GeckoMotion 1.0.22 User Manual
Contents
1. Illustration 2 Note the above screen image and others in this manual is taken on Linux The Windows version will appear similar except for some icons and a few other minor differences All of the same versions for different platforms function identically unless otherwise noted The application is laid out in three main sections e On the left hand side is the main control tool bar e On the top is the file function tool bar e Astandard menu in the customary location e The remainder is a set of tabs which contain the project settings always first tab on the left plus any files open for editing and possibly a listing file In the above illustration the settings tab is shown Initially there will be no other tabs since no source file is specified for the project Also initially there will be no defined project folder so everything is considered to be in the default unnamed project Creating a Project It is recommended to always use a named project GeckoMotion defines a project in relation to a unique project folder All settings and most project source files should be saved in the project folder To create a new project folder make sure the Settings tab is selected in the main window To the right of the Project Settings label click the first icon Create new Project A folder creating dialog will appear something like the following Illustration 3 Navigate to a suitable location a base f2. Instructions Applying to AMAR tt 24 Overview GeckoMotion is an application which allows development of motion control programs for the Gecko Drive GM215 motor controller The GM215 can run in either of two basic modes e As a conventional step motor drive As a motion controller This manual is relevant only to the motion controller mode In this mode a sequence of motion control instructions can be entered dynamically tested on the target device s and stored on the device s flash memory for stand alone that is without an attached PC applications GeckoMotion is available for Windows and Linux Getting Started Installing GeckoMotion General System Requirements Use of GeckoMotion requires a USB to RS485 converter The physical connection to the GM215 devices requires RS485 signaling GeckoMotion also depends on the Python interpreter version 2 7 and GTK 3 Windows Requirements GeckoMotion should run on all versions of Windows from Windows XP through Windows 8 1 Since Windows does not come with Python 2 7 the GeckoMotion installer includes the Windows version of Python Thus most users will not have to worry about installing any additional software Advanced users may have already installed Python 2 7 for other purposes In this case the installer will ask whether to use the existing Python installation You may need to install a driver for the RS485 adapter however these are very standard and more recent Wind
3. or resume from a pause If this is a motion command then the axes will decelerate to a stop while paused Note that this functionality does not work with the current device firmware Cancel Cancel the current paused instruction Note that this functionality does not 13 work with the current device firmware EStop Ctrl F12 Reset all devices to location zero Use this if an error is causing one of the devices to lose synchronization Flash Write the current program to all attached devices for stand alone execution This may take several seconds for large programs Connect Connect or re connect to the serial port defined for this project Status This button changes its appearance depending on the connection state Normally it will show 2 READY where the initial digit is the number of connected devices READY means the devices are waiting for the next instruction RUN means an instruction is executing Pressing this button will display a more detailed status window Inputs This pops up the Input Simulation Override window This window allows simulation of the 3 input signals which are available to each drive It is only possible to activate the input signal and the activation is ORed with the actual input signal if any If the hardware is driving the input active then it is not possible to force the input inactive using this window Project and File Management The Settings tab always the left most tab in the ma
4. to the end of the line is ignored by GeckoMotion Examples x 100 y 100 Move diagonally to start position z 1 0 Z axis down Comment on its own line Note it is recommended to use the character since it is compatible with Python s comment convention A semicolon only works with GeckoMotion instructions Whitespace In general whitespace spaces and tabs is ignored The only exception is that the indentation of instructions should line up This restriction is because the Python parser is also used to process GeckoMotion instructions and Python has similar indentation restrictions The following example shows what is acceptable and what is not label x 100 y 200 lt OK but ugly next x 0 y 0 lt this line will fail because of mismatch in indentation The general rule is to always back out any indentation so it lines up with some previous level of indentation In the above example the y 0 instruction did not line up with either the previous line or the next label Since the next label was less indented than the y 0 line this indicates an 16 indentation error It is recommended to indent all instructions with a single tab character or 4 spaces except for labels which are not indented Macros have slightly different rules Macro Definitions For additional programming flexibility it is possible to define and use macros A mac
