How to use Variable and I/O Names on Smart Pendant

Both Variables and I/O Signals can be given names using Smart Pendant. This is useful for categorizing these values and for searching these values from Variable or I/O panels. These names can also be displayed on the INFORM code to make jobs more readable (e.g. “JointMove PickPosition VJ=50.00” instead of “JointMove P007 VJ=50.00”). The following sections will describe how to create Variable or I/O Names and then how to use them in an INFORM job.

Setting Variable Names

The main Variable Screen can be access from the Main Menu by selecting {Program/Operate}->{Variables}. Note: there is also a half-screen version of this panel with the same functionality that can be accessed while editing a job.

To enter a name, first switch to the desired variable type (e.g. (D)ouble in picture below). Then, select the variable number, press the Text Field for the name, and then enter the desired name on the keypad.

After entering the value, the variables can be searched based on their names. For example, typing “p” into the search box will display all Variable names of the current type with a “p” in their names.

Setting I/O Names

The main I/O Screen can be accessed from the Main Menu by selecting {Program/Operate}->{I/O}. Note: there is also a half-screen version of this panel with the same functionality that can be accessed while editing a job.

To enter a name, select either {Input} or {Output} on the tab bar (e.g. {Output} in picture below). If in Group View, select the desired I/O group in the left panel and then the desired I/O signal in the right panel. Then, press the TextField for name and entered the desired name.

In Individual View, simply select the desired I/O signal, press the Text Field, and enter the desired name.

After entering the value, the variables can be searched by name similar to the Variables.

Using Variable and I/O names in INFORM

As an example, see the job below that contains a motion instruction that uses the D variable defined before for Position Level, and a DigitalOut instruction that uses the Output signal defined before. By default, these will just be displayed as numbers as shown below.

To display the names in the INFORM code, select the Display icon in the INFORM header bar, and then select {Tool Names} and {I/O Names}.

Now, the INFORM code will display these values by their names. One thing to note is that you can no longer edit these values in-line once they are displayed by name. To edit these values, open the Detailed Edit panel.