General information about application-specific functions

Application-specific functions are optional function blocks which are loaded in the controller according to the application requirements.

The online help for an application-specific function can only be accessed by clicking on the "?" in the relevant parameters window.

WHERE TO FIND THE APPLICATION-SPECIFIC FUNCTIONS - HOW TO USE THEM IN A PROGRAM

In the controller memory, these functions are stored in the pages of the application-memory known as "slots". A controller is characterised by the number of slots it contains. Each type of application-specific function occupies one or more slots depending on its complexity. A controller can only contain a limited number of application-specific functions.

The application-specific functions which can be used in CLS M2 can be viewed under "Controller/List of application-specific functions/In CLS M2...". This command is used to activate the display of the application-specific function block symbols in the function bar under the "FBD-C" tab.

An application-specific function can only be used in a user program by displaying the application-specific function blocks. Once the application-specific function is visible in the function bar, it can be used in the program exactly as all the other FBD, SFC, etc. functions.

However, each time the programmer places a new type of application-specific function, a level indicator in the controller bar will change colour and become gradually darker to indicate the number of slots which will be used by the types of application-specific function required to execute the program loaded on the controller. For example, if the user program uses 15 MUL/DIV functions and 7 ADD/SUB functions, only one type of ADD/SUB function (2 slots) and one type of MUL/DIV function (1 slot) must be loaded in the controller, i.e. three slots in total. If the user adds more ADD/SUB functions, because the application-specific function type has already been placed in the memory, no additional slots will be necessary.

If the number of slots exceeds the slot capacity of the controller, a memory overflow error will be signalled during program editing.

WHY "STANDARD" AND "CATALOGUE" APPLICATION-SPECIFIC FUNCTIONS?

Application-specific functions are used in several cases:

Each application-specific function comprises two parts which can be accessed separately:

  1. The "simulated application-specific function" part which contains all the components required to use the application-specific function in CLS M2 and to simulate its operation in a program intended for a selected controller/extension(s) configuration.
  2. The "application-specific function executable on a controller" or "application-specific function binary" part, which, when added to a CLS M2 which already has the "simulated application-specific function" part, can be used to load the binary of this application-specific function in the slot(s) of a controller in order to execute a user program containing the said application-specific function on that controller.

The two parts can be supplied separately or together.

The "simulated catalogue application-specific function" can be downloaded as freeware from the crouzet.com website. Users can use the simulation to decide if they are interested in the function and its possible impact on program performance with the controller selected from the M2 range in the Crouzet catalogue. They can then order the application-specific function with the target binary under the commercial terms specified by Crouzet and execute the function on their own controllers.

USING APPLICATION-SPECIFIC FUNCTIONS IN THE CONTROLLER

Once the program containing the application-specific functions has been compiled and (if required) simulated, the user will want to place it in the controller connected to CLS M2 via the serial link on the PC, using the command: Controller/Write to controller.

The result of this command depends on the application-specific functions which have already been allocated to the memory slots of the controller.

There are six possible cases:

APPLICATION-SPECIFIC FUNCTIONS AVAILABLE IN SEVERAL LANGUAGES

Every application-specific function is associated with a particular language (English or French or German or etc.). Application-specific functions of the same type (example: MUL/DIV, ARCHIVE) but different languages do not have the same:

The application-specific functions are available in each of the CLS M2 installation languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian.

For example, the scope of delivery of the MUL/DIV function contains 5 different application-specific functions which will appear in the window which opens when the "Controller/List of application-specific functions/In the CLS M2 application" command is selected. The user can thus configure a display containing any application-specific functions of the same type but different languages. To place the application-specific function in a user program in a given language, simply select it in the previous window and it will appear in the toolbar under the "FBD-C" tab. From there, simply drag it into the edit window.

If the user wishes to show or hide application-specific functions in the function bar, he simply has to check or uncheck the function in the window which appears when the "Controller/List of application-specific functions/In the CLS M2 application" command is selected.

Note: The user can make the same symbol appear several times under the FBD-C tab in the function bar. This indicates that the same function can be used for editing purposes in several different languages. Two identical symbols with different languages can be identified simply by placing the mouse cursor on the symbol. The tool tip will appear containing the name of the function in the relevant language.

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