5. only one device is used it must be the X axis Other devices must be assigned in the order Y Z W When the DIP switches for all devices are set the next tasks are e Daisy chain all devices to the RS485 communications line see GM215 Step Motor Drive Manual e Wire device I Os if required e Provide DC power to all devices e Connect stepper motors can be omitted for initial testing e Attach RS485 adapter to PC via a USB cable next section Programming Connector Programming the GM215 devices requires an RS485 hardware interface Most PCs do not come with RS485 If anything they have RS232 which is not compatible with the GM215 because RS232 is not capable of multi drop multiple devices on a party line USB to RS485 adapters are commonly available and one will be required for use with the GM215 RS485 uses three wires e Ground common e A also known as Data e B also known as Data Unfortunately the relation of A and B to Data is sometimes inverted Try the X axis alone at first If no communication can be established swap the A and B connections at the RS485 adapter and try again Starting GeckoMotion GeckoMotion is started via the Windows Start menu or on Linux by entering gmotion on the command line or using the window manager icon or menu as appropriate The following window will start at least the first time normally it will start with the same state as when it was last shut down
6. the GeckoMotion import directive Inside triple parentheses everything is pure Python Subsequently these functions can be used as operands to the MOVE instruction Note in the above example that floating point results must be explicitly cast to integer using int This is a general rule GM215 instructions that expect integer operands will not accept floating point values returned by a substitution You must ensure that integers are returned otherwise the compiler will signal an error Regarding the MOVE instruction in particular the GM215 MOVE instruction has a relative and an absolute form x 100 lt relative form move forward CW 100 steps x 100 lt relative form move backward CCW 100 steps x 100 lt absolute form move to location 100 When used in conjunction with macro substitution the sign for a relative move must be outside the braces Otherwise the move is always absolute regardless of the sign of the macro substitution result ER n 100 nn 100 x n Move relative 100 CW x nn Move relative 100 CW or 100 CCW x nn Move relative 100 CCW or 100 CW x n Move absolute to 100 x nn Move absolute to 100 This is an error and will not F compile since absolute moves must be non negative Labels Labels are recognized as a sequence of alphanumeric characters followed by a colon There should be nothing following t
7. F axis IN1 IN2 IN3 RDY ERR IS OFF ON GOTO label WAIT float lt 0 65 535 gt SECONDS MOVING AVERAGE axis axis decimal lt 1 127 gt SAMPLES ANALOG INPUTS TO axis axis VECTOR AXIS AXES IS ARE axis axis 24
8. GeckoMotion User Manual Table of Contents Gecko Motion User Manta lin 1 MN 2 Getting Stadion 2 stan OM mene Renee Re OR Cr ne EN eC Cn aN a On a 2 General System Kequikemenits sca scetse ao 2 Windows RUE A A EN E a ea 2 Linux Requirements ie 3 A TS 3 o A a UE A er a Oe Re een a Tce eee 3 Preparing GM215 Devices salis 3 Programming Connectors esarri id 4 Starting O a A T 5 E 6 Creating Source Codeuidansia dico t a a aa e s T Connecting to the Device 8 The A oo O 9 Compiling Squres Code ai id 10 Testing Your PM io 10 Writing Your Program to Device ROM toi 11 Running GM215 Devices Without a RC A Ad 11 A TIOS 11 G ck Motion References man a a a E S E E A 12 Application Layout and Windows viii i 12 Men sand Toolbars Sonic cc Oca eas a a a aa a a a E aE 12 Project and File Mind a E AI 14 Writing Soures Code the Text Editor iii ii 15 GeckoMotion SOURCE INSTA A O 16 COMO A 16 do dee e e 17 Macro Dent 17 Simple SUDSUIGIONS ia dls 18 A EA ETE E A E etn castes uatuncues ccoucenea EA 19 TASAS Rd SE 19 Library Import ii AA 19 Standard Library Fold mai ts 21 Sandalias es 21 A O T 22 Appendix A Instr ction Syntax IS da 22 General Rules and Instruction Parts ui 22 aS e e A ON a 22 opcode a n a E E E ET E G EREE eee cee a E 22 patameter el se lana dad 23 COMME a A A a 23 Instruccion it iaa 23 SAAIE DENAT AD AEE E E E EAE EA EE E EE TE AEAT T 23 Instructions with Axis Specification iia ida ii 24
9. This may take a few seconds for a large program Running GM215 Devices Without a PC After flashing to actually run the devices in autonomous motion control mode you need to e Unpower the devices e Disconnect the RS485 line from the PC leaving only the RS485 interconnection between devices e Change DIP switch 2 to the ON position this sets RUN mode on all devices e Re power the devices Saving a Project GeckoMotion always saves project settings as soon as you close the application or switch to a different project Any source code which is changed but not yet saved will cause a prompt to appear You can then save the source file s 11 GeckoMotion Reference Application Layout and Windows There is a single main application window and a number of secondary windows The main window is always displayed and the other windows are shown using various menu commands You can use the mouse to re size and re position all windows and the positions and sizes will be remembered next time the application is started From the main window the secondary windows are displayed using the following commands Log use menu command View gt Log GM215 Device Status use menu command View gt Status or you can press the device status button at the bottom of the left hand toolbar the info icon GM215 Input Simulation Overrides use menu command View gt Input Overrides or press the input button at the bottom of the l
