This file describes needed steps to update configurations from 2.2.x to 2.3 1. Classicladder changes Default input and output pins change from 50 to 15 each. s32 now uses %IW0 for in and %QW0 for out. 2. RS274NGC_STARTUP_CODE should be in the [RS274NGC] section. This file describes needed steps to update configurations to 2.2.x ============================================================================= ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- I. Upgrading configurations from 2.1.x to 2.2.x ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. m5i20 encoder changes The m5i20 "encoder" pins now match the HAL canonical encoder interface. The -cnt-latch, -pos-latch, -idx-latch, and -latch-index pins have been removed. The standard encoder pin -index-enable has been added. The behavior of the -position and -count pins now match the HAL canonical interface. 2. pluto_servo changes Most pins and parameters on pluto-servo were changed to use dots instead of dashes, in accordance with the HAL canonical naming conventions. For example, 'pluto-servo.encoder-0-velocity' has been renamed to 'pluto-servo.encoder.0.velocity' and 'pluto-servo.dout-00-invert' has been renamed to 'pluto-servo.dout.00-invert'. 3. stepgen and freqgen changes The units for steplen, stepspace, dirsetup, and dirhold have been changed from BASE_PERIOD units to nanosecond units. Internally, the values given are rounded up to a multiple of BASE_PERIOD, and at runtime the parameters are changed to display the rounded up value. Freqgen has been deprecated and replaced by stepgen, which now has an additional command line argument 'ctrl_mode', which can be used to specify position mode (the default) or velocity mode. Position mode is the default, and works the same as before. Velocity mode accepts a velocity command, and works like freqgen. In step modes 0 and 1, setting stepspace to 0 will allow "step" (or "up/down") to be asserted on every invocation of make-pulses. Use a stepspace value of 1 to signify "the smallest nonzero stepspace". 4. double-linking of pins is now treated as an error halcmd and hal_link() now refuse to link an already-linked pin. This immediately diagnoses configuration errors of the form net limit-switch parport.0.pin-26-in => axis.0.neg-lim-sw-in axis.0.pos-lim-sw-in net home-switch parport.0.pin-26-in => axis.0.home-sw-in which have the effect of leaving no pin driving the limit switch inputs. If the "re-link" behavior is truly desired, add "unlinkp" commands before the new link. It is still permitted for "unlinkp" to be used on an unconnected pin. 5. The 'counter' component is deprecated The 'counter' component is deprecated. For a one-phase, unidirectional counter, use the 'encoder' component with encoder.X.counter-mode=TRUE. The version in 'encoder' has superior velocity estimation. 6. Homing changes The homing algorithm has been changed to be "level sensitive" instead of "edge sensitive". This eliminates some possible "miss the switch and go to the end of travel" errors on machines with flakey switches. However, it will cause homing to fail on some machines that might have worked before. This can happen if the following conditions are true: 1. The home switch does not remain on from the point that it trips till the end of axis travel 2. Homing speed is high and/or decel rate is low, so that the machine will overshoot the switch when it hits it during homing. If the machine ends up on the far side of the switch during homing, it will stop with an error message. Machines that can wind up "on the far side" of the home switch are considered to have defective switches. If you ever attempt to home while on the wrong side of the switch, it will run to the end of the axis. There is NO possible software solution to that scenario - the proper solution is a home switch that remains on all the way to the end of the axis. With such a switch, EMC2's homing algorithm will always work. 7. connect motion.spindle-speed-in for Feed Per Revolution (G95) mode The new pin motion.spindle-speed-in must be connected for Feed Per Revolution (G95) to work. The value connected must be a revolutions per second value. Depending on the machine, this can be a feedback velocity from the encoder or a commanded velocity loopback. If using a loopback, the output value which is in revolutions per minute must be multiplied by .0167 with a gain component to convert to RPS. 8. setp requires 2 arguments, 3 given Additional error checking is now done in halcmd, so that giving too many arguments causes an error message to be printed. In 2.1 and earlier, these extra arguments were ignored. Note that this is the number of arguments that are present after the expansion of inifile references, such as setp example.scale [AXIS_0]INPUT_SCALE which might expand to to setp example.scale 32000 0 in this case, the fix is to modify the inifile to remove the second number "0" from the INPUT_SCALE. This second value is no longer used anywhere in emc2. 9. .var file changes The .var file has been extended to require coordinate system offsets for U, V and W axes. Copy a fresh .var file. An incorrect var file leads to emc printing 'emc/task/emctask.cc 312: interp_error: Coordinate system index parameter 5220 out of range' at startup. