EPICS: Allen Bradley
Driver and Device Support
Release Notes
Release 1-7

Release Notes April 2003

• License is an EPICS open source license.
• 1771DCM
  • Field DCMT has a new option PLCMultislot. See the EPICS allenBradley documentation for details.
  • get_float failed on a powerPC. Now fixed.
• 1771IFE - ab1771IFERecord posted monitors on OUTM even when output message did not change. Now fixed.
• 1771IX - ab1771IXRecord posted monitors on OUTM even when output message did not change. Now fixed.
• drvAb
  • Changed method of deciding if interrupt is from command or from a block transfer completion.
  • Improved debug messages. ab_debug=1 should now display a message whenever something fails, e.g. times out, etc.

Release Notes March 2002

• ab1771NRecord
  • If an error occurs when communicating with the 1771NSeries I/O module, the module is reinitialized.
  • Many fatal errors are now just abError.
• devAB1771IXE - Old IXE support
  • This now uses menuConvert.h to find the thermocouple type

Release Notes July 2001

• 1771DCM - put_short did not work.
• ab_reboot_hook - Only delete task if link is initialized.

Release Notes August 2000

• 32 bit digital output modules were not addressed correctly if 1 slot addressing is used.
• ab_reset did not work if "smart" records were active, i.e. records that issued block transfer requests
• ab_reset_link now accepts two argumants

ab_reset_link(firstLink,lastLink)

Release Notes July 2000

• ab1771NRecord - Module is not initialized until first time record is processed. This alows outputs output setpoints to be restored before the module is initialized.
• 1771DCM - The longin and longout records now retrieve data as short rather than unsigned short.

Updated: december 1999

Release Notes December 1999

• Changed ab_reboot_hook so that a busy loop waits for the AB scanner to stop talking. Previously this was a taskDelay which allowed active tasks to run.
• Changed ab_intr to allenBradleyIntHandler and made it global. When veclist is executed it is now obvious which interrupt vectors are used by allenBradley.

Release Notes August 1999

• Changed <top>/config so that it uses files are very simple
• Moved from unbundled to modules/bus
• Made release notes a separate document

Release Notes January 1999

• PROMS - Allen Bradley has not yet fixed a problem with the 6008-SXxR proms. At APS we are using version 1.1 proms. We make copies of these and replace the proms in each new scanner.
• Special support is now provided for the 1771-IFE module.
• drvAb now automatically retrys failed block transfer requests (10 retrys before failure).
  • ab1791Record no longer has fields RTRY and NTRY.
  • Each special record type that issues block transfer requests includes field LOCA (Loss of Communication Alarm).
• Rules for one slot and half slot addressing are completly different. The abConfigScanListAscii allows the user to define the logical addressing for each rack. The old rules will still work if the user does not specify the logical addressing or lies and says that a rack isd using 2 slot addressing even if it isn't. Users are strongly encouraged, however, to switch to the new rules.
• The source is now distributed as a completely separate <top> level application.