10. arching and or replacing text The left toolbar buttons from top to bottom are Source e Set Top Ctrl Shift T Mark the current editor tab as being the top level source file for the project This file will be the first source code compiled The tab which is currently selected as the top level file if any is marked with a special icon in the tab 12 Compile F5 Compile the top level program file This is necessary before the devices can run the program If any edits are made you will need to recompile If compilation is successful then an assembler listing tab will be created This is a read only tab but you can switch to it and examine the binary code which was created Note that not all lines of source code will be shown in the listing Only lines of code which actually created binary object code will be shown in the listing Breakpoint F2 Set or clear a breakpoint at the cursor position in the current tab If successful a breakpoint icon is inserted at the start of the text line containing the instruction If the cursor is not on a valid line of code the breakpoint will not be set If there is already a breakpoint on the line it will be cleared When executing code with breakpoints execution will stop at the breakpoint before that line of code is executed Note that breakpoints are not preserved across re starts of the application Clear All Ctrl Shift K Remove all breakpoints from the code e Cont
11. ated by a line ending character appropriate for your PC platform which is not immediately preceded by a backslash character For example on Windows this is a CR LF sequence Simply 15 hitting the Enter key in the text editor terminates the line A logical line may extend over several visible lines by ending the line with a backslash on all but the last visible line The following example shows this usage This is the first logical line and this is the second logical line This is a single logical line And finally this is the fourth logical line but the 8th visible A GeckoMotion instruction consists of a number of keywords also called opcodes and optional parameters An instruction may also be a label Labels are not actually executed but they denote points of the program which may be the target of a branch or call instruction In addition to labels and instructions comments whitespace and macro definitions may be included in the code Comments and whitespace are ignored Macros provide instructions to GeckoMotion but only during compilation and never directly during program execution Comments Comments are used to document the intention and meaning of the program since the instructions themselves are somewhat cryptic particularly after coming back to code after a few days A comment is denoted by a semicolon or pound hash punctuation character The punctuation and everything following
12. ces detected You can press that button to see a more detailed display of device status It looks something like the following llustration 6 In the above example two devices X and Y axes are connected Each device shows the input output error status position velocity and whether the device is executing a command busy If no devices are detected for example because no serial port or the wrong serial port is selected then the Axis column will show all The Log Window When developing a GeckoMotion program it is sometimes useful to be able to observe the communication between the application and the devices The log window shown below can be displayed using View gt Log This shows not only the data communication but also other messages related to the operation of the GeckoMotion application Illustration 7 This example of the log window shows the typical messages which are output when the application is started In this case there are two drives connected X and Y The Auto Scroll button is a toggle When active the log will automatically scroll to keep the most recent message visible Otherwise you need to manually scroll The Clear button clears all messages from the log Compiling Source Code When all devices are connected as shown by the above status window you can compile the source code into instructions which are understood by the devices To do this use the following steps e Select th
13. der this is a list of folders which the compiler will search when locating library files You can select a row of this list and drag it around to re order the search order The Defaults button will reset the entire list to the normal default which is to search the project folder first then user then system wide locations You can hit the Add button to add a new folder to the list Target this specifies the target device type Currently only GM215 is available Log debug info or Log all communications If ON this logs all data sent between the application and the devices to the logging window or console You should only enable this if requested by technical support since it creates a continuous stream of messages in the log window Serial Port This selects the appropriate USB or serial port Since RS485 serial ports are basically indistinguishable at the PC software level you will see not only the RS485 adapter listed here but also the normal PC serial ports On Linux the serial ports are listed using the contents of dev serial by id If this does not locate the port possibly on older Linux versions then you can manually enter the device node name e g dev ttyUSBO On Windows serial ports are listed by traditional COMn name Select one which is denoted a USB port The serial port drop down list is populated dynamically each time it is popped down If there is any confusion over which port to s
14. e Requires axis CONFIGURE CONFIG yes ACCELERATION ACCEL yes VELOCITY VEL yes ANALOG INPUTS TO VECTOR AXIS IS VECTOR AXES ARE MOVING AVERAGE LIMIT CW yes POSITION ADJUST POSITION ADJ ZERO OFFSET OFFSET yes MOVE lt may be omitted implied gt yes HOME JOG yes SPEED CONTROL yes GOTO CALL RETURN RET IF WAIT OUT yes parameter clause Instruction parameters are generally numbers some with additional punctuation and parameter keywords These are listed with each individual instruction Instructions take zero or more parameters comment Any instruction may contain a recommended or style comment The start of a comment or the end of logical line terminates the preceding instruction on that line if any Instruction List The following list defines all the instructions currently accepted by GeckoMotion Some of the characters in the definition are not to be included literally they are used to clarify the syntax These metacharacters are Brackets indicate contents are optional 22 Ellipsis previous syntactic element may be repeated zero or more times Vertical bar separates alternatives Only one of the alternatives may be used italics A syntax variable construct For example decimal indicates a decimal unsigned integer Any other punctuation characters are literal Syntax Variables decimal lt range gt An unsigned decimal for example 123 or a macro substitution equating to an integ
