Description:
The Kollmorgen SqDC and SqStep drives now support warning codes/messages. Support has also been added for the SqDC2 model.

How do I use this feature?
For more information, please see the SqDC and SqStep drives.

Description:
The Sanyo Denki R-Series is now supported. The Q-Series support has been expanded to include service channel, drive faults/warnings, drive parameters, etc. In previous MPI versions, the Q-Series support was minimal. If you have a Q-Series drive and upgrade the MPI, please contact Sanyo Denki (www.sanyodenki.com) for the latest drive firmware.

How do I use this feature?
For more information, please contact Sanyo Denki (www.sanyodenki.com).

Description:
New functions were added to get the lower 32 bits of actual and command position data.

mpiAxisActualPositionGet32(...)
mpiAxisCommandPositionGet32(...)

If only the lower 32 bits of position data need to be read, it's faster to use these new functions instead of using the standard -Get position functions.

How do I use this feature?
For descriptions and sample code, see the links to the function pages above.

Description:
The following drive update rate options are now available on the Glentek Omega Drive. EEPROM option numbers 4-7 were added.

How do I use this feature?
See the Glentek Omega Drive. To determine the update rate or period for the drive, use MEISynqNetTiming.node[].updateFreq or MEISynqNetTiming.node[].updatePeriod.

Description:
Support was added to the MPI for the Kollmorgen SqDC drive.

How do I use this feature?
See Kollmorgen SqDC Drive for more details.

Description:
In a ring topology, SynqNet allows the remaining nodes to operate if one or more nodes fail. Previously, the only way to restore normal operation for all nodes was to reinitialize the entire network, which would disrupt any operating node. In cases of modular machines, it may be necessary to service one or more nodes while the other nodes are actively controling motion and I/O. The new SynqNet HotReplace feature allows one or more nodes to be shut down, serviced, and then brought back to normal operation without affecting the operation of other nodes.

How do I use this feature?
See SynqNet HotReplace for more details.

Description:
Support was added for the Pn600 "Regenerative Resistor Capacity" drive parameter for the SGDS-72/75 drives.

How do I use this feature?
To access the Pn600 drive parameter, use the methods meiSqNodeDriveParamGet(...) and meiSqNodeDriveParamSet(...), or meiSqNodeDriveParamListGet(...) and meiSqNodeDriveParamListSet(...). See the Yaskawa SGDS Drive.

Description:
New methods were added to read and write the axis origin to/from the controller's flash memory. This feature is useful for applications that use ABS encoders. However, you cannot save the ABS encoder offset to the drive's flash memory.

How do I use this feature?
To write the origin to the controller's flash memory, use mpiAxisFlashOriginSet(...).
To read the origin from the controller's flash memory, use mpiAxisFlashOriginGet(...).
NOTE: These methods do not access the origin value of the axis in the controller's dynamic memory.

Description:
The FPGA that is used with SQID nodes, C0FE0030_xxxx.sff, has been extended to detect errors communicating with any of the I/O modules (e.g. DIN32DOU32). The MPI has been extended to report these new error conditions.

How do I use this feature?
See the I/O Faults section. See MEISqNodeStatusIoFaults and MEISqNodeStatus.

Description:
Configurable Demand Modes have been added to the MPI. The new feature should be used when it is appropriate for a drive to change its demand mode. Currently, only the S300, S600, and S1800 drives support multiple demand modes. Check with the drive manufacturer for possible settings. Nodes that do not support a drive interface (ex: RMB-SynqNet) should use ANALOG or use ANALOG_DUAL_DAC for nodes with two DAC's per axis.

How do I use this feature?
See MEIMotorDemandMode and MEIMotorConfig. A drive will default to an appropriate demand mode. Use mpiMotorConfigGet/Set(...) to change the demand mode. See SynqNet Demand Modes.

Description:
The controller's command and actual position registers have been expanded to 64 bit. The MPI uses doubles for command and actual positions, which are limited to 1.7E+/-308 (at least 15 digits precision).

How do I use this feature?
See the "Position Resolution Extended" section of the Important Things to Know page.

Description:
Support was added to the MPI for the Kollmorgen S1800 drive.

How do I use this feature?
See Kollmorgen S1800 Drive for more details.

Description:
The maximum number of controllers supported using a particular OS is now available from a macro, MEIPlatformControlCountMax, in platform.h.

