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

[BobO]

Actually just looking at the effort on the program run/exit...it would be pretty easy. Task is still difficult though.

[Controls Guy]

This is hard-ish. Stages control their state internally, but programs and tasks work very closely with their enabling instruction. It isn't impossible, but it isn't particularly straightforward either. Of the requests, running and stopping a program would be the easiest. Tasks would be considerably harder.

I tend to think the ability would be less useful with tasks anyway.  Seems a more natural fit for the way programs are normally enabled.  Turning them OFF would be trickier but I think there's already a mechanism for aborting from the outside so this would have to tie into that and work the same way that does I guess.

[Controls Guy]

Actually just looking at the effort on the program run/exit...it would be pretty easy. Task is still difficult though.

That's OK.  80/20 situation -- the easy one gets you the majority of the function anyway.

[BobO]

This is hard-ish. Stages control their state internally, but programs and tasks work very closely with their enabling instruction. It isn't impossible, but it isn't particularly straightforward either. Of the requests, running and stopping a program would be the easiest. Tasks would be considerably harder.

I tend to think the ability would be less useful with tasks anyway.  Seems a more natural fit for the way programs are normally enabled.  Turning them OFF would be trickier but I think there's already a mechanism for aborting from the outside so this would have to tie into that and work the same way that does I guess.

Mark and I were just chuckling about the fact that your opinion on the importance of tasks vs programs strongly implied that you were using them both correctly!!

I just finished writing the code to run and halt programs, as well as enable a task once...basically the edge triggered version. No reason we shouldn't get it into 1.1.

[plcnut]

I agree on the importance of Program control vs. Task control. I don't think I've had a need yet to disable a task from the UI, but especially on a Stage only Program when I've accidentally transitioned to a non-existent stage and have to write code to disable the Program externally. 

[Controls Guy]

Mark and I were just chuckling about the fact that your opinion on the importance of tasks vs programs strongly implied that you were using them both correctly!!

Woo hoo!  You knew the light would come on eventually, didn't ya?   

I just finished writing the code to run and halt programs, as well as enable a task once...basically the edge triggered version. No reason we shouldn't get it into 1.1.

Thank you!  That was the very best case of what I hoped would be feasible.

[Controls Guy]

Just change the display format.  Look here for details
http://forum.hosteng.com/index.php/topic,1128.0.html

Not so much.  What I was envisioning was a pure ASCII display (either your "ASCII" or "Quoted" modes is fine) with wrap.  Yes, I can get wrap by choosing a HEX mode, but then it takes 75% of the column width for the hex version of the display, which isn't what you want when the original issue is that the string is very long.  What HEX mode gives with one hand it takes away with the other.

So, feature request for wrap on ASCII and/or Quoted formats.

[plcnut]

I think you guys (Host) are experiencing "give us an inch and we'll take a mile" on this one. The Text/communications power that Do-more provides necessitates greater viewing/editing of Strings. It would be really nice to have a Copy/Paste field to view and edit even the largest Strings in run mode without doing a program update.
BUT I for one am very willing to be patient on this one realizing how much you guys have(are) put(ting) into this controller.

[Controls Guy]

Oh yeah, me too.  I don't mean to sound crabby, just clarifying what I think probably wasn't clear in my previous post.  And yes, it does seem weird after all the stuff they've packed in to be asking for even more.

[BobO]

We are neither surprised nor offended that you ask for stuff. Truth is that you wouldn't ask unless you believed that we could and we would. I take it as a compliment that you care enough to ask and have the confidence that will do something about it.

[Controls Guy]

That's exactly the confidence I have.  Still getting used to learning by observation how edges and other conditions are viewed by programs, but I'll get there.

Loving DM!  Just completing my first project in it and besides the stuff that was just easier to write than a DL there are several items you just could not do, period.  Custom protocol TCP comms, multiple-port Modbus RTU with SERIO cards, etc.  Thank you!

[BobO]

Still getting used to learning by observation how edges and other conditions are viewed by programs, but I'll get there.

Some of the string processing stuff most associated with custom comm was made edge triggered unnecessarily. We've fixed that in 1.1, where we've made them optional. We created some situations with edge triggering that are just...well...hard. Easily our biggest mistake of 1.0 and proves that no matter how much you get right, you're only one lapse of judgement from a mess. The good news is it wasn't hard to fix. The bad news is that otherwise simple stuff got hard...and some of you early adopters paid the price in confusion.

[Controls Guy]

I think what was non-intuitive for me was the interaction of edge-sensitivity when placing edge-triggered instructions in non-continuous code-blocks.  That's why I was saying "programs"; trying to figure out how an edge triggered instruction would work when inside a non-$Main block and what method was appropriate for generating edges in that context.

Anyway, like I said, I'm still working my way up the learning curve, but boy is it worth it!

[BobO]

I think what was non-intuitive for me was the interaction of edge-sensitivity when placing edge-triggered instructions in non-continuous code-blocks.  That's why I was saying "programs"; trying to figure out how an edge triggered instruction would work when inside a non-$Main block and what method was appropriate for generating edges in that context.

Another key distinction between tasks and programs, and no doubt a driving force behind you arriving at the proper use of each. Programs are continuous when running, so edge behavior is just like $Main...which is in fact just a program that we start automatically and don't let terminate. Tasks and edges can work too, but tasks don't have to be continuous and can cause all manner of confusion when they are not. This is why the program check will warn you in certain cases.

Do-more definitely has a learning curve when you wish to venture beyond basic ladders in $Main, but as I think you have found, the rules do make reasonable sense once you understand what is going on and why. And the payback is well worth the effort to learn, which I think you have also discovered.

I'll admit it, I'm pretty smitten with this controller, and I guess am pretty insufferable as a product papa. But I can tell you this is waaay more fun than constantly making excuses for a bad product.

[DLTimmons]

I'll admit it, I'm pretty smitten with this controller, and I guess am pretty insufferable as a product papa. But I can tell you this is waaay more fun than constantly making excuses for a bad product.

Having spent two day just getting an AB Compactlogix programmed as a backup and I had the program already, just shows how much better the Do-More is! You can't even go on AB web site and look for info without a "TechConnect" contract. I just love the fact you do not have to have a dozen program activations to use designer. We do a lot of in house control work and we use AD for everything that is possible. As the senior control engineer here I told everyone to use Do-Mores on all new projects except small projects that will get Clicks. Main reason free software that does not have actiction that has caused more problem than we have ever had from all AD products we have used.

Is there plans for things like DeviceNet scanners for the Do-More? I could then get rid of a few CompactLogix PLCs using DeviceNet for all I/O that came in on some equipment we bought. I'm fixing to have to make some major changes to the programs and be a great time to can them