15. e tab which contains the top level source e Press the Set Top button at top left This tells the compiler which file to start with This and the previous step only need to be performed once for each new project thereafter GeckoMotion remembers the top level source for that project e Press the Compile button second from top left If all goes well a green bar will appear in the source code This indicates the next instruction that will be executed by the devices If you do not see the green bar check the following e There might be errors in the source code or library which prevent compilation If the edit window is split with messages in the bottom section then there are errors You can click on a message line and the corresponding source line will be highlighted in yellow You can edit that line or any other code to fix the error then re compile e You might need to scroll the source window to bring the execution bar into view e Ifthe execution bar is not on the first instruction of the source the devices may have been executing a previous program and the execution position is at an unexpected point In this case you can press Start first button in Control section which will force the execution point to the first location e Ifyou do not want to start at the beginning you can put the edit cursor on any instruction line then press GoCsr The execution bar should move to that point Once the program com
16. eft hand toolbar DIP Switch settings use menu command Help gt DIP switch settings This window is a quick way of finding the correct switch settings on the drive hardware Menus and Toolbars There are two toolbars the top toolbar contains short cuts for file editing operations and the left toolbar controls program compilation and execution All of the toolbar buttons have a tool tip defined which will be shown if you hover the mouse over the toolbar button The top toolbar buttons from left to right listed as their menu equivalent are File gt New Ctrl N Create a new blank editor tab When you select that tab you can enter new code You will be prompted for a file name when saving that file File gt Open Ctrl O Open an existing file in a new tab File gt Save Ctrl S Save the current tab if edited File gt Save As Save the current tab giving the file a new name This creates a copy of the original file that was opened if any Any further edits on that tab apply to the new file Edit gt Undo Ctrl Z Undoes the most recent edit on the current tab There is an unlimited number of undo levels Edit gt Redo Ctrl Shift Z Redoes the last edit that was undone Edit gt Cut Ctrl X Cut currently selected text to clipboard Edit gt Copy Ctrl C Copy currently selected text to clipboard Edit gt Paste Ctrl V Paste clipboard to current cursor position Edit gt Find Ctrl F Pop up window which allows se
17. elect unplug the RS485 adapter from the USB drop down the list plug 1t back in then dropping down the list again should show a new entry Creating Source Code Once a new project is created you can create source code from scratch File gt New or open an existing file File gt Open A new editor tab will be created You will need to switch to that tab A new file tab remains untitled until it is saved The editor tab will allow entering of text using standard facilities including copy and paste The editor is set up to use syntax highlighting Tabs are set to 4 spaces which is the default for GeckoMotion source files It is recommended to name files with a gm extension both source files and libraries Although this is not mandatory it is most convenient since the File gt Open function looks for gm files by default The following shows some source being edited Illustration 5 The file being edited test io gm has a special marker on the tab a star on Linux which indicates that this is the top level source Some other library files are also open on adjacent tabs Connecting to the Devices When you select a serial port on the Settings panel GeckoMotion automatically connects to the selected port and the devices attached to it The Status button bottom left shows whether the connection was successful When connected that button will show as 1 READY where the number is the number of devi
18. er possibly negative lt range gt specifies the allowable numeric range for the parameter integer lt range gt A signed or unsigned decimal for example 20 10000 200000 or a macro substitution equating to an integer float lt range gt Floating point number for example 3 14 42 01 or a macro substitution equating to a floating point value axis Axis identifier X Y Z W or lower case label Label destination Instructions with Axis Specification axis MOVE decimal lt 0 274 1 gt axis decimal lt 0 274 1 gt The MOVE instruction may be repeated up to 4 times on the line separated by commas as indicated above Also uniquely the MOVE opcode may be omitted Note that the sign is significant If present a or sign indicates a relative move Otherwise the move is absolute When using the relative offset form the range is reduced to 22 2 1 axis ZERO OFFSET integer axis VELOCITY decimal lt 1 273 1 gt axis ACCELERATION decimal lt 1 2 1 gt axis SPEED CONTROL integer lt 273 273 1 gt axis CONFIGURE float lt 0 7 0 gt AMPS IDLE AT decimal lt 0 100 gt AFTER float lt 0 25 5 gt SECONDS axis LIMIT CW decimal lt 0 2 1 gt axis POSITION ADJUST decimal lt 0 2 1 gt axis OUT 1 23 OFFION BR RS JOG axis axis HOME axis axis 23 Instructions Applying to All Axes GOTO label LOOP decimal lt 0 255 gt TIMES CALL label RETURN I