How do I use this feature?
This macro should only be used to determine the maximum number of controllers supported on a single system. See MEIPlatformControlCountMax.

Description:
Support was added to the MPI for the Yaskawa SGDS75A drive.

How do I use this feature?
See Yaskawa SGDS Drive for more details.

Description:
It is now possible to determine whether a non-idle axis and motion supervisor state was caused by an application on the host computer or by a controller action. It is useful to know whether a non-IDLE state was caused by a controller event or a user action. If the action source was the controller, the controller may be queried to find out what event caused the error state. In a multi-threaded or multi-process environment, it can also be useful to know if a another thread or process commanded an action that placed the motion supervisor or axis into a non-idle state.

How do I use this feature?
The action source can be obtained by calling mpiMotionStatus(...) or mpiAxisStatus(...) and then reading the MPIStatus.actionSource value. Use the enumeration, MPIActionSource, to decode the value.

Description:
The XmpBufferData.VolatileBuffer was added to the controller's external memory. This volatile memory buffer is initialized to zero after a controller reset or power-up cycle.

How do I use this feature?
The volatile memory buffer can be useful for setting application flags, which can denote that certain operations have taken place. For example, once an axis has been successfully homed, a flag can be set in the volatile buffer. However, after a controller reset, the flag will be reset to zero, indicating that the axis is no longer homed.

Description:
The following functions have been added to sqNode.h to assist the setup of recorders and user limits with I/O on SynqNet nodes.

sqNodeDigitalInPtr(...)
sqNodeDigitalOutPtr(...)
sqNodeAnalogInPtr(...)
sqNodeAnalogOutPtr(...)

How do I use this feature?
For descriptions and sample code, see the links to the function pages above.

Description:
The meiSqNodeDriveMonitorInfo(...) method was added to the MPI for retrieving drive monitor information. This method retrieves the number of supported drive monitors, the firmware locations of the monitors, a mask and shift value for retrieving the monitors, and a list of possible monitor configurations.

How do I use this feature?
This feature should be used when configuring drive monitors. The sqDriveMonitor utility contains an example of how to read and display the monitor information.

Description:
The compatibility of a client object to a server is now verified by meiClientValidate(...). Compatibility is based on MPI_INTERFACE_VERSION and the equality of members of the MEIRemoteMethod enumeration.

How do I use this feature?
The compatibility check feature is automatically invoked when the client object is validated.

Description:
Support was added to the MPI for the Kollmorgen S600 drive.

How do I use this feature?
See Kollmorgen S600 Drive for more details.

Description:
Support was added to the MPI for the Kollmorgen S300 drive.

How do I use this feature?
See Kollmorgen S300 Drive for more details.

Description:
A new function has been added to the MPI which can be used to determine the size of the controller's frame buffer and how many frames are currently in the frame buffer for a particular axis.

How do I use this feature?
See meiAxisFrameBufferStatus(...) for sample code and implementation details.

Description:
The controller firmware performance can be measured with meiControlStatistics(...). This method will read the maximum and average times for the foreground and background controller firmware tasks. The controller performance counters can be cleared with meiControlStatisticsReset(...). This feature is useful for determining the controller processor load. It can also help determine the maximum sample rate and number of available resources. For more details, see Sample Rate and SynqNet Controller Performance.

How do I use this feature?
meiControlStatistics(...) | meiControlStatisticsReset(...) | MEIControlStatistics
See the XmpStats1.c sample application.

Description:
For path motion (Splines, PVT, PT, etc.), the MPI creates the frames used by the motion and then writes them to the controller. Typically, each point in the path has a corresponding frame for each axis of motion. For path segments with a large number of points (large number of frames), there is an initial group of frames loaded when the motion is started. More frames are loaded as a result of interrupts (events) generated when the axes' frame buffers run low on frames.

In previous versions, the number of frames loaded was always half the capacity of the frame buffer and the "low frame" trigger was hard coded at 32 frames. Although this limit is usually sufficient for the default buffer size of 128 frames, larger buffers could benefit from increasing these limits. In addition, in cases where a backup on path was not needed, the number of initially loaded frames could be larger.

This change will be most useful for customers streaming path (PVT, etc.) points at a high rate. To take advantage of this feature the frame buffers for the axes involved in the streaming motion should have increased frame buffer sizes (larger than the default of 128 frames). Increase the axes' frame buffer sizes with mpiControlConfigSet(...) or the meiConfig utility. Be sure to retain the parameter for path motion as FALSE.

