User's Manual

PMAC User Manual
34 Talking to PMAC
Power-Up State
With the cards set up for daisy chained communications (i.e., I1 = 2 or 3 saved in EAROM), card @0
comes out of the power-up/reset cycle as the addressed card, ready to respond to commands; all other
cards come out of the power-up/reset cycle not addressed, so they will ignore alphanumeric commands
until they are addressed.
Control-Character Commands
Control-character commands that do not require a data response are always addressed to all cards on the
chain. The commands in this class are:
<CTRL-A> Abort all programs and moves
<CTRL-D> Disable all PLC programs
<CTRL-I> Repeat last command line (tab)
<CTRL-K> Kill all motors
<CTRL-M> Feed hold all coordinate systems
<CTRL-Q> Quit all motion programs
<CTRL-R> Run all coordinate systems
<CTRL-S> Step all coordinate systems
<CTRL-W> Take command line from (bus port) dual-ported RAM
<CTRL-X> Erase command and response queues
<CTRL-Z> Make serial port the active response port
<CTRL-M>
The carriage return character causes the command line just transmitted to every card in the chain to be
accepted by that card and processed. This allows separate command lines to be sent to each card, but
processed simultaneously. If a particular card in the chain has not been sent a command when it sees the
carriage return command, it will process a "no-operation" command.
Example:
The command string @0&1B4R@1&3B25R<CR> will cause card @0’s coordinate system 1 to start
executing motion program 4, and card @1’s coordinate system 3 to start executing motion program 25.
Control-character commands that require a data response are accepted and processed by the currently
addressed card, and ignored by the other cards. They will be rejected in the addressing mode.
Commands in this category are:
<CTRL-B> Report all motor status words
<CTRL-C> Report all coordinate system status words
<CTRL-E> Report data-gathering address contents in binary
<CTRL-F> Report all following errors
<CTRL-G> Report global status words
<CTRL-P> Report all motor positions
<CTRL-V> Report all motor velocities
<CTRL-Y> Report and repeat last command line
A control-character command requiring a data response will be acted on by the card addressed by the
most recently processed addressing command. Since an addressing command is not processed until the
next carriage return character, but a control-character command is acted on before a carriage return, it is
important to send a carriage return character between the addressing and the control-character command.
Other control character commands and their properties in multiple-card applications are: