Please tell us what your experience has been with Do-more...

[BobO]

Does DMD or the printer driver handle pagination?  Do-More must at least be aware of it, even if the driver's doing it because it can preview.  Anyhow, check this image; this follows two NOPs at the end of a program.  One of those edge cases that have to be checked for and corrected in real time.  Personally I don't mind if you omit the NOPs that print at the end of each code block as well.

That's kinda icky. Mark?

[MAEdwards]

My guys on the Business Development Team at ADC introduced me the to Do-More H2-DM1E and the Designer 1.3.1.  Right out of the box, I was impressed with the Hardware and Software.

I do a lot of my work with various arrays.  I am used to building these arrays in DirectSoft5 (using the DL260), but the Do-More Designer has made it so much easier.  This software is a good tool for those that are accustomed to structured text programming conventions;(I must repeat CONVENTIONS.)

I also use the F2-CP128 for parsing strings from scale indicators.  The Do-More H2-DM1E RS232 serial port and Designer string instructions have made this task so simple.

I was excited enough about my first impression that I hopped a flight down to Atlanta earlier this week and attended Doug Bell's training class on the Do-More at ADC.

I could make a list of all of the things that I love about the new hardware/software, but that would be incredibly long.  Just know that I REALLY like it.

Thank you for the hard work and development, as well as the sharing of faith.

Here are some questions that I submitted to ADC:

Documentation Editor
C-More Has a Fill Down Option for sequential nicknames/tagnames. 
Example: If I  create Switch(1), C-More will offer the option of Fill Down which will create Switch(2), Switch(3), etc.  MS Excel does something very similar. 
Will this ever be an option in the Do-More Designer Documentation Editor?

ST’s vs SP’s
DirectSoft5 has a few SP bits that I used in my programs that I do not see in Do-More Designer.  While encoding a word, I would use the SP53 bit to indicate that more than one bit was high in the word.  Since the encoding instruction stopped at the LSB, I would reset the bit and execute the encode instruction again.  When the word only contains one High bit, the SP53 will not go high.  This indicates that I have reached the MSB
that is set high. 

Is there an ST bit in Do-More that will give me the same function OR will there be an instruction that allows me to find the MSB that is set high in a word?


Structured Text Programming
Do-More Designer offers:
•   Ladder Logic
•   Stage Programming
•   The new Programs/Tasks that seem to work like Function Block programming
Will Do-More be offering structured text programming in the future?  When Siemens offered it in Step 7, it allowed the programmer to pick the right programming language for the task (or the right tool for the job.)

Debugging
Will Do-More Designer be offering BREAKS for debugging code (similar to C# programming in Visual Studio?)  The current options are good, but seem to execute the entire scan from Top to Bottom.  If I had a 10 rung code, I would like to set a break at rung 5, and move to rung 6 only after I’ve advance the program.

Will C-More be supporting Custom Memory Blocks from Do-More as Nicknames/Tagnames.  I understand that this is not your issue.  I just thought that you may have some information regarding the subject.

[ADC Product Engineer]

Did Frank forward you the answers to your questions?  I answered all of these for you last week.

[MAEdwards]

Did Frank forward you the answers to your questions?  I answered all of these for you last week.

I did get the forward from Frank. When I sent the original email to Frank, I mistakenly thought he was forwarding my email to Host Engineering.  I did not understand that I was sending my email to an ADC guy, that would be forwarding to an ADC guy, that would be forwarding to a Host guy.  He called you by name, but I thought you were with Host.  Once I realized how many channels the forward was going to have to go through, I thought it best to eliminate some of the channels.  I hope I did not step on toes.  I just thought I would go strait to the source and open up a dialog.

[Controls Guy]

ST’s vs SP’s
DirectSoft5 has a few SP bits that I used in my programs that I do not see in Do-More Designer.  While encoding a word, I would use the SP53 bit to indicate that more than one bit was high in the word.  Since the encoding instruction stopped at the LSB, I would reset the bit and execute the encode instruction again.  When the word only contains one High bit, the SP53 will not go high.  This indicates that I have reached the MSB
that is set high. 

Is there an ST bit in Do-More that will give me the same function OR will there be an instruction that allows me to find the MSB that is set high in a word?

In a MATH box, do

Code: [Select]

3.322 * log(MyIntRegister)
and assign it to an integer type (N or V).  That will give you the MSB position.

[BobO]

My guys on the Business Development Team at ADC introduced me the to Do-More H2-DM1E and the Designer 1.3.1.  Right out of the box, I was impressed with the Hardware and Software.

I do a lot of my work with various arrays.  I am used to building these arrays in DirectSoft5 (using the DL260), but the Do-More Designer has made it so much easier.  This software is a good tool for those that are accustomed to structured text programming conventions;(I must repeat CONVENTIONS.)

I also use the F2-CP128 for parsing strings from scale indicators.  The Do-More H2-DM1E RS232 serial port and Designer string instructions have made this task so simple.

I was excited enough about my first impression that I hopped a flight down to Atlanta earlier this week and attended Doug Bell's training class on the Do-More at ADC.

I could make a list of all of the things that I love about the new hardware/software, but that would be incredibly long.  Just know that I REALLY like it.

Thank you for the hard work and development, as well as the sharing of faith.