Description:
The AmpNotPowered fault was added into the default MEIMotorFaultConfig.faultMask logic due to changes in the S200 FPGA brake logic. The "Amp Not Powered" fault bit will now trigger the motor's AmpFault when the Brake is applied directly by the drive. See FPGA issue FP523 for details.

Description:
The motor configuration provides a "Brake" source for the general purpose I/O for MEI RMB node types. The Brake logic for the following node type was incorrect: MEI RMB-10V2-SSI with C0FE002C FPGA

For product consistency, the MEI RMB-10V2-SSI was changed to have the same polarity as the standard RMB-10v2 (C0FE002C FPGA).

WARNING: If you are upgrading from a previous MPI software release where you're using an RMB-10V2 with C0FE002C, and are using a Brake source for a general purpose motor I/O, the logic will be opposite in 03.04.00 and later releases.

Description:
In previous versions, the cable length discovery technique was inaccurate for networks with 6 or more nodes. The inaccuracies were caused by an incorrect measurement and calculation. The addition of more nodes to the network caused additional uncertainty in the time measurement, which caused inaccuracies in the cable length calculations. To reduce the inaccuracies, the cable length time measurements now occur between the controller and node or between two nodes. Thus, adding nodes to a network will no longer cause additional inaccuracies to the cable length calculations.

Description:
A potential problem existed with the Control word in frames being or'd into the axis status. Some frames are not meant to have Control words and are supposed to execute in one sample. However, there are strange cases where the user can get the axis to stop on a frame with no Control word and have that frame be active during the background cycle. When this happens, the axis status code OR's in the data in the place where a Control word would be. So, depending on the data at that location, anything could happen. As a precautionary measure, the Control word in the frame to be OR'd with Axis.Status was eliminated.

Description:
A check has been put into place to ensure that Pulse engines are present before configuring a Motor type to Stepper.

Description:
To be consistent with the rest of the MPI the data types for specifying positions for cam moves have been changed from a long to a double.

See MPIMotionCam and MPIMotionAttributes.

Description:
The S200's default secondary feedback was changed from MEIMotorEncoderTypeQUAD_AB to MEIMotorEncoderTypeDRIVE. The default for the S200's Aux Feedback is now Drive Feedback instead of Quadrature.

Description:
The MEIEventStatusInfo structure was expanded to handle 64 bit data. New default data structures were added and defined to overlay the 10 word data buffer that is returned by an event. By default, the new addressing was designed to match the new overlays.

NOTE: If the defaults are changed, the MPI overlays will not be accurate and cannot be used to extract data from the buffer.

See MEIEventStatusInfo.

NEW:
typedef typedef struct MEIEventStatusInfo {
    union {
        MPIHandle  handle;  /* generic */
        MPIAxis    axis;    /* MEIEventTypeAXIS_FIRST ... 
                               MEIEventTypeAXIS_LAST - 1 */
        long       node;    /* MEIEventTypeCAN_FIRST... 
                               MEIEventTypeCAN_LAST - 1  */
        long       number;  /* MPIEventTypeMOTION 
                                    MPIEventTypeMOTOR_FIRST... 
                               MPIEventTypeMOTOR_LAST - 1

                                    MEIEventTypeMOTOR_FIRST ...
                               MEIEventTypeMOTOR_LAST - 1 */
        long       value;   /* MPIEventTypeEXTERNAL */
           } type;

           MEIXmpSignalID signalID;

           /* Contents of addresses specified 
           by MEIEventNotifyData{} */
    union {
        long sampleCounter;
        struct {
           long sampleCounter;
        } motion;
        struct {
           long       sampleCounter;
           long       positionError;
           MEIInt64   actualPosition;
           MEIInt64   commandPosition;
        } axis;
        struct {
           /* Data associated with the CAN event. */
           long data[4];
        } can;
        struct {
           long      sampleCounter;
           long      dedicatedIn;
           MEIInt64  encoderPosition;
        } motor;
        long word[MEIXmpSignalUserData];
     } data;
} MEIEventStatusInfo;

Description:
SynqNet Timing improvements were made to improve node control latency. For 16 kHz drives (the majority of SynqNet nodes), the new scheduling algorithm results in control latency times identical to previous MPI releases. For other drive update rates, and for non-periodic nodes (RMBs), control latency may change.

