AngryRobot

I have finally gotten the chance to test this and I've got one issue.  I have no control over when the operator might disconnect the fixture cable.  I have it programmed with a "Remove Fixture" button that disables all of the enabled Ethercat nodes and prevents errors.  If the operator removes the cable before pressing the button though the disable function block will not disable the node, which leads to an EC error that can't be reset because an enabled device is disconnected. Does anyone know any tricks to force it disabled, even if the FB doesn't want to?

Thanks.  I'm pretty sure use global comment is the default, so I don't know how/why I unchecked it.

This seems like it should be very simple, so I'm sure I'm just overlooking something.  When I create a global variable, I can click in the corner of the comment box and open up all of the sub comments for an array or structure for quick mass editing.   While programming I added comments to array of bool coils as I went and they were saved as local comments and not the global comments.  I want to open up the local comment sub menu so that I can copy and past them all to the global comment list, but I can't figure out how to access it... or if its even possible. 

I have a structure named "Tests" with three BOOL members (Active, Passed, Failed).  I have another structure called "All Tests" with 12 "Tests" members. Is there a way to look into the structure All Tests and determine if any of the ".Failed" members is active?  

I just stumbled onto this today, and I wanted to throw this out there in case someone else finds it useful.  You can use the ArySearch function to determine if there are any active elements in a BOOL array by setting the Key to P_On (or any other active BOOL variable). I've been using a union of an LWORD and an array of 64 BOOL for faults/alarms and looking at the value of the union to be <> to 0 to indicate an alarm is active.  Well, I have a machine that is getting close to going past 64 alarms; so I set out to determine if there was anyway I could use a larger array.Do Note though that this only works if you need to know if an element is active, or how many elements are active; it won't translate to a BCD value the way a union will. 

Thank you!  That is what I assumed, but I wanted to verify.

If I set a variable as retained, but then also set the initial value, does it re-initialize the variable anytime the PLC loses power, or only on a program change?

Thanks!  Looks like that is what I need.  Luckily I think we've been able to redesign the machine so that I won't have an individual device on each fixture now, so it has simplified things for me.

Is it possible to setup Ethercat parameters from within the PLC program?  I am facing a situation where a machine is going to have changeable tooling fixtures and each fixture is going to have an EtherCAT device on it.  I am guessing they will need to be setup to look like the same node to the PLC, but they will have different physical IDs and different settings for some of the parameter fields.  They will be the same device so they will have the same parameter fields, just different values in those fields. I can also get these devices with EthernetIP as the fieldbus option.  In that case I would always have a network error because the PLC would always see one of the devices missing from the network.  is it possible to enable/disable Ethernet connections from within the program logic to avoid the error?

It took me some time to get used to as well.  You are spot on with Sysmac having some quirks.  Once you get used to them though Sysmac really starts to feel like one of the best programming environments on the market- at least compared to Portal or Studio. I have gotten into the habit of just creating a BYTE, Word, Dword, and Lword union in each of my projects; and then I can just create symbols as whichever type I need as I go.

I still prefer using a union so that I can assign unique comments to each bit.

Under each alarm table there are individual components like Name, Alarm ID, Alarm Code, etc.  I know these have to be saved as a VB structure behind the scenes, because the default alarm popup has each of these components on a different line; so its like they are using a text box and setting it equal to something like Alarm.Alarm1.Alarm_Code.  I just can't figure out what that structure is named or how to access it myself.  I'm still trying to create my own alarm popup window and customize it more than just putting an alarm display object on it and having everything in one row.

Do you have Sysmac Studio installed?  If so then you should already have the font installed in your system fonts folder.  I'm not sure what the rules are concerning just giving the font away.

Is it possible to access the alarm code?  I would just create my own display page, but I like being able to display the alarm code.   Edit: I guess I can just add them to a normal alarm viewer.  The layout on the pop-up screen just looks so much better than the alarm viewer objects though.

I can't uncheck Acknowledge when I have the pop-up checked- but I still want to use the pop-up to display my alarm code.