[Acontis Bus Shift with Kollmorgen AKD EtherCAT Not Working]

I'm using a PowerPMAC ARM Quad Core with Acontis EtherCAT master and a Kollmorgen AKD EtherCAT drive. I'm also using a ACC24E3 gatearray for the phase and servo clock. My phase clock is set to 16kHz and servo clock is set to 2kHz and the corresponding settings are set in the Kollmorgen drive (see attached screen shot). When I set the EtherCAT Master Distributed Clock Clock Adjustment setting to "Master Shift", I can activate EtherCAT without errors. As I understand it, in this mode, the EtherCAT master clock is sync'ing to the Reference Clock. But when I set it to "Bus Shift" and change FBUS.Parameter02=1 in the drive, and activate EtherCAT, I get ECAT[0].Error=$98110010 (see attached screenshot). In this mode, the Master Clock is sync'ing to the Reference Clock.

 

My questions is, why can't I get Bus Shift to activate without error? Where can I find documentation on Acontis ECAT[0].Error? 

 

Also, what is benefit to using Master Shift vs Bus Shift? I'm using one motor in Torque Mode at the full servo rate. Should I expect to see a difference in performance from Master Shift to Bus Shift? And, how does the PMAC Servo Clock fit into this, is it the Reference Clock in Master Shift, if ECAT[0].ServoExtension=0?

 

 

Thanks.

[Ethercat 16 bit integer PDO]

Just wondering if you found a solution to this. I'm seeing the same thing with PDO 0x6077 Actual Torque.

Also I'm having issues with scaling the Motor[1].pDac to Target Torque (0x6071) which is a 16 bit number. Just wondering if you found a solution. 

 

Thanks.

[PMAC CPU Serial Number]

Sure, that a good idea. Unfortunately, the PMAC CPU and chassis have been mixed and matched through the years, so I wouldn't trust that they match at this point. We are working on setting up asset tracking. Ideally, we could query each CPU to verify the part and serial number without removing it. Seems like there used to be provisions for this. Just wondering if anyone knows of a querying method that actually works.

[PMAC CPU Serial Number]

Anyone know if there is a way to get the PMAC CPU serial without physically removing the CPU? Looks like there was a command, "serialnum" listed in the SRM, but when I do it in IDE v4 (PMAC FWv2.3.2.5), it says "ILLEGAL CMD". I'm looking for a way to query CPU serial number, either through the IDE or through linux terminal? Thanks.

[Different PhaseFreq between GateArrays]

I don't think that will work as you are expecting. One Gate3 will always generate clocks for the CPU and for other Gate3s in the system. Phase/Servo software tasks run on the CPU in synchronization with all of the hardware. There would not be a second Servo software task to run on the second clock signal.

 

Depending on whether the motor requires current loop closure and commutation, you may be able to use "Servo in Phase" for the fast motor. This feature is mostly intended for galvos. Take a look at Motor[x].PhaseCtrl in the SRM for more information.

 

Another option would be to set the phase/servo period based on the fast motor and then use Motor[x].STime to slow down the rest. This would work with any type of motor.

 

That is great insight. Thank you. That is what I expected, but couldn't find explicitly in the user's manual. I'll give the STime a shot.

[Different PhaseFreq between GateArrays]

I have one axis that requires a higher phase/servo frequency, but I need "master" clock to be the default frequency.

 

For example:

 

Gate3[0].PhaseFreq = 9035;

Gate3[1].PhaseFreq = 18070;

 

Sys.ServoPeriod will still be calculated based on Gate3[0].PhaseFreq.

 

Are there any implications from doing this? What are the pitfalls?

[Power PMAC IDE Plot Does Not Work in a Virtual Machine]

So, I found that in NAT mode that traffic is being reroute and the IDE plot tool doesn't like that. Seems to work fine in Bridge mode.

[Power PMAC IDE Plot Does Not Work in a Virtual Machine]

This sounds like an issue with the functionality of one of the internal communication features (NetCat) of the IDE to Power PMAC used with plotting and some gathering features only. This usually uses port 20002 to get direct access to the PMAC. The IDE was not developed with “virtual machines” in mind and cannot guarantee this port has not been blocked.

 

Good to know. I'll check traffic on that port and see if there is a conflict. Thanks.

[Power PMAC IDE Plot Does Not Work in a Virtual Machine]

I'm currently supporting various machines/projects using v2, v3, and v4 of the Power PMAC IDE. Currently I've been using Virtual Machines with Windows 10 OS to keep the versions separate. I've noticed that the IDE Plot tool gather button is always grayed out. And the scope lets me click the play button, but no data is actually gathered. But when I connect from a host machine, it allows me to gather, no problem. I've tried several different power PMACs with various updated firmware. I've trying v2, v3, v4 of IDE. The root issue seems to be the virtual machines. Does anyone have any good information on this? I'm was assuming that the Plot tool connection was a port 22 SSH connection. But maybe I'm mistaken. All other functionality seems to work fine. I've been using it this way for over a year now, so I can confirm that all the watch windows, terminal window, and message buffers work fine. Just hoping someone would have some more information.