options have been added, EtherCAT CL and EtherCAT MA.

Both options are required because EtherCAT consumes the single Ethernet Port that is available on the hardware.

EtherCAT CL is only available on the Closed Loop to force the use of the EtherCAT protocol to control the Servo Drives.

EtherCAT MA enables the support for Multi-Axis servos that use EtherCAT SoE, Servo (SERCOS) over EtherCAT protocol.

When EtherCAT MA is selected the Multi-Axis (X) option is also automatically enabled.

SERCOS and EtherCAT are mutually exclusive. If EtherCAT is enabled, SERCOS is disabled and disallowed.

The use and configuration of EtherCAT is nearly identical to SERCOS with several notable exceptions; 1.) Editing of the Drive Parameters from the XL is not supported.
2.) The drives have a State Progression rather than a Phase Progression.

Other than the above exceptions, working with the EtherCAT drives will look and feel identical to the SERCOS drives. In the XL Software there will be options for EtherCAT SoE, instead of, or in addition to, SEROCS.

These are the States:;

1. Init - In this state the prescense of drives is performed. If the correct number of drives has been found, the next state will be attempted.
2. Pre-Operational - In this state, the drives are configured for their mode of operation. If a drive passes its transition test it will go to the next state.
3. Safe-Operation - Cyclical data begins being transfered back and forth from the drive. If all drives are communicating cyclical data properly they will transition to the next state.
4. Operational - Cyclical data is still being transfered but now the drives are capable of being enabled and are fully operational.

A Tool Axis may only be used by one press. Otherwise, the presses would fight over control of the axis. However, what actually happened is that each Tool Axis is assigned a Press ID that it uses to find its closest target in the queue. Since there can only be one press assigned, only one press would control the axis and all other targets would be ignored.

This has always been a limitation but there was no test to enforce it. This has now been resolved.

When entering the run mode, each of the Tool Axes will be tested to see if more than one press is configured to use it. If the condition is detected, an Error message will be displayed and the line will drop out of run.

In the Windows PC Simulation, Local SERCOS Axes were not being allowed to be enabled due to some code added in SCN 4853. This has been resolved.

The following changes have been made to the Window colors for Help, Error, Warning and Operator message windows. Prior to this change, all messages had the same window color scheme which created some confusion. Help messages were mistakenly interpreted as error messages.

Help messages will have a Blue Window body. Warning messages will have a Yellow Window body. Error messages - No change. Operator messages will have a Black header and Gray window body.

Prior to this change, the only access to the Switch setting, SERCOS setting and future EtherCat settings was by pressing the Setup Key at the end of the AMS logo banner screen during a power up.

This change adds an F5-Switch and Config. option to the system info screen. This will provide access to the settings without a power cycle. The controller does have to reset however. After the reset and the banner logo, the controller will go directly to the settings screens without requiring any additional key presses.

The Real Time Operating System, RTOS , uses a counter/timer to measure time and schedule system tasks at the requested interval. The counter has a reload value that is stored internally.

Two changes were made. The reload value is now stored in a variable that can be read at any time or used for other calculations.

A new function called Rts_Shift_Timer_Hardware has been added. It accepts an integer value that will be used to shift (offset), positive or negative, the nominal reload value for the timer. This effectively increases or decreases the time between timer events.

The shift time is passed to the function as an integer value that is internally limited to +-550. This limit corresponds to 10% of 1msec on the V5 XL hardware, 100usec. This will be used in Closed Loop controllers, in conjunction with EtherCAT. The Operating System timer on the 80386 must be synchronized with the timers that run on the EtherCAT devices that are using Distributed Clocks. This limit should be way more than is needed for the purpose that the function is being added for.

On the V5 XL hardware, each incremental value of the 550 limit is equivalent to approximately 0.18nsec.

Zanasi has come out with a new series of printer that is not backwards compatible with our existing Zanasi Driver.

The new series of printer have models in the Z4xx range with xx being a 2-digit number. For example, Z402.

They do supply a special modification of sorts, a sniffer that looks for the text in the print command and inserts it in a predefined message format on the printer. For example, "$00WT000ATEST123{space}{space}[CR]" is a valid print command. TEST123 will be extracted and be filled into the message to be printed.

We have taken the existing Zanasi print driver and modified it. A new entry, "Simple Zanasi Z4xx" has been added to the list of part printers. When this entry is selected, the existing print driver will be used with much of its code disabled. All print text will be concatenated and sent in a command that is formatted like the example. No version information or print buffers will be read from the printer as those commands are not supported in the printer.

The existing driver stripped off the message formatting when displaying the print message in the diagnostic window. When this new entry is selected, since the command format is so specific, it is displayed with the text to provide confidence that we are using the expected command format.