FlexMotion 5.0 Release Notes
Contents
1. VI Function Description Initialize Controller flex_initialize New VI function replaces all previous _controller initialization mechanisms applies configuration settings from MAX to your controller Configure Buffer flex_configure_ New VI function allows you to set up a buffer on buffer your FlexMotion controller Write Buffer flex_write_ New VI function after a buffer has been buffer configured this VI function allows you to write to the buffer Read Buffer flex _read_ New VI function after data is written to a buffer buffer this VI function reads the data Check Buffer flex _check_ New V I function this VI function provides buffer information about the state of the buffer and how many points have been written to or read from the buffer Clear Buffer flex _clear_ New VI function clears a buffer from RAM buffer Set Breakpoint flex_set_ Allows you to specify an input vector the VI has Output MOMO breakpoint_momo a new terminal and the new function replaces flex_set_bp_momo National Instruments Corporation 3 FlexMotion Version 5 0 Table 1 FlexMotion VI and Function Changes and Additions Continued VI Function Description Set Operation Mode flex_set_op_ Existing VI function enhanced with two additional mode operation modes for contouring Configure flex_configure_ New VI function replaces Set High Speed Capture High Speed Capture hs _ capture Polari2. FlexMotion controllers and their respective bus types are listed in Table 2 Table 2 FlexMotion Series Motion Controllers Controller Bus Type PXI 7344 PXI CompactPCI PCI 7344 PCI FW 7344 IEEE 1394 PCI FlexMotion 6C PCI PC FlexMotion 6C ISA Windows 2000 Me 98 only The FlexMotion 5 0 software is compatible with Windows 2000 NT Me 9x Compatibility Issues If you have previously developed programs using the FlexMotion VI Library and or Software 4 5 you should read this section If you are a first time user of FlexMotion skip this section This section describes the compatibility of FlexMotion 5 0 with earlier versions of FlexMotion For FlexMotion 5 0 to work you must have version 5 0 firmware or later on your FlexMotion controller Refer to the MAX online help for information on updating your FlexMotion controller firmware Your VIs developed with FlexMotion 4 5 will continue to work with FlexMotion 5 0 but National Instruments recommends you update them to take advantage of the new features in version 5 0 Refer to the Changes to VIs and Functions section of this document for a list of new and changed VIs Error Code Changes Affecting C LabWindows CVI and Visual Basic Users As part of the FlexMotion 5 0 Software release the error codes returned by the functions in the FlexMotion DLL have been changed This change gives you better integration with other National Instruments products
3. This change moves the error codes to the 70000 to 79999 and 70000 to 79999 range with 0 remaining the value for no error As always you should National Instruments Corporation 5 FlexMotion Version 5 0 use the predefined symbolic names found in the MotnErr h and MotnErr bas header files A list of these symbolic names can be found in the FlexMotion Software Reference Online Help You must recompile existing applications that directly compare return values from a function call to a specific error code These comparisons will no longer work correctly and your application will not respond as expected If you cannot recompile your applications do not install FlexMotion 5 0 Software If your code only uses the constant NIMC_noError to check for the presence of errors you do not need to recompile Converting LabVIEW Applications Using Earlier FlexMotion Vis The 4 5 release of the FlexMotion VIs provided a way to convert older LabVIEW applications to use the improved error handling features of the new VI set This method of converting user applications is no longer supported by LabVIEW and the 5 0 release of the FlexMotion VIs You have three options if you have applications written with the FlexMotion VIs 4 0 or older and want to upgrade to the FlexMotion 5 0 VIs e You can install the compatibility libraries that contain all the older VIs e You can rewrite your applications using the new VIs e You can first install the Fle
4. RELEASE NOTES pO INSTRUMENTS FiexMotion 5 0 FlexMotion 5 0 is the motion control software and VIs for interfacing with all National Instruments FlexMotion series motion controllers UN Caution If you have developed motion control systems using a previous version of FlexMotion you may need to recompile your code before it will work correctly with FlexMotion 5 0 Refer to the Compatibility Issues section of this document for more information These release notes discuss compatibility issues describe how to install FlexMotion 5 0 and related hardware and summarize changes and improvements associated with this version Topics include e FlexMotion 5 0 Contents e Changes and Improvements e Controllers e Compatibility Issues e FlexMotion Software Installation e Hardware Installation e Using the Online Manuals FlexMotion 5 0 Contents FlexMotion VI Library 5 0 is the motion control software for interfacing with all National Instruments FlexMotion series motion controllers using the National Instruments LabVIEW and LabVIEW DSC visual development environments The FlexMotion VI Library 5 0 is compatible with LabVIEW version 5 1 or later and LabVIEW DSC version 2 0 or later FlexMotion Software 5 0 is the motion control software for interfacing with all National Instruments FlexMotion series motion controllers using C LabWindows CVI or Visual Basic development platforms CVI FlexMotion LabVIEW and ni co
