Upgrades

Purpose

Collect upgrade notes and migration checklists for major versions.

Release Notes

New features are described in ecmc RELEASE.md: https://github.com/epics-modules/ecmc/blob/master/RELEASE.md

v10 -> v11 Highlights

  • CSP-PC mode added (centralized position loop in CSP)
  • Position-velocity-time (profile move) support
  • Motor record PID fields still limited to 0..1.0; use values 100x smaller than native ecmc settings

Be careful when using motor record PID fields.
Example: ecmc Kp=1.0 corresponds to motor record PCOF=0.01.

Breaking Changes in v11

  • getAxisStatusStructV2 removed (plugins need rebuild)
  • Event*, CommandList*, DataRecorder* removed (replace with PLC logic)
  • Motor record MtnCmd mbbo indices changed (prefer string writes, or update index-based clients)

Migration Checklist (v10 -> v11)

  • Auto-enable: move from motor record parameters to axis.autoEnable in YAML
  • Master/slave synchronization: replace PLC state machine logic with native addMasterSlaveSM.cmd
  • Limit logic: use plcOverride and write ax<id>.mon.lowlim/highlim in PLC code
  • Drive safety: ensure SDO verification is executed for every used drive channel

Remove legacy motor-record auto-enable parameter strings:

# remove legacy:
# parameters: 'powerAutoOnOff=2;powerOffDelay=-1;'

Use native ecmc auto-enable:

axis:
  autoEnable:
    enableTimeout: 1.0
    disableTimeout: 5.0
    atStartup: false

Native master/slave state machine

For virtual/physical synchronized systems, replace PLC-side state machine code with addMasterSlaveSM.cmd:

${SCRIPTEXEC} ${ecmccfg_DIR}addMasterSlaveSM.cmd "NAME=Slit_SM, MST_GRP_NAME=virtualAxes, SLV_GRP_NAME=realAxes"

If you have multiple systems, use unique NAME, MST_GRP_NAME, and SLV_GRP_NAME per system.

Limit logic via plcOverride

Use plcOverride in YAML and compute limits in PLC logic:

input:
  limit:
    forward: 'plcOverride'
    backward: 'plcOverride'

plc:
  enable: true
  externalCommands: true
  code:
    - ax${AX_ID=1}.mon.lowlim:=ec_chk_bit(ec0.s$(DRV_SID).binaryInputs01,0) and ec_chk_bit(ec0.s$(DRV_SID).ONE,0);
    - ax${AX_ID=1}.mon.highlim:=ec_chk_bit(ec0.s$(DRV_SID).binaryInputs01,1) and ec_chk_bit(ec0.s$(DRV_SID).ONE,1);

SDO verification for drives

v11 adds SDO verification workflow checks (mainly stepper/servo drives):

  1. addSlave.cmd marks drive channels that require SDO setup.
  2. applyComponent.cmd marks channels as configured after component application.
  3. Validation before iocInit fails if required channels are missing SDO configuration.

If a multi-channel drive has an unused channel, still configure it (for example Generic-Ch-Not-Used).