19. file name of the current project s top level source file e Library search order This list box allows definition of the order in which folders are searched for library source Each entry is either a folder name or is one of the special symbols 14 e project indicates the current project folder used for library files which are unique to the current project e userlib folder containing library source common to all current user s projects e stdlibj folder containing system wide and installation default libraries Currently there are no installed libraries however future versions of GeckoMotion may define some as experience is accumulated You can change the order of library search by dragging rows of the table however it is recommended to at least keep the default ordering of project userlib stdlib e Target This menu button allows selection of the target device Currently there is only one choice which is GM215 e Log all communications This toggle switch controls whether a detailed communication log should be kept Normally this should be OFF to prevent filling the log with needless detail e Serial port This drop down menu allows selection of the hardware communications port This should be selected as the port with the RS485 converter Unfortunately since RS485 converters are indistinguishable from ordinary RS232 adapters it is necessary to manually select the correct port The menu is populated with
20. he colon on the logical line except possibly whitespace and a comment A label must start with an alphabetic character a z or A Z or underscore _ Subsequent characters may also include digits 0 9 Examples triangle Triangle lt these are distinct labels Labels are case sensitive 18 _fooBar alpha 987 All of the above labels equate to the same instruction address since there are no instructions between them goto elsewher Uses of labels in instructions hither call yon Instructions Instructions specify code to be executed at run time A single instruction specifies 1 to 4 program locations A total of 65 536 program locations are available in the GM215 If a program specifies more than this many program locations the code will not compile Most instructions consume a single program location however the MOVE HOME and JOG instructions will consume as many locations as there are axes specified in that instruction It is recommended to indent the start of each instruction by a single tab or four spaces The instruction must fit on a single logical line and must not be followed on the same line by anything except an optional comment or whitespace Available instructions and their syntax are listed in appendix A Library Import Long programs may be separated into separate files Each GeckoMotion project may have an arbitrary number of source files One of t
21. he source files is designated as the top level source by selecting its editor tab then pressing the Set Top button The top level source is marked with a special icon on its editor tab Any source file in the project or mentioned in the import directive other than the top level source file is considered to be a library file Library files and top level source files use identical syntax and have exactly the same ability to specify program code When the Compile button is pressed GeckoMotion starts compiling the top level source file That file may contain import directives The import directive specifies a library file name and when encountered by the compiler the compiler starts processing the specified file At the end of the imported library file the compiler returns to the top level source file and continues processing it Library files may themselves contain import directives for yet other library files The compiler processes these in the same manner as for the top level file Most import directives will use the as name clause This creates a unique name space for any labels which are defined in the library file Without this a label in the library file which happens to be the same as a label in the top level source file will cause a compiler error Using as name avoids any such possible conflict Another difference between using as name or not is that the compiler handles generated code bloc
22. in window is used to define project settings as well as open and create new projects In the GeckoMotion application each project is defined as a unique file system folder Each project folder contains the settings for that project as well as usually the source files that are unique to that project Library files may or may not reside in the project folder Library files which are shared between several projects are usually stored in a separate folder From top to bottom of the settings tab the following functions are described e Project Settings This is a toolbar with the following buttons Create new project folder This opens up a folder creation dialog In this dialog enter the name of the project in the Name field This will be used as the name of the project and a folder with the same name will be created There is also a Create Folder button but this only needs to be used to create another level of folders not the new project folder itself Open project folder This opens an existing project Close project This closes the current project and opens the default project It is recommended not to use the default project but create a new named project immediately e Current This is a drop down menu containing a list of the most recent projects including the current one listed in order of time of last use This is a convenient way to switch between the most recently used projects e Top level source Gives the complete