5. e FlexMotion directory To install the ServoTune application run setup exe from the Disk1 subfolder If you install the FlexMotion VI Library 5 0 you do not need to install ServoTune The tuning VIs are included on the FlexMotion LabVIEW function palette You will need to manually enter the PID parameters you established in ServoTune into the PID configuration panel in MAX To access the PID configuration panel 1 Expand the Devices and Interfaces category in the configuration tree 2 Expand the device and default initialization settings items 3 Select Axis Settings from the configuration tree and select Control Loop from beneath the configuration view 4 Use the slides and numerical edit boxes to enter you PID parameters The serial number for the ServoTune application which you need during installation is 45m45454 Software Updates You can find FlexMotion 5 0 updates and patches by visiting ni com motion and clicking on Drivers amp Downloads National Instruments Corporation 7 FlexMotion Version 5 0 Hardware Installation If this is the first time that you have installed the FlexMotion software on your computer then complete the following steps to install your FlexMotion series motion controller A Note Refer to Chapter 2 Configuration and Installation of your motion controller hardware user manual if you need additional hardware installation and handling instructions PCI PXI FW Installation Comple
6. ectively With the FlexMotion VIs marked as reentrant they cannot be debugged and the front panel of an open VI will not reflect the values last sent to it If you need to debug a FlexMotion VI with your application you can temporarily uncheck the Reentrant Execution box in the VI setup options Contouring allows you to create any arbitrary motion profile You specify an array of positions that are a specified interval apart in milliseconds Your FlexMotion controller then uses a cubic spline algorithm to smoothly interpolate between the contour positions For more information on contouring refer to the FlexMotion VI or function online help 2 www ni com Expanded Example Set Limit Filters Several programming examples have been added to the 13 examples in the previous release of the FlexMotion VI Library You can find these examples in examples Motion FlexMotion Onboard llb under the LabVIEW Open VI option You can find C and Visual Basic examples in c Program Files National Instruments Motion FlexMotion Examples In FlexMotion 5 0 the limit and home inputs must be active for at least 1 ms to guarantee it will be recognized instead of the 20 us filter in the previous version of FlexMotion This digital filter is always enabled and can not be disabled Changes to Vis and Functions The VIs and functions in Table 1 have been added to or changed in FlexMotion 5 0 Table 1 FlexMotion VI and Function Changes and Additions
7. entation is shipped with your software as Adobe Acrobat portable document format PDF files The software documentation is also installed as a Windows online help file Sy Note If you do not already have Acrobat Reader version 4 0 or later installed on your system you can install it from the FlexMotion Software CD Run the rs40eng exe file found in the CD s Other Adobe Acrobat Win32 directory To view the installed PDF documents click on the Start button on the Windows taskbar and select Programs National Instruments Motion FlexMotion Software 5 0 and then the document that you wish to view This automatically launches the Acrobat Reader and opens the selected PDF file You can assemble your own printed manuals printing either the entire documentation set or just the sections relevant to your application Click on any entry in the table of contents to jump directly to the corresponding manual page You can jump to major sections within each document quickly and easily by clicking on the bookmarks When you choose the View Go To Page option or are printing pages you must use the page numbers in the lower left corner of the Acrobat window not the number displayed in the bottom center of each manual page or listed in the contents and index Acrobat assigns consecutive numbers to each page throughout the document and displays the page number The numbers may not match those shown at the bottom center of each manual page National Inst
