Chapter 5 Command Basics; Introduction; Command Syntax - Ascii - Galil Motion Control DMC-1600 Series User Manual

Chapter 5 Command Basics

Introduction

The DMC-1600 provides over 100 commands for specifying motion and machine parameters.
Commands are included to initiate action, interrogate status and configure the digital filter. These
commands can be sent in ASCII or binary.
In ASCII, the DMC-1600 instruction set is BASIC-like and easy to use. Instructions consist of
two uppercase letters that correspond phonetically with the appropriate function. For example, the
instruction BG begins motion, and ST stops the motion. In binary , commands are represented by
a binary code ranging from 80 to FF.
ASCII commands can be sent "live" over the bus for immediate execution by the DMC-1600, or
an entire group of commands can be downloaded into the DMC-1600 memory for execution at a
later time. Combining commands into groups for later execution is referred to as Applications
Programming and is discussed in the following chapter. Binary commands cannot be used in
Applications programming.
This section describes the DMC-1600 instruction set and syntax. A summary of commands as
well as a complete listing of all DMC-1600 instructions is included in the Command Reference
chapter.

Command Syntax - ASCII

DMC-1600 instructions are represented by two ASCII upper case characters followed by
applicable arguments. A space may be inserted between the instruction and arguments. A
semicolon or <enter> is used to terminate the instruction for processing by the DMC-1600
command interpreter. Note: If you are using a Galil terminal program, commands will not be
processed until an <enter> command is given. This allows the user to separate many commands
on a single line and not begin execution until the user gives the <enter> command.
IMPORTANT: All DMC-1600 commands are sent in upper case.
For example, the command
PR is the two character instruction for position relative. 4000 is the argument which represents the
required position value in counts. The <enter> terminates the instruction. The space between PR
and 4000 is optional.
For specifying data for the X,Y,Z and W axes, commas are used to separate the axes. If no data is
specified for an axis, a comma is still needed as shown in the examples below. If no data is
64 • Chapter 5 Command Basics
PR 4000 <enter> Position relative
DMC-1600