23. ks slightly differently If as name is used then code blocks are not emitted until the end of the top level source is reached Otherwise any instructions encountered in the library file are emitted at the point where the import directive is encountered The typical use for a library and the corresponding import directive is to separate some commonly used code into a single library file which can be re used over several different projects For example the initialization code for motor driver parameters limit configuration etc is always the same for any given hardware setup It is thus simpler and less error prone to put all such constant settings in say a 19 subroutine in a library file then import the library file for each project which needs it Here is an example In the library file named setup gm xconfig x configure 5 5 amps idle at 71 after 2 5 seconds x limit cw 12000000 x acceleration 8192 x velocity 1000 256 return In the top level file named top gm import setup gm as setup start call setup xconfig rest of code follows Since the as setup clause was added to the import directive all labels in the library file must be prefixed with setup In this example a subroutine called xconfig was defined Since this is defined in the library file the top level source must refer to it in qualified form setup xconfig This allows for same named labels i
24. n the top level source without introducing any ambiguity If the above top level source was changed to the following import setup gm lt no as clause start call xconfig lt qualification removed rest of code follows then this would be quite different In this case the compiler would insert the subroutine contents at the point of importation as if the top level was coded as follows xconfig x configure 5 5 amps idle at 71 after 2 5 seconds x limit cw 12000000 x acceleration 8192 x velocity 1000 256 return start call xconfig lt qualification removed rest of code follows This is not desirable since the code in xconfig would be run through unexpectedly and encounter a return without a corresponding call When the as setup clause is used the xconfig routine is automatically placed at the end of code Both styles of using import directives have their use but it is important to understand the difference If in doubt always use the as name clause since it prevents unexpected code sequencing and protects labels from inadvertent conflict Note that any macro definitions encountered in library files will be processed when they are encountered by the compiler Thus you can define macros in a library file and the results of the macros will be available in the top level source immediately after the import directive Only execu
25. older for all GeckoMotion projects then enter the new project name in the top field The base folder mentioned above is platform dependent On Linux the default is geckomotion Projects however you might have to manually create this folder if it does not exist On Windows this directory will normally be something like userYAppDataYLocalYProgramsYgeckomotionYprojects however the exact location depends on platform and installation options Unless there is a good reason otherwise it is recommended to place all project folders under this same base folder The project folder will be created automatically when you hit the OK button There is no need to use the Create Folder button unless you want additional folder levels When you hit OK the following window may appear Illustration 4 You can safely ignore this error for now 1f it appears It just indicates that the default RS485 device node or COM port is not available After returning from the new folder selection the Settings panel will be filled in with some values Current this drop down menu will contain the complete folder name of the new project Other projects will also be included in the menu if any in order of most recent use You can quickly switch between projects by selecting from this menu Top Level Source this will be lt none gt for a new project until you create or open a source file and set it to top level Library search or
26. ows versions are almost certain to just work Linux Requirements Most fairly recent Linux distributions will already include Python 2 7 and a Python binding for GTK 3 with Object Introspection GeckoMotion was primarily developed on Ubuntu 12 04 GeckoMotion is currently a pure Python program so it can be installed using the standard setup py method Recent Linux distributions will support a USB RS485 adapter out of the box Serial communications are mediated via the Python serial module Windows Installation Because Windows does not automatically come with the Python 2 7 interpreter and GTK 3 there are two Windows installers One of the installers the large one includes Python and GTK 3 The other installer does not so it is much smaller The installers obtained from www geckodrive com have the following naming convention e geckomotion major win32 setup exe Full large install e geckomotion major minor win32 setup exe Upgrade small install major is the major version number currently this is 1 minor is the minor version number currently 0 25 If you have Python and GTK 3 installed already or you previously installed from the larger GeckoMotion installer with the same major version number you can use the smaller installer In general use the full installer the first time or when upgrading to a larger major version which should be infrequent Otherwise it is much faster to use the upgrade ins
27. piles without errors and the execution bar is at the expected position you can proceed to run and test the program Testing Your Program Note that unlike conventional compilers GeckoMotion allows you to recompile at any time and run from any location Just remember that the devices may be executing at an old location so you might need to use GoCsr to get to the appropriate point where you are testing This saves a lot of time when developing code because you are not compelled to start from the beginning of the program each time When using GoCsr try to avoid jumping directly into subroutines If a RETURN instruction is encountered without a corresponding CALL the devices will not know where to return to which will cause incorrect code execution Similar consideration applies to GOTO LOOP instructions When testing your program you can use the following features buttons on left hand side e Start abandon current test and reset execution point to first instruction e GoCsr move the next location to execute to the cursor line in the editor panel e Step execute the instruction with the green execution bar and stop at the next instruction in 10 normal sequence e Next similar to Step except stops on the next instruction in textual sequence This means that Next on a CALL instruction will execute all the way through the called subroutine and only stop when the subroutine returns Similarly for GOTO LOOP instr