8. m are trademarks of National Instruments Corporation Product and company names mentioned herein are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies 322284C 01 Copyright 1998 2000 National Instruments Corp All rights reserved July 2000 Changes and Improvements There are several changes and improvements to the FlexMotion VI Library and Software functions that make them easier to use and expand their functionality Code you have created and validated in the past still works with FlexMotion 5 0 A broad description of changes made in version 5 0 follows Measurement amp Automation Explorer Motion control is now integrated into the National Instruments global configuration utility Measurement amp Automation Explorer MAX You can set static motion parameters in the configuration panels which reduces your programming tasks to a simple Initialization call and motion control application development MAX for motion also includes an interactive environment that allows you to interactively test your motion configuration and view single or multi axis movement in plot graphs Reentrant LabVIEW FlexMotion Vis Contouring FlexMotion Version 5 0 The FlexMotion VIs are now all reentrant allowing LabVIEW to simultaneously execute two instances of the same VI on seperate processors in a multi processor system running Windows 2000 NT Even on a single processor computer multiple instances of a VI can be time sliced more eff
9. ruments Corporation 9 FlexMotion Version 5 0 322284C 01 Juloo
10. te the following steps to install your PCI PXI FW motion controller 1 Shut down your computer 2 Ifyou are installing a PCI or PXI controller install the controller in an available slot in your computer If you are installing the FW 7344 connect the controller to your computer s EEE 1394 port 3 Restart your computer 4 Click on the Start button on your Windows 2000 NT Me 9x taskbar and select Programs National Instruments Measurement amp Automation to launch MAX Expand the Devices and Interfaces category in the configuration tree and select your installed FlexMotion controller MAX automatically assigns the first available board ID to your controller 5 Press F1 or select Help Help Topics NI Motion to view the online help for MAX The online help contains complete information on verifying your configuration testing the installed FlexMotion controller and downloading new firmware Your PCI PXI FW motion controller is successfully installed ISA Installation PC FlexMotion 6C Only For ISA installation instructions refer to the online help topic Adding Your Motion Controller in MAX To access MAX online help for Motion click the Start button on your Windows task bar and select Programs National Instruments Measurement amp Automation Next select Help Help Topics NI Motion Motion Configuration Help from the MAX menu FlexMotion Version 5 0 8 www ni com Using the Online Manuals The FlexMotion docum
11. ty and flex_set_hs_ cap pol You can now choose six configurations including digital input on 7344 family FlexMotion controllers Enable High Speed Capture flex enable hs_ capture New VI function replaces Enable High Speed Position Capture and flex_enable_hs caps Enable Breakpoint flex_enable_ New VI function replaces Enable Breakpoint and Output breakpoint flex_enable_bp and allows you to enable or disable a breakpoint without having to set the breakpoint configuration parameters Configure flex_configure_ New V I function contains the configuration Breakpoint breakpoint parameters previously located in the Enable Breakpoint VI function Select Signal flex_select_ Existing VI function has new options for routing signal encoder and index signals over RTSI making cross board synchronization easier Wait for Move Does not apply Existing VIs the default timeouts have changed Complete to equivalent from 1 000 ms 1 s to 10 000 ms 10 s Wait for Blend functions Complete Read I O Port flex_read_port Existing VIs functions the Real Time Systems Set I O Port Polarity flex_set_port_ Integration RTSI port has changed from port 5 to Set I O Port MOMO momo port 9 Your older VIs and programs that use port 5 flex set _port_ pol will still work with this release but will cease to function with the next release FlexMotion Version 5 0 4 www ni com Controllers The
12. xMotion 4 5 VIs and go through the conversion process and then install the FlexMotion 5 0 VIs To learn more about the conversion process refer to the FlexMotion VIs 4 5 Release Notes The FlexMotion VI Library works with LabVIEW versions 5 1 and later If you have an older version of LabVIEW contact National Instruments for an upgrade FlexMotion Software Installation FlexMotion Version 5 0 Install the FlexMotion software before installing a FlexMotion series motion controller for the first time If you are upgrading from a previous version of the FlexMotion software you do not need to remove your FlexMotion controller before installing the upgrade Your existing Windows configuration settings are not affected by the upgrade 6 www ni com Complete the following steps to install your FlexMotion software 1 Insert the NI Motion 5 0 CD into your CD ROM drive The CD will automatically show the NI Motion installation screen 2 Click FlexMotion 5 0 Installation and then choose the Install option Follow the installer prompts through the rest of the installation 4 Refer to the ReadMe txt file after the installation is complete for last minute information not contained in this document or the FlexMotion online help The FlexMotion software you selected is installed FlexMotion ServoTune The FlexMotion ServoTune application for tuning servo motors is provided free of charge on your NI Motion 5 0 CD in the Other ServoTun
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