Glad you like Do-more. We say it over and over, but we are just getting started. It has been so incredibly freeing to own both ends of the pipe. We've been able to add some really nice features requested by users, and in some cases there really isn't much work to it.

Documentation Editor
C-More Has a Fill Down Option for sequential nicknames/tagnames. 
Example: If I  create Switch(1), C-More will offer the option of Fill Down which will create Switch(2), Switch(3), etc.  MS Excel does something very similar. 
Will this ever be an option in the Do-More Designer Documentation Editor?

Sequential fill? Never crossed my mind, which is kinda silly because I use that in Excel and C++ resource editors do the same thing. A fairly easy thing would be to use the Add Record facility and if the Nickname field is filled, automatically propagate it with an incrementing index. Might also be able to do a ranged highlight "Fill" option that would give you a few more options. Neither would be hard.

ST’s vs SP’s
DirectSoft5 has a few SP bits that I used in my programs that I do not see in Do-More Designer.  While encoding a word, I would use the SP53 bit to indicate that more than one bit was high in the word.  Since the encoding instruction stopped at the LSB, I would reset the bit and execute the encode instruction again.  When the word only contains one High bit, the SP53 will not go high.  This indicates that I have reached the MSB
that is set high. 

Is there an ST bit in Do-More that will give me the same function OR will there be an instruction that allows me to find the MSB that is set high in a word?

So Koyo sets the bad logic flag when there is more than one bit? You could easily use SUMBITS to first determine whether there is more than one. If you were wanting a high bit centric ENCO, we could potentially add a new instruction...maybe ENCOH. Pretty simple.

Structured Text Programming
Do-More Designer offers:
•   Ladder Logic
•   Stage Programming
•   The new Programs/Tasks that seem to work like Function Block programming
Will Do-More be offering structured text programming in the future?  When Siemens offered it in Step 7, it allowed the programmer to pick the right programming language for the task (or the right tool for the job.)

Structured Text? The short answer is "yes, eventually". We'd like to do SFC, FBD, and ST. The eventually part is just that we have so many wants it's going to take a bit to get there.

Debugging
Will Do-More Designer be offering BREAKS for debugging code (similar to C# programming in Visual Studio?)  The current options are good, but seem to execute the entire scan from Top to Bottom.  If I had a 10 rung code, I would like to set a break at rung 5, and move to rung 6 only after I’ve advance the program.

Breaking ladder logic is kind of tough. It's doable, Programs and Tasks essentially do it already, but was more complexity than we wanted to engage initially. We intentionally chose to stick to the stuff that we knew we could nail, but are open to trying more stuff going forward. I have a guiding design philosophy: "I'd rather apologize to 20% of the market for what I don't do, than to 100% for what I did poorly".

Will C-More be supporting Custom Memory Blocks from Do-More as Nicknames/Tagnames.  I understand that this is not your issue.  I just thought that you may have some information regarding the subject.

Sorry, I don't know anything about C-more's development plans.

[BobO]

Did Frank forward you the answers to your questions?  I answered all of these for you last week.

I did get the forward from Frank. When I sent the original email to Frank, I mistakenly thought he was forwarding my email to Host Engineering.  I did not understand that I was sending my email to an ADC guy, that would be forwarding to an ADC guy, that would be forwarding to a Host guy.  He called you by name, but I thought you were with Host.  Once I realized how many channels the forward was going to have to go through, I thought it best to eliminate some of the channels.  I hope I did not step on toes.  I just thought I would go strait to the source and open up a dialog.

You are welcome to post here anytime. Customer feedback is absolutely critical to product improvement. Please do so...often.

[MAEdwards]

In a MATH box, do

Code: [Select]

3.322 * log(MyIntRegister)
and assign it to an integer type (N or V).  That will give you the MSB position.
[/quote]

Thank you so much.

[MAEdwards]

I just want to thank:

ADC Product Engineer
Controls Guy
BobO

Each of you have been very helpful.  I expect to learn a lot from viewing your many posts.

[rickshea1]

We have about 7 Terminator Do Mores in the field. All work well but one (1). The CPU will turn itself "OFF" and than back "ON" maybe twice in 8 hours for no reason. We've check all the wiring and all the wiring is good. We use the Terminator 24 vdc power unit only to supply the CPU. We use a separate P.S. for the rest of the I/O. We've replaced the CPU but have the same results. Two of my thoughts are 1. replace the power supply. 2. This company has two (2) or three (3) rather large transformers with-in 4 feet of our machine could this cause a problem?

Has anybody else had a problem like this?

[BobO]

What is the value contained in DST385?

[MAEdwards]

Custom Data Types would be really neat for the next generation of the Do-More.
Example:

A motor has several characteristics:
Speed: REAL
Amperage: REAL
Running Status: BIT

So, Motor could be a CLASS, while Speed, Amperage, and Running Status could be a METHOD.

If Motor.Speed > 0 then
SET Motor.RunningStatus;
End If;

Is this a possibility later down the road?  If this is already a feature, then I apologize.  I just haven't found it yet.

[franji1]

Is this a possibility later down the road?

Definitely.  We refer to them as User Structures.  For the exact reasons you specified (and more).  But, they are still on the drawing board.  But it is at or near the top!

[MAEdwards]

Thanks, Franji1!  This is great news.

[Controls Guy]

What does it do to make program structures retentive?  Remembers status bits like .Running, .Done, and so on and last yield point on a program to run transition?