28. ro is not itself a set of GM215 instructions however it may be used to generate instructions define program constants or perform arbitrary actions at compilation time This is potentially an advanced feature however there are some simple use cases which are valuable for writing maintainable and reasonably flexible code A macro is introduced by a triple open brace mark and ends with a matching triple close brace Q Inside these markers you may write arbitrary Python code The Python code will be executed when the GeckoMotion compiler encounters them while scanning the source code The brace markers must appear on a line by themselves with the possible exception of a comment Here is a simple example showing how to define program constants RE x start 0 y start 0 x size 500 y size 950 2 x size 13 draw_rect x x start y y start x x size y y size x x size y y_size The macro definition inside triple braces defines four constants which in this case define the coordinates of the start of a rectangular motion and the size of the rectange The size of the y axis is defined by a complex expression The value of the constants is later used via the single brace expression evaluation The term constant is a misnomer in fact these are all Python variables which are being defined It is possible that the values could be changed by a subsequent macro definition A macro definition may al
29. rol Most of these buttons are not enabled until the current project has compiled without errors Start F4 Move the execution point so that the first instruction of the program will be executed next Go Csr Ctrl G Move the execution point to the instruction where the cursor is in the current tab Be careful when directly moving the execution point using this command If you move into e Device a subroutine then the drives will not know the proper return address so that when the RETURN instruction is encountered the drive will flag an error In this case you will need to use EStop to reset all drives to a valid state Step F8 Execute the next instruction If that instruction is a CALL then the execution point will be at the start of that subroutine Next Ctrl F8 Execute the next instruction If that instruction is a CALL then the entire subroutine will be executed before stopping at the instruction immediately following the CALL Run F9 Execute instructions continuously until Stop or Pause or a breakpoint or error is encountered As the devices execute instructions the green bar which shows the instruction being executed will animate so that you can see which instructions are being executed Stop Ctrl Q Stop at the end of the currently executing instruction allowing it to complete normally Pause This is a toggle button which will temporarily halt execution of the current instruction if one is executing
30. so provide a name for the macro This name is only significant for identifying the location of error messages To name a macro definition provide the alphanumeric name after and on the same line as the open triple brace my macro Python code inf 1 0 13 The above example names the macro my macro A deliberate error is coded in the macro namely a division by zero This would cause the compiler to halt with an exception when attempting to run this macro The macro name will assist with identifying the location of the error which becomes more important with complex code spread over several files Simple Substitutions The above example showed use of simple substitutions Substitutions may be used in place of any numeric parameter in a normal GM215 instruction Substitutions are delimited by single brace 17 characters and The content inside the braces is interpreted as a Python expression This may be arbitrarily complex however it is recommended to limit these to simple mathematical expressions possibly involving constants functions or variables defined in a previous macro definition Here is a slightly more complex example EN import math radius 10000 move to circumference at 60 degrees x int math cos math pi 3 radius y int math sin math pi 3 radius Here the macro uses the Python import directive to call in the mathematical functions module don t confuse this with
31. table code blocks are possibly deferred to the end of the top level source 20 Standard Library Folders When an import directive is encountered by the compiler it searches for the specified library file in a number of standard folders The folders and their search order may be specified in the project settings By default the order of search is e The project folder for the current project e The user specific standard library folder e The system wide standard folder Except for the project folder the actual location of the standard library folders is platform dependent As a general rule create new libraries in the project folder if the library is specific to just that project If the library becomes more general and would be useful for multiple projects it may be moved to the user or system folder To do this use your normal operating system services to move the file or you can use File gt SaveAs followed by deletion of the original Standard Libraries The following library should be imported at the top of the top level source import usrlib gm This library does not generate any GM215 code but it contains some basic macro definitions that are assumed to exist by other libraries and are useful in generating code in a maintainable and flexible manner Note that this is one exception to the general rule that import directives should use the as name clause Since usrlib gm does not generate any code or labels b
