The ACR7000 family is supported by a new software tool, Parker Motion Manager (PMM). Parker Motion Manager combines the best of ACR-View and years of user feedback in a modern, user friendly and scalable software development environment. PMM is newly built and independent from ACR-View, allowing both software tools to be installed.
New Features include:
- Streamlined set-up Wizard
- Product specific status panels
- Improved terminal emulator
- New-look Oscilloscope tools
- Projects stored as single files for easy sharing and archiving
For ACR programmers new to Parker Motion Manager (PMM), many improvements have been implemented. Layout is similar in terms of having a connection, configuration wizard, program editor, status panels. This summary is a brief synopsis of major differences between the two development packages.
Parker Motion Manager software is available for ACR7000 stepper product, which is a compact 4axis stepper drive controller.
PMM will be expanded in the future to support the IPA (single axis servo drive controller) but will not support ACR9000 (multi-axis controller). The latter isn't possible as the ACR9000 had many options (usb, serial, CANopen, EthernetPowerlink) that would be too large an undertaking. A new product is in development for 9000 applications; contact your local Parker ATC distributor.
1. Both use ComACRserver which is installed with PMM or ACR-View6. If users have developed PC interfaces to the ACR9000 or IPA, these will work the same with the ACR7000.
2. When starting PMM users will immediately note Recent Projects allowing users to quickly jump in and get working. These are both on the optional Start Page and under File
Default is 9 files and can be changed.
As comparison, ACR-View had a scroll list of projects but not sorted by last used.
3. Uploading from an existing controller is now easier from the New Project window (File > New Project):
With ACR-View, users would have to create a new project, select the controller and then upload.
4. With Parker Motion Manager, projects are now stored as a single file (.pprj) making easier to transfer and share:
In ACR-View, projects were a folder with separate files for the .8k program, configuration, etc
5. In Parker Motion manager, System Code is generated every time on Finish.
In ACR-View, it was generated as users moved through the Configuration Wizard which caused issues if users re-opened the project and jumped around in the different sections to edit/tune/adjust settings.
6. Terminal window changes:
Users can now arrow up and arrow down rather than re-type commands. This much loved feature of power coders (from DOS windows of yester-year) is now available!
This is made possible as lines are now only sent when pressing enter.
A. Dedicated buttons for jumping between programs, LIST program, LIST with line numbers and Clear display.
B. Expanded buttons on the right for common commands (5 groups of 12 user buttons)
C. Expanded User buttons with multiple lines
D. The 4th and 5th group of buttons have been pre-populated with common commands.
Power users have full edit access and can re-use these groups but these pre-defined buttons help new users.
7. Defines is now in chart format making it easier for programmers to put in description for to name bits and parameters and constants.
8. Defines can be created directly from the Numeric Status panels by right-clicking:
9. PMM Windows can be docked, pinned or resized. This is a windows behavior Microsoft had expanded and evolved with .Net framework:
10. Configuration Wizard now includes Parker mechanics (actuators, precision tables and gearheads) for inches or millimeters.
This saves looking up the mechanics part numbering and catalog information to set the number of motor revs to in or mm
11. Same motor on multiple axis? Quickly populate the Configuration using Axis Copy (right-click on Axis):
12. Testing code and want to remove a section of code (comment out multiple lines)?
Rather than typing REM or ' at the beginning of each line, select the lines and use the below highlighted icon on the tool bar.
This was a feature added into ACR-View6 but not older versions of ACR-View but nice time-saver:
13. In ACR-View when doing a Find, the first instance was found and then the focus was set on the program editor. So when users pressed enter, it would remove that instance (inserting an enter).
In PMM, the focus reminds on the Find next window. So now when pressing enter, it'll move to the next instance allowing users to quickly move through the code instead of mouse clicking. Not a big change but a nice change for power users / heavy programmers. Yay!
14. Improved Servo Tuning screen and graphing!
Channel defaults set for standard motion tuning. Auto-Scaling so no more hunting.
Easy motion! Set the distance & time and the move shape, with optional s-curving and motion is already generated automatically:
What's the values of all the channels at the same point in time? Just mouse over!
No need to export to Excel (though that's still available for power users).
15. Product specific status panels
16. Oscilloscope now has Bits available to graph
ACR-View had this function with a work-around but now users can easily select Bits to visually graph these changes compared to other bits/parameters in their programs.
Related FAQ:
10/1/19 jh
12/3/19 jh added Axis Copy
1/8/20 jh added defines from numeric status,
1/13/20 jh added 12-14
7/31/20 jh added 15-16
