MLX300: How to Change Application Data Allocations

All MLX300 application data is stored in the PLC.    This includes the number of jobs, tool, user frames, cubic interference zones and the number of teach points per job.    Note that the term “Job” has been carried over from the previous generations of MLX.    It’s really defined as a list of teach points.   It was termed “Job”, because there could be multiple jobs (lists) that could organize the points for particular tasks of the application or for particular robot numbers.   Note that on the MLX Teach Screen on the robot pendant, this term was changed to “List”.

As a default, the standard software is setup for the following allocations: 
(this could change with future versions)

• Number of Jobs = 5
• Number of Teach Points per Job = 20
• Number of Tools = 10
• Number of User Frames = 20
• Number of Cubic Interference Zones = 15

Referring to the Application Data tags shown below, at the bottom the total allocation for each item can be defined.   These tags are only used for the HMI and MLX Teach Screen so that the items number can’t be increased on the display higher than the maximum.   The tag arrays for all the application data are shown above the total number tags.

CHANGING THE ALLOCATION

To change the allocation of an item requires two steps.  

1. Change the total number for that item.
   1. For example, change the total number of jobs to 10, and the total number of teach points per job to 50.
      
2. Change the size of the UDT (User Defined Tag) for those items.
   1. Access the MLxApplicationData UDT.   This will define the array sizes for Jobs, Tools, User Frames, Cubic Interference Zones, and Conveyor Tracking.
      1. For this example, the MLxAppDataJob array needs to be changed from 5 to 10.
         
   2. Access the MLxAppDataJob UDT. 
      1. For this example, the MLxAppDataTeachPoint array was changed from 20 to 50.
         

USER FRAME AND CUBIC INTERFERENCE NUMBERING EXPLANATION

In the past, all the PLC application item numbers started with 0.   Now that the robot pendant can be used to perform all operations, this has caused some confusion, because the robot controller numbers for the user frame and cubic interference zones start at 1.   The tool numbers were not an issue, because they started with number 0 on the robot controller.

To resolve this inconsistent numbering, on the MLX300 software release for version v4.2.0, the tag arrays are shifted in the PLC so that the first user frame and cubic IZ number starts at “1” to match the controller numbers.  

Refer to the picture under 2.a. above.   The tag arrays for User Frames and Cubic IZs need to be sized one higher than the actual total number.    For example, the total number of user frames is 20, but the UDT array size must be set to 21.