32. tall To install with either version simply run the installer as a program Windows may ask about letting an unknown publisher s software run If so respond with OK Follow the prompts to install the software as required When complete there will be a new entry in the Windows Start menu called geckomotion You can run either the normal GeckoMotion application or a special version which provides some additional information on a Windows command console You only need to use the console version if requested by Gecko Drive technical support Linux Installation Coming soon Preparing GM215 Devices Before powering up the GM215 device s take the following steps e Start GeckoMotion look ahead to that section first if required e From the main menu select Help gt DIP Switch Settings e On the GM215 DIP Switch Settings pop up window select the Motion Control Mode tab e Select the appropriate axis X Y Z or W in that order by device e Check the Program Mode checkbox Select the NEMA motor frame size from the drop down menu e Set the physical DIP switches on the device to the settings shown in the window e Repeat for other axes if required The pop up window should appear something like this llustration 1 Note that DIP switches 6 10 are only used to set motor current in Motor Drive Mode They are ignored in Motion Control Mode in this mode the motor current is set dynamically using the CONFIGURE command If
33. the current list of ports as known by the system whenever the menu is displayed If you are not sure which port to select physically unplug the USB port with the RS485 converter show the list plug it back in show the list again and select the port which appeared the second time the list was displayed Writing Source Code the Text Editor Each editor tab except for the settings and assembly listing tabs is a full featured text editor The editor accepts all the usual commands including copy and paste It is set up to use syntax highlighting The editor has the following settings e Tabs are set to 4 spaces e Line numbers are listed on the left hand side e Break point markers if any are shown in the leftmost column after the line numbers e The current execution point when running a program is shown as a green highlight over the entire line e Compilation errors which are identified with a particular source line are shown as a yellow highlight on the line but only when the error message is selected Compiler error messages appear in a list panel at the bottom of the main window if the compiler detects any syntax or other errors Clicking on the error message shows the source location of the error GeckoMotion Source gm Syntax A GeckoMotion program is a sequence of instructions which is executed on one or more GM215 drives Each instruction is coded on a single logical line A logical line is a sequence of characters termin
34. uctions in which case the remainder of the loop iterations is performed without stopping e Run continue executing until Stop is pressed or a breakpoint is encountered When running the execution point in the program is continually updated If the device is executing a long running instruction such as a move or wait you can see which instruction is running e Stop stop execution of a Run or Next as soon as the devices complete the current instruction e Breakpoint sets a breakpoint at the edit cursor location If there is already a breakpoint there it is cleared Whenever the device is executing instructions it will always stop before executing an instruction with a breakpoint e Clear All clears out all current breakpoints When you edit code and recompile usually any breakpoints you set including those in libraries will remain on the same line If you directly edit a line that has a breakpoint then the breakpoint may be shifted to an adjacent line or you may end up with multiple breakpoints on a line When you recompile this is all cleaned up however you should confirm that breakpoints are on the expected lines Writing Your Program to Device ROM When satisfied with a program you can burn that program to all attached devices This means that the program can be executed autonomously on the devices without requiring a PC to be attached The program is written to the devices when the Flash button is pressed
35. ut only macros there is no need to use as name Future releases of the GeckoMotion application may provide more standard libraries as experience is gained Instruction Set For a detailed description of the GeckoMotion instruction set refer to the GM215 Instruction Set Manual Appendix A Instruction Syntax This appendix defines the syntax to be used when writing GM215 instructions General Rules and Instruction Parts The general form of an instruction is axis opcode parameter clause comment An instruction must be coded on a single logical line It may be prefixed with white space a single tab or 4 spaces is recommended All components are optional except that at least one must be given axis Some instructions target a single axis In this case the axis specification defines the target axis 21 Otherwise the axis is not specified and the instruction applies to all attached axes The axis is specified as X Y Z or W or their lowercase equivalents opcode All instructions specify an opcode except for the MOVE instruction where the MOVE opcode is implicit Opcodes are one of the defined set of keywords These are not case sensitive so LIMIT Limit and limit all mean the same thing Some opcodes are multiple word like ZERO OFFSET In this case any whitespace may be used to separate the words The defined opcodes with allowed abbreviations and alternatives are Keyword Abbreviation Alternativ
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