Since a change in control latency may affect system performance, special attention is recommended for these node types when upgrading from previous MPI releases.

Please see the SynqNet Performance Compatibility section of the online documentation for more information.

The controlLatency sub-structure in MEISynqNetTiming was removed. The calculationTime and calculationSlack were promoted to the MEISynqNetTiming structure.

OLD:
MEISynqNetTiming.controlLatency.calculationTime
MEISynqNetTiming.controlLatency.calculationSlack

NEW:
MEISynqNetTiming.calculationTime
MEISynqNetTiming.calculationSlack

The demandLatency and feedbackLatency were moved to the new per node sub-structure of the MEISynqNetTiming structure.

OLD:
MEISynqNetTiming.controlLatency.demandLatency
MEISynqNetTiming.controlLatency.feedbackLatency

NEW:
MEISynqNetTiming.node[].demandLatency
MEISynqNetTiming.node[].demandLatency

The total latency was promoted and renamed to controlLatency and the latencySlack was promoted and renamed to latencyOverhead.

OLD:
MEISynqNetTiming.controlLatency.total
MEISynqNetTiming.controlLatency.latencySlack

NEW:
MEISynqNetTiming.controlLatency
MEISynqNetTiming.latencyOverhead

Problem/Cause:
If Motion Console was running via client/server and the ESC key was pressed to quit the server.exe utility, occasionally server.exe did not exit. The problem was caused by the MPI's server side routine. The MPI was waiting for the packet recv buffer to empty while Motion Console was continually sending packets to the server.

Fix/Solution:
To correct the problem, the packet close routines were changed to immediately shut down the socket connection and not to wait for the packet recv buffer to empty.

Problem/Cause:
All Probe trigger control registers need to be configured to get the probe data coming at the expected location at the feedback packet. In previous versions, the drive module did not configure any probe trigger control register for the depth of the probe and the FPGA used the default depth of one. This caused a problem when the axis had more than one probe.

Fix/Solution:
This problem was fixed by configuring the trigger control registers of all the available probes of the axis during the node initialization.

Problem/Cause:
meiSqNodeUserDataGet(...) and meiSqNodeUserDataSet(...) incorrectly treated the buffer as a string. All data after a null byte would not be written to nor read from a node's user data area. If the data supplied to meiSqNodeUserDataSet(...) did not contain a null byte, it could have corrupted other parts of the process's memory.

Problem/Cause:
meiSynqNetTiming(...) did not properly initialize the calcuationTime and calculationSlack values in the MEISyqnNetTiming structure.

Fix/Solution:
The problem was corrected by translating the values from the controller and initializing the values in MEISynqNetTiming.

Problem/Cause:
Using mpiControlFlashConfigSet(...) to save the frame buffer size to flash would not save the external allocation tables to flash, but would save the frame buffer size in the Axis object. As a result, there was a mismatch (after a reset) between the presumed size in the Axis object and the actual size allocated in external memory causing frame buffer corruption. The symptoms of a corrupted frame buffer are erratic motion profiles.

Fix/Solution:
Changes have been made to mpiControlFlashConfigSet(...) was modified to update the external allocation tables and frame buffer size. The frame pointers in the Axis object will ensure that there will not be a mismatch between them. Anytime the new configuration parameters require the extAlloc tables to be updated in either working memory or flash memory, or both, the SynqNet network will shutdown and be reinitialized. Anytime the new configuration parameters require the extAlloc tables to be updated in flash memory and the SynqNet topology has NOT been previously saved, MEIFlashMessageNETWORK_TOPOLOGY_ERROR is returned and the extAlloc tables will not be updated.

Problem/Cause:
In previous versions, Feedback Fault was not cleared if the Feedback fault event was set to 'None.' Previously, mpiMotionAction(...) checked if the Encoder Fault event status was triggered before it cleared the encoder fault. In firmware version 619A1 (and later), motor limits do not generate events if the action is set to NONE. As a result, if the AmpFault action = NONE and an Encoder Fault occurred, it could not be cleared.

Fix/Solution:
To correct this problem, mpiMotionAction(...) was modified and now checks the Encoder Fault bit instead of the event status, which ensures that the Amp Fault is properly cleared.

