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MECHATROLINK