Connect V02.09.00 Release Notes

Last updated: 21st February 2017

Getting Started - Installation

Install Connect on Microsoft Windows (7 or later) by running the installation program provided. Your computer will need to have Microsoft .Net 4 installed too - in the unlikely event it hasn't the installer will download it from the internet, or you can obtain it directly from here. Note that installation may take some time, but please be patient.

Product Overview Tour

To help you get started with Connect there are some tour and tutorial videos you may watch on the web.

Installation Notes

1. The installer will replace previous versions of Unidrive M Connect during the installation. Normally, there is no need to un-install older versions.
2. Installation can take quite some time to complete - whilst waiting why not look at the getting started videos online!
3. The installation supports the following recommended operating systems and their minimum service pack: Windows 7 with SP1, Windows 8 and 8.1, Windows 10.

Changes in version V02.09.00 (from V02.08.02)

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• Improvements to parameter upload/download providing better resiliance to timeouts and clearer indication as to success, failure or cancellation.
• Support for deploying Machine Control Studio user programs to M200 and M300 drives (drive firmware V1.5 or later is required).
• Autotune tool will now detect if an SI-EtherCAT module has drive control.
• Parameter database updates for MCi2xx, SI-EtherCAT, SI-Profinet V2, M200-400, HS30, E200/300.
• Fixed an error converting from Commander SK to M200/M201 with regard to parameter 08.22.
• Various block diagram updates for F300, H300 and SI-I/O.
• The block diagrams for the EVC range of drives have been made clearer.
• Fixed a bug where using the keyboard to move up or down in a listings view would sometimes not work.
• A right-click context menu has been added to the option module tabs on a dashboard to make it easier to remove / move option modules.
• Corrected default value for motor rated speed (Pr5.008/Pr21.008) in RFC-A mode.
• Fixed an issue where the status information on dashboards for Ethernet interfaces wouldn't always update when online.
• Fixed bug where edited parameter captions in a new macro file wouldn't be saved.
• Other minor fixes.

Changes in version V02.08.02 (from V02.08.01)

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• Updated EVC drive databases.
• Updated SI-EtherCAT and SI-Applications Plus option databases to support latest firmware.
• Fixed an issue with help not being shown for Menu 17 on MCi210 modules.
• French translation improvements.

Changes in version V02.08.01 (from V02.08.00)

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• Added parameter database for the V2 built-in Ethernet module for Unidrive M600/70x that adds Profinet support.

Changes in version V02.08.00 (from V02.07.01)

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• Custom Parameters Support Support for displaying custom menu parameters has been added. Custom menus are defined alongside a user program for a drive using the Machine Control Studio application. Connect will automatically detect if any custom menus are present on a drive when adding the drive to the project, going online or uploading from a drive.
• SD card support Connect now allows you to write parameter files to an SD card that is plugged into your PC. That card can then be plugged into a drive (using an SD-Card/AI-Backup adaptor) and the parameters loaded in via the drive keypad or a special 'boot' parameter file. Connect can also read parameter files that have been created on the drive and stored on an SD card. This is all managed via a 'SD Card Manager' view in setup tools.
• Scan for new drives You can now scan for new drives and add them to an existing project via the "Add drives" drop-down in the ribbon. This may also be used to find drives where the connection settings have changed.
• Duplicating drive You can now duplicate drives in a project (right-click drive in tree and choose Duplicate).
• When creating a project by scanning for drives you can now choose which drives to add to the project by expanding the details section of the scanning window and using the checkboxes.
• It is now possible to extend the communications timeout. This may be helpful when you have intermittent timeouts or are connecting to drives via a higher latency connection (e.g. a VPN or remote link). Timeouts are extended by going to the Connection Settings of any drive in a project and pressing the Timeouts button. This is a global setting for all projects and drives.
• Various fixes in the Encoder set-up tool
• Firmware update tool will now prevent updating drive firmware using a serial connection at baud rates other than 19200 (unless using a KI-485 adapter at 115200 baud).
• Fixed issues updating Unidrive M200-400 firmware on drives set with US (1244) parameters.
• Fixed an issue where the dashboard pages for Ethernet option modules did not update correctly whilst online.
• Fixed an issue with the keypad programming tool when Connect is in the Italian language.
• Fixed an issue with option setup menus (15-17,24) not always updating when online and not being able to add parameters from them to a custom list or macro file.
• Fixed edited parameter captions not being saved with macro files.
• Fixed an issue when opening a project that has drives that reference newer parameter database versions than Connect is aware of.
• Fixed offline option module parameters potentially getting overwritten if you had edited the value whilst offline, then went online and back offline.
• When importing from CTSoft a check on the ratings is done and user will be asked to check if the rating is very different.
• Fix a scaling error with CTSoft import of stator resistance (5.017) on PCs not in US/UK region.
• Other minor bug fixes and reliability improvements.