Problem/Cause:
A motor limit with a non-zero duration may trigger if the condition is met at the time the limit is configured.

Fix/Solution:
The controller firmware was modified to remove the possibility of false triggers. Changes have been made so that the state may be calculated during configuration. If the state is 0x10 (triggered), it will override the newly calculated state during the first sample after configuration.

Problem/Cause:
The S300 drive module initialization code failed to correctly calculate an internal scale factor when the controller's sample rate was 1kHz, which caused the SynqNet network intialization to fail.

Fix/Solution:
This problem was fixed by correcting the calculation.

Problem/Cause:
Creating multiple recorder objects with the same index did not result in an error.

Fix/Solution:
After creating a second recorder objects of a given index, calling mpiRecorderValidate on that recorder will report the error MPIRecorderMessageRESERVED. Specifying a recorder index that is not reserved when calling meiControlRecorderCancel will result in the error, MPIRecorderMessageNOT_RESERVED being returned. The new error messages have been added to MPIRecorderMessage.

Problem/Cause:
If a node with a version x0103 FPGA is followed by a node with a boot FPGA, then the node with the boot FPGA (and all subsequent nodes) may not be discovered during network initialization.

Fix/Solution:
The delay after sending the ResetComplete packet was increased from 0.1 to 1 seconds.

Problem/Cause:
If Application X calls meiSqNodeDownload(...) to download drive firmware to a Kollmorgen CD or PicoDad drive, then Application Y will hang on mpiControlInit(...) until Application X either exits or destroys its SqNode handles.

Fix/Solution:
Applications will no longer hang when calling meiSqNodeDownload(...).

Problem/Cause:
A memory access violation occurred when calling mpiMotionModify(...) with PVT and APPEND before calling mpiMotionStart(...). This problem was caused by meiMotionFrameBufferCreate(...), which was allocating memory for a frame and appending it to the frameList. When meiMotionFrameBufferDelete(...) was called, it de-allocated the memory without removing it from the frameList. As a result, frameList had a frame on it with no memory associated with it.

Fix/Solution:
meiMotionFrameBufferDelete(...) now removes the frame from the list before freeing up the memory.

Problem/Cause:
Noise from the Test Signal can get added to the DAC output if the test signal is active for PID, the PID multiplying coefficient is zero, and the multiplying coefficient for PIV is non-zero.

Fix/Solution:
The algorithm types are now checked before the Test Signal multiplying coefficient is used.

Problem/Cause:
The AMP Enable was not working properly for Stepper drives. This problem was caused by the AMP enable polarity, which was inverted.

Fix/Solution:
An FPGA configuration was changed. The AMP enable should now function properly.

Problem/Cause:
The mpiMotionStart and mpiMotionModify may have incorrectly returned MEIMotionMessageBAD_PATH_DATA with multi-dimensional PT, PTF, PVT, PVTF, Spline, BSpline, BSpline2, and Bessel moves.

Fix/Solution:
Checks for finite values in motion code have been modified to only check valid elements for the time-delta array.

Problem/Cause:
Calls to mpiMotionStart(...) with a HOLD attribute would intermittently cause an Out of Frames status. This was caused by the control word from a motion frame being OR'd into the axis status. A small timing window could allow the motion status to interpret the axis status with an Out of Frames error.

Fix/Solution:
The problem was corrected by eliminating the control word ORing with the axis status.

Problem/Cause:
In previous versions, the topology checker did not consider ring and string topolgies to be different. It was previously thought that as long as the node types and the ordering of the nodes was the same, the difference between a ring and a string topology was inconsequential. However, for applications that rely on the ring topology for fault tolerance, it is helpful to know if a string was discovered instead of a ring.

Fix/Solution:
The topology checker now verifies that the network type that is discovered matches the expected network type. If the network type does not match, a topology mismatch error will be returned.

Problem/Cause:
Watchdog sample applications encountered race conditions, which would cause intermittent false-positive events.

Fix/Solution:
The watchdog sample applications have been modified and no longer contain a race condition.
See the watchdog1.c, watchdog2.c, and watchdog3.c sample applications.

Problem/Cause:
A memory access violation occurred when mpiMotionMotionModify(...) with PVT and APPEND was called before mpiMotionStart(...).

Fix/Solution:
Changes were made to the MPI to correct this problem.