GML commander run mode won't stay on

Referring to Okie's last suggestion, I can only provide examples of how I do things. This app is my only experience with camming in my little world.

My camming (slave motion) is done in one task. There's a completely separate task that watches and manipulates the master axis value. This could probably be combined into one where first we watch the master then we move and cycle back to the beginning.

Anyhow, without getting into too much detail (there's lots more in my gml diagram), I set a watch on the actual position of the master (encoder). The trip point of the watch is the cut length (sent via RIO to user variable in GML). When the watch trips, I start the slave motion and redefine the master position to zero. The encoder watch task recycles to the beginning where we re-arm the watch while the cut motion is in progress.

If you only have one cutting implement, then you can do what I said above regardless of the distance between the encoder and the actual point where the blade enters the material or begins it's motion. Any offset this creates in the actual cut length is repeated on every cut. If every piece is cut with the same offset, the net effect is zero. I think they call this a "crop cut".

I have two saws that can alternate cuts so I have to add an extra step in my encoder watch task. No need to complicate the discussion with that yet.

OkiePC said:

EDIT: After Re-Reading one of your earlier posts about successfully changing the product length in the past. I see the whole picture now. You added cam points when you really only needed to alter the last master position.

Yes, do as Gerry and Wildswing said and make your table end with the slave at zero, and the master at whatever the length needs to be.

Click to expand...

Yes, we're on the same page now!

From the description, I've assumed that the profile is 'continuuous'. i.e. it rolls over & repeats and the length of the profile master is the cut length.

Hi Gerry!

Yeah, Gerry, I am sure glad you chimed back in. I want to thank all of you for helping me learn and refresh. And I hope that euipfacil does not mind if I post a very limited translation of his script.

The Icode is somewhat foreign to me, so I have only gotten as far as my old grey matter would get me.

I think I have an old Accel manual on my other PC, and maybe even some archives to compare with. The Jumps and Labels are still the same, and the IFs too, but I am lost with the uservariable mapping, communications, and even the print statements (if any). I am a little uncertain on the properties of the task controls too.

GML does a very nice job of compilation, and the resultant code looks much more compact than I remember. I thought my script files had descriptors and comments. The code euipfacil posted looks like a pure upload with no offline file. I could be wrong.

So if anyone wants to pitch in, maybe we can build a translator from .txt to .gml?

Is there a reference available for the GML to script conversions? Anybody in the mood for a cryptogram?

Paul

OP thanks for the break out of the script file, I am beginning to understand it better now. I would change the cam table and report back now but unfortunately right now I am at my other plant in a different city (about 4 hours away). However I will go bcak soon and try to complete this task. Thank you guys for all of the information.
LR

OkiePC said:

The Icode is somewhat foreign to me, so I have only gotten as far as my old grey matter would get me.

Click to expand...

Hi Paul,
icode is one thing I have no desire to learn. I used to be able to remember a few direct commands to get through the tuning procedure in GML's terminal window, but they're gone now and not missed.

A few years ago, I did a conversion for a system with PLC5 and 3 S-Class controllers to ControlLogix. Biggest problem was to verify that the GML diagrams they had were current with the controllers. That required poring over icode - in the end I think I just said close is good enough, studied the concept, and went from there. That is the biggest hassle with GML - if you open the off-line file and do nothing more than look at a block's parameters, it refuses to go on-line and so you have to download before you can monitor. Then the hapless contractor comes in to work on the system, no-one remembers who did what or when, there's a couple of files on floppy disk about 5 or 6 years old with different dates and neither will go on-line...

...I notice you've truncated the cam tables...

Gerry said:

Hi Paul,
icode is one thing I have no desire to learn. I used to be able to remember a few direct commands to get through the tuning procedure in GML's terminal window, but they're gone now and not missed.

Click to expand...

I cut my servo teeth on an Ormec single axis bead building machine with a single axis, and one page of code to run the whole machine with a half dozen I/O. They needed to make a new bead setting that was unique iand I had to decode the script language to add two new presets.

Then I moved up to Creonics Max Controllers, first with Accel (dos based non-gml) then with GML 3.something. AB did a nice job with the windows interface, but not so well with the hardware IMHOO.

Gerry said:

A few years ago, I did a conversion for a system with PLC5 and 3 S-Class controllers to ControlLogix.

Click to expand...

I got out of the high tech tire building business before I got the chance to follow the migration into control logix.

Gerry said:

Biggest problem was to verify that the GML diagrams they had were current with the controllers. That required poring over icode - in the end I think I just said close is good enough, studied the concept, and went from there. That is the biggest hassle with GML - if you open the off-line file and do nothing more than look at a block's parameters, it refuses to go on-line and so you have to download before you can monitor.

Click to expand...

Not true at all*

Any application that contains a Controls Settings block will cause a file mismatch to be reported to the connected terminal window when a connection is established.

You can still monitor variables, look at all the settings and configurations, and even upload them, if you know a few tricks*, even without stopping the process.

You can't count on the pictures to match, and the single step functions won't help graphically. The best way to try to restore from a running machine using Commander and an old file would be to go online, upload a script, upload all setups and variables separately and within GML Commander*.

You can even connect with a dummy project that only has the correct basic configuration, if there is no recoverable GML or script source. Again, understand that there is more to upload and save than just the program.

IIRC the user variables and axis setups are all still separate files, just as Creonics designed them. With Commander, just create a user variable table to exceed the size, and check the physical hardware to assess communication settings.

If you have the script, axis setups, and user variables, you can probably go straight into ladder logix with it, especially once you help me finish my translator...

Gerry said:

...I notice you've truncated the cam tables...

Click to expand...

Yeah, I was trying to see the forest, and those trees had to go...(there are JMPs to LBLs after the cam table)

* GML Commander has a manual tuning feature, and buried somewhere within in, is a 'read from controller' option. This will let you save the gains and dynamics from each axis (setups in Creonics terminology) This, in turn, will cause a tiny little green check box to appear on one of the other screens, marking the offline copy of those critical values as saved to the offline file.

Translator Basis Found!:




PiEaCe!

thanks OkiePC you have been a real help.

I want to download gml commander, how can I ?