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- II. Upgrading configurations from 2.0.x to 2.1.x ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please review the following list if you plan to update a configuration from emc2.0.x to 2.1.x. It is not needed if you start with a new configuration based on the sample configs supplied with this version of emc2. 1. emc.nml The emc.nml file has been heavily revised. Unless you made your own changes to emc.nml, simply make a fresh copy. If you made your own changes, then you'll have to apply them to emc.nml manually. 2. kinematics Now a separate kinematics module must be loaded before MOTMOD, as shown below: core_sim.hal: + loadrt trivkins 3. spindle control The HAL pins for spindle control have been renamed to reflect the fact that they are controlled by the realtime 'motion' component, and not by the userspace 'iocontrol' component. change 'iocontrol.0.spindle-speed-out' with 'motion.spindle-speed-out' 4. halcmd "loadusr -W" replaces wait-for-pin and sleep In 2.0 there was no way to wait for a userspace component to create its pins. The "wait-for-pin" program (which took a pin name as an argument) was added and then removed during the 2.1 development cycle. Now, the correct way to wait for a userspace component is "loadusr -W ...". This requires that the component call hal_ready() after it has created all its pins and is ready for use. If the executable name and the component name differ, use "halcmd loadusr -W -n component-name". 5. inifile units Instead of specifying [AXIS_*]UNITS as a decimal number, specify [TRAJ]LINEAR_UNITS and [TRAJ]ANGULAR_UNITS as unit names, including "inch", "mm", "degree", and "radian". The old [AXIS_*]UNITS syntax is still supported, however. 6. "HAL: WARNING: blocks is deprecated, please use the subcomponents generated by 'comp' instead" In emc 2.1, a new tool called "comp" makes it easy to create HAL components. All the items that are in the 'blocks' module have been broken into separate modules such as 'ddt', 'wcomp', and so on. No corrective action is needed at this time, because 'blocks' will still be present in the 2.1 series. However, it may be removed in the 2.2 series, and changes to HAL files will be required at that time. If you wish to silence this warning, then change a line like loadrt blocks ddt=6 wcomp=6 to loadrt ddt count=6 loadrt wcomp count=6 7. elimination of "period" from most HAL components In version 2.0.x, many HAL components would accept a command line argument "period" (or "periodfp", or other variations on that theme). When "period" was specified, the component would create a realtime thread running at the specified period. This capability was _not_ used in normal EMC configurations; it was mostly used for testing. (In a normal EMC configuration, the servo and base periods are passed to motmod and it creates the threads.) In version 2.1, the period argument has been removed from all HAL components. 'motmod' still creates the threads for EMC, and none of the sample configurations should need to be changed. For other applications such as testing, etc., there is now a component called "threads" which can create up to three threads. To create a thread, use loadrt threads name1= period1= To create more than one, use name2, period2, and name3, period3. By default, "threads" creates floating point capable threads. If you don't need floating point, you can specify "fp1=0" (or fp2=0 or fp3=0) to turn off floating point support for one or more threads. Disabling floating point support might save a microsecond or so, and is commonly done for the "fast" thread for software encoder counting and step pulse or PWM generation. 8. elimination of s8, u8, s16, u16 HAL types The number of HAL types has been reduced. "newsig" commands which formerly used one of those types should be converted to the corresponding 32-bit type, s32 or u32. 9. hal_ppmc uses ns units for setup-time, pulse-width, and pulse-space; pins renamed Instead of being specified in units of 100ns, these values (now named setup-time-ns, etc) are in units of 1ns. 10. the pin axis.N.index-pulse-in has been renamed to axis.N.index-enable The name of the pin used for indexing (homing to index pulse) has been changed to be more descriptive and to match the canonical encoder interface. 11. the meaning of the 'comp.N.hyst' parameter has changed In emc 2.0.x, the output of the comparator would not change until the difference between the inputs exceeded the hysteresis parameter, giving an effective hysteresis of double the parameter. Now, the output will change when the difference exceeds hyst/2. This more closely matches the [usual definition of hysteresis]. Existing users of the 'comp' block must change (double) the value of the 'comp.N.hyst' parameter. 12. the connection to the lathe's spindle encoder has changed In the preliminary lathe threading support in 2.0 versions, a "not" block was needed to connect the motion controller to the spindle encoder's index-enable pin. This is no longer necessary (and will not work).