VSD-A firmware upgrade

[Xerxes]

Hi, the first published firmware upgrade for VSD-A servo drive is now online. Get it from this link:

http://www.granitedevices.fi/index.php?id=17

The zip file contains full log of changes that are made in firmware. The first drives were shipped with version 104, most with 106 and the latest ones with 108. The next official version will be 110.

If there is no changes that you are interested about, then it may be wiser to keep the actual version in drive. If it ain't broken, don't fix it :-)

Please notice that if you have any communication troubles with GDtool during tuning, it may render upgrade impossible. So in other words, any SPI communication troubles should be solved before upgrade attempt!

[Xerxes]

The next version (110) will be the most significant update so far. It will have at least the following changes. These are already present in my development version (copy&paste from the next changelog):

* Stall current limit frequency lowered from 50Hz to 25Hz
** Experimental trapezoidal BLDC commutation support added
** Experimental open & closed loop stepping motor support added
- I/O test feature added to ease quality control testing
** Fixed D-gain moving average (sum) filter overflow bug
** Motion fault detection (DC motor runaway detection, stepper stall detection)
** Hard stop homing option added
** Homing 32 bit offset option added
** Fault or disable during homing now aborts homing
- New config parameters:
CFG_TRAJ_PLANNER_HOMING_OFFSET_HI
CFG_TRAJ_PLANNER_HOMING_OFFSET_LO
CFG_TRAJ_PLANNER_HOMING_HARD_STOP_THRESHOLD
CFG_MOTION_FAULT_THRESHOLD

[Xerxes]

The version 110 is nearly finished. I just need to test it thoroughly to start distributing it. I call this a major update. I bet some people would even name it as "2.0".

Major new features include:

• Stepper support
• PWM input mode
• Soft position limits
• DC servo runaway detection
• Hard stop homing option (no home switch needed)

Detailed list of changes since previous version 108:

*   Stall current limit frequency lowered from 50Hz to 25Hz
**  Experimental trapezoidal BLDC commutation support added
**  Experimental open & closed loop stepping motor support added
*   Possibility to invert encoder count direction added
-   I/O test feature added to ease quality control testing
**  Fixed D-gain moving average (sum) filter overflow bug
**  Motion fault detection (DC motor runaway detection, stepper stall detection) added
**  Hard stop homing option added
**  Homing 32 bit position offset option added
**  Fault or disable during homing now aborts homing
**  Improved deadtime distortion reduction algorithm
**  Settable position limits added
**  32 bit absolute target (position/speed/torq) SPI command added
**  Behavior of 16 bit abs command changed to true absolute
*   Now initial motor type is MOTOR_NONE before configuring drive
**  Separate acceleration limit for homing/error recovery moves added
-   Software reset SPI command added
-   HV bus scope signal scaling is now fixed to 10mV/1
**  Double speed scope data upload function added
**  PWM input mode with offset adjustment added
-   New SPI commands
	CMD_ABS32_CMD_VALUE
	CMD_MISC
	CMD_GET_CAPTURE_SAMPLE_HS 
-   New config parameters:
	CFG_TRAJ_PLANNER_HOMING_OFFSET_HI
	CFG_TRAJ_PLANNER_HOMING_OFFSET_LO
	CFG_TRAJ_PLANNER_HOMING_HARD_STOP_THRESHOLD
	CFG_MOTION_FAULT_THRESHOLD
	CFG_ABSPOSITION_HI_LIMIT_HI
	CFG_ABSPOSITION_HI_LIMIT_LO
	CFG_ABSPOSITION_LO_LIMIT_HI
	CFG_ABSPOSITION_LO_LIMIT_LO
	READONLY_PWM_FREQUENCY
	READONLY_PID_FREQUENCY
	CFG_TRAJ_PLANNER_HOMING_ACCEL
	CFG_PWM_OFFSET
-   New pulse input modes
	PULSEMODE_PWM
-   New config flags:
	FLAG_CLOSED_LOOP_STEPPER
	FLAG_INVERT_ENCODER
	FLAG_DISABLE_DEADTIMECORR_HI_SPEED
	FLAG_DISABLE_DEADTIMECORR_LO_SPEED
	FLAG_USE_POSITIONLIMIT_RANGE_FAULT
-   New fault:
	FLT_MOTION
-   New scope trigger point:
	TRIG_FAULT

[Xerxes]

Just litte upgrade about firmware things. The latest firmware is now 114 which got released today.

114 just workaroudns an Estop problem with Mach3 when using reference design breakout board. Previous operation wasn't a bug but limitations of parallel control port made it look like one.

Changes from V110 to V114

V111 (beta) 17.8.07-
**  Recovery speed is now applied every time drive recovers from idle/fault state to active
**  Improved recovery completion during moving or noisy target value
**  Step/dir source in velocity now acts as pulse frequency input. Quadrature and PWM modes are unchanged
**  Peak current limit now 15A, 0.5 sec
**  Adjustable HV fault limit
*   SPI watchdog added
**  New internal input command sequencer for precisely timed motion profiles
**  Fixed possible follow error clitch at power-up
*   Better factory default settings
-   Changed homing sequence post-offset scaling to raw value
**  Fixed homing index pulse search on inverted encoder
*   Changing CPR, encoder inversion or pole count now requires reset
**  Fixed configuration saving problem when high voltages are not present
*   Added 192 byte data flash buffer for any data (base address 4096)
-   Various changes to help cooperation with the new GDtool
-   Unified addressing/accessing method for all user data buffers on drive
-   Scope capture length is now adjustable
*   In torque mode trajectory planner & input scaler has now no effect
    and input filter has been compensated to keep constant gain
*   PWM input scaler added
-   Scope TRIG_TARGETCHANGE works now in fault condition too
-   Code cleanups
**  Homing post offset now done at homing vel/accel limits
-   Minimum recovery speed is now 1 (old 0)
**  Enabled CPU pull-up resistors for optoisolator inputs, faster stepping input
*   Feedforward scope channels are now combined (summed)
*   Position plot start point now always zero
-   Firmware now reports hardware version to SPI host
-   Changed encoder inversion implementation from software to hardware
**  Improved index pulse search algorithm
**  By default, acceleration limit is now not active in step/dir or any other pulse modes
**  New control stiffness test for tuning
-   New commands:
	CMD_STORE_TO_BUFFER
	MISC_START_SEQUENCE
	MISC_GET_ABS32_TARGET_VALUE
	BL_NOP
-   New parameters:
	CFG_HV_VOLTAGE_LIMIT
	RUNTIME_INPUT_WATCHDOG
	READONLY_BACKWARDS_COMP_VERSION
	CFG_PWM_SCALER
	CFG_STARTUP_DELAY
-   New flags
	HOMING_FULL_SPEED_OFFSET_MOVE
	FLAG_USE_PULSE_IN_ACCEL_LIMIT
-   New sequence formats:
	SEQ_FORMAT_INC16_DLY16
	SEQ_FORMAT_TORQUE_INJECT


V112 7.11.2007
**  From beta to official release


V113 (beta) 7.11.07-
-   Corrected READONLY_BACKWARDS_COMP_VERSION value 
**  Fault output operation is now more CNC control friendly if fault output conencted to Estop
-   New flags
	FLAG_ALLOW_FAULT_OUT_ON_EXT_DISABLE
	
V114 6.12.2007
**  From beta to official release

[Xerxes]

VSD-A firmware V1.16 was just released!

It only adjusts sensitivity of P and D gains, so upgrade only if you had to maximize P or D gain values (to 32000+). Remember to read readme.txt and changelog.txt before upgrading.

Download page:
http://granitedevices.fi/index.php?q=downloads