Galil motion controller question

[REVCAM_Bob]

Not sure if this is the right forum, so please excuse me if I am in the
wrong place.

I have a galil 18x2 card and when a variable is not set, and that variable
is used in a mg (message) statement or an if statement,
the card returns a "variable error 9 " I would like to be able to check a variable to see if is set, to avoid the error...

i.e.:

if (not variable) then set variable = "some safe value"

I can't find any documentation how to do this.... and I don't want to preset
the variable every time the program is started....

Thanks!

[Al_The_Man]

Error code 9 is I believe a code that will stop program execution.
But the program does not know it does not exist until you try and use it, I don't know of any way of testing wether a variable is used.
But to my mind, if you know you are going to use it in a program, then why not declare it 0 or whatever at the beginning?
You only have to do that once.
On a Galil card, even if you load another separate program and run it, the variables are stored globally, they are reset at power down.
Al.

[HuFlungDung]

I suppose you want to reset the variables whenever the PC is rebooted, but not when the program is being rerun?

I think I would define all the variables that I intended to use at the beginning of the program. They could all be initialized to zero, or whatever you need. Put this list of variables within a loop that itself has a flag so that this initialization loop executes only once, the first time the program is run after a restart of the PC.

[REVCAM_Bob]

Yes, I only want to reset if the controller is reset.
the variables stored are like cutter diameters and lengths, and therefore
I do not want them reset everytime the program is restarted.

I did discover this: it variable called temp is not set yet i.e. after a controller
reset, then:

mg temp ==> the variable error

but:

test=temp ==> does not cause the error, and if the variable is not set
it sets test = 0

Problem solved.

[Al_The_Man]

Is this a program in native language direct to the Galil or is this through some other software like Camsoft?
Because I still do not see why you cannot declare it in a separate program or in a flagged condition that declares all your variables and is run once at start up?
Al.

[CarbideBob]

I just set them when I startup the card (or I send a reset command).
VB code:
: RC = DMCOpen(Controller, 0, hDmc)
: .. If RC = 0 Then
: ....' OK CONTROLLER ALIVE
: ..... msg$= "XOSC=0" ' galil global variable "XOSC" initialized to zero
: ..... RC = DMCCommand(hDmc, msg$, Response, ResponseLength)
: ....... If RC <> 0 Then stop ' command failed
: .. Else
: .... ' CONTROLLER NOT FOUND
: .. End If

Bob

[REVCAM_Bob]

It is stuff I am doing in native Galil language.
And I don't want to reset every time the program is restarted because
the value is always changing. I don't know if that makes sense or not...

It's kind of like tool diameters on a mill, if you tweak them as you go i.e.
0.4995 instead of 0.500, then you don't want the mill to automatically
reset them to 0.500 every time you turn it on.


The method I showed above did work however.
Thanks for your help.