As a milestone for functionality, the USB port on the V5 XL200 enumerates to a comm port and echoes back any keys that are typed into it. The next step is to provide console output that can provide status information about what the ARM proccessor is doing or has done.

The ARM processor does the bulk of the hard real time software operations on the V5 XL200. In the past it has been very difficult to provide diagnostic information about what is going on in this processor since it has no access to the serial port that we have typically been using to provide it.

The ARM now has console access using the previously un-used USB port on the right hand side of the XL, when facing the screen. For now it will provide diagnostic printouts to help diagnose EtherCAT issues, but I can be expanded for other uses in the future.

Any free application like Tera Term or PUTTY can be used to access it. Any baud rate can be used. The port will self adjust for whatever is selected.

There have been diagnostic Console outputs added to track all EtherCAT state machine transitions. If a drive refuses an operating mode transition, the drive status of each drive will be displayed to determine which drive is having an issue and why.