Changes in version V02.07.01 (from V02.07.00)

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• Fixed source/destination column in parameter listings incorrectly showing "Invalid" when in certain locales.
• Fixed some issues with removing parameters from custom lists and macro file.
• Pressing CTRL+C no longer closes the project.
• Some translation improvements.
• Other minor bug fixes and reliability improvements.

Changes in version V02.07.00 (from V02.06.01)

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• New feature added for downloading or uploading the parameters of all drives in a project.
• Option module parameters can now be shown in custom lists.
• Parameter compare (against defaults or file) now produces more appropriate results: By default it will now show all parameters classed as "setup" parameters - effectively these are parameters that you would need to set on another drive of the same type to configure it in the same way (writeable and non-volatile). It also always shows parameters that don't have a default value (previously these may have not been shown). The upshot of this is that the results will differ somewhat from previous versions of Connect in that:
  • If parameters are set to default the compare-with-defaults results may still report some parameter differences. This is because the parameters in question (e.g. 03.025, Position Feedback Phase Angle, on a M700 in RFC-S mode) don't have a default value, therefore even if the value is zero it will still be shown as you may need to check the value if copying setting to another drive. The compare column will show a dash "-" if there is no default value.
  • The "Show Read-only Parameters" toggle button has been changed to toggle the showing of "Non-setup parameters". Non-setup parameters are typically informational volatile ones and can be ignored if setting another drive up the same.
  • With show non-setup parameters off, fewer parameter differences may be shown than previous versions of Connect. Previously many volatile writeable parameters were shown which are not necessary to set when cloning the setup to another drive as their values are lost when the drive is powered down anyway.
  • A small number of parameters important to the drive setup may not have been shown in previous versions of Connect. This is now resolved (Pr03.025 in M700 for example.)
• When exporting comparison results to a CSV file you can now specify additional columns to be added such as units and data size, and also whether to export the raw (numeric) value instead of the display value.
• When printing parameter or macro files the user notes are now included.
• Improved support of parallel/multi-module drives.
• Fixed ratings mismatch warning when downloading parameters to F300/H300 drives.
• On-board scope tool is available for regen drives.
• SI-Univeral Encoder option is now supported in the motor feedback tool.
• The range of various voltage related parameters (e.g. Pr05.009 on M600+) has now been updated to match that supported by the drive. Note that older drives may not support the higher maximum value.
• Connect will now remember the path last used when loading or saving a parameter file (per drive, per session).
• Renaming of a project, drive and parameter files in the tree is now possible (via context menu or F2).
• Improvements to the network scanner dialog:
  • If there are multiple comms connection paths to the same drive it will now only appear as one entry.
  • The identify feature which flashes network port lights has been renamed to wink and will now flash a compatible LCD keypad backlight to aid visual identification of the connected drive (providing the device is reachable). This is also now supported for drives on serial RTU comms.
  • Minor improvements to the unreachable device address assignment dialog and added the ability to optionally save the drive's parameters so the new address is retained if the drive is powered down.
  • CT Ethernet SW100 switch device will no longer be shown as an unconfigured drive.
• Autotune: Pr06.043 (control word enable) won't now be reset to zero after running.
• Commander SK parameter file converter: Corrected conversion of fan control parameter 6.45 so SK value of 0 gets converted to 2 such that the fan runs normally whereas previously it was left as 0 meaning the fan was turned off.
• Fixed menu 3 block diagrams for M200-400 products not showing input/output frequency parameters.
• Fixed menu 14 PID block diagrams for M200-400 products and missing menu 8 diagram for M400.
• Fixed menu 19 parameter help links
• Double-clicking branch/folder items in the project tree now expands/collapses them apart from the drive and "Dashboard" items which will continue to work as a quick way to bring up the dashboard view. Holding the CTRL key down when double-clicking will swap the behaviour.

Previous Changes

Release notes for previous versions are available online

Known Issues

• Discovery over EoE: Connect fails to discover dives when connected to an EtherCAT module via EoE. Communication over EoE can be achieved by manually adding a drive to a project and configuring its address.
• M702 I/O: Unidrive M702 with V01.13.xx firmware contains parameters for analogue input 3 in readiness for a future hardware upgrade to the Unidrive M702 (currently these parameters have no effect). This results in Unidrive M Connect also showing these parameters in the parameter listings and I/O setup tool. Also, with this and previous firmware versions, the I/O setup tool in Connect does not show digital I/O terminals T7 and T8 however they are still fully configurable via the block diagrams or parameter listings views.
• Option module parameters appearing red: When you open a project created in a V1.x of Unidrive M Connect you may see option module parameter values appearing in red. This was due to a bug in older versions of Connect (which has since been fixed). To resolve this upload the values from the drive or default the option modules parameters (by going to the option module dashboard and selecting 'Default Parameters').
• Error '0x80072ee7 - Unspecified error' during installation may happen if .Net Framework 4.0 is not installed and the installer cannot find it to install, or cannot connect to the internet to download it.