You asked for it - You got it!
This Pat's Corner has been dedicated to share some of ConveyLinx latest features and brand new tools for the ConveyLinx product line. We're offering many wonderful tools on our website in an effort to help you save time in the field during installation, commissioning and troubleshooting. Read on...
Lock It Up
EasyRoll, the ConveyLinx configuration and diagnostic tool downloadable from our website has a great new feature to allow you to "Lock"the modules. Most of you know that during the original installation of ConveyLinx one must find the most upstream ConveyLinx module and press the install button to start the installation process. The issue some customers ran into is that after the project and installation was complete someone would accidently or purposely press the install button again which would erase the Conveylinx commissioned settings. Insight Automation's solution to this issue was to create a digital "Lock". By going into EasyRoll, pressing the F2 key, and then clicking the "Network Services" tab you will now see a button called "Lock Selected Network" on the top right of the EasyRoll screen. Once you "Discover" all the modules on a system you can now select a specific subnet or the entire network and then click the "Lock Selected Network" button. After you've locked the network pressing the ConveyLinx install button will no longer start the automatic configuration process until the selected subnet has been "Unlocked" through EasyRoll.
Turn Your ConveyLinx or ConveyNetIP into a PLC
As most of you experts are aware, ConveyLinx and ConveyNetIP has been capable of being directly connected to a PLC's Ethernet port using Modbus TCP, Profinet or EthernetIP for direct control of motor rollers, zone status, speed control or used as general I/O. Recently we released our new ConveyLogix software onto our website, which is an easy to use ladder logic programming tool to customize and program our ConveyLinx or ConveyNetIP cards. Write a program in ConveyLogix and download it to a ConveyNetIP card to use it as a low cost PLC solution. Or, write a program in ConveyLogix and download to a ConveyLinx card for "Local" control of diverters, pushers, right angle transfers, stack lights, motor starters, and much much more. ConveyLogix gives you the flexibility to use our products as the intended ZPA solution, as General I/O, as a full PLC, or as a hybrid. Download the ConveyLogix Software and Manual here .
Network Monitoring
EasyRoll has always had excellent diagnostic tools built in for troubleshooting individual cards such as voltage issues, fault status, Motor status, and many other indicators, but it has always lacked the ability to troubleshoot physical media or network issues. The ConveyLinx Network Monitor allows you to monitor a single or range of ConveyLinx cards for issues such as bad physical media, faulty cards, network bandwidth, or unexplained packet loss. With ConveyLinx "Network Monitor" just Input a range of ConveyLinx IP addresses you'd like to monitor and click the start button to show a Graph of each module that it's monitoring and it's status.
Documentation and Troubleshooting Tool
Insight Automation released the "Backup Converter" on our website originally to give you a way to document your system's configuration in the form of a spreadsheet. Recently it is has come to our attention that it's also a great tool for long distance troubleshooting. Using the backup file from EasyRoll, the Backup Converter will instantly transform that file into an easy to read spreadsheet of the entire systems settings. System Settings such as module connections, firmware levels, motor profiles, sensor type, and the list goes on and on because it basically gives you all the information available in the card. You may download the easy to use Backup Converter here.
Please visit our ConveyLinx Software Revision Log for a full list of additions and fixes we've made recently to give you the most mature and stable ConveyLinx Firmware and EasyRoll software to date
If you have questions or would like to see a specific Pat's Corner let us know at support@pulseroller.com , by phone at (800-764-6356) or you can find me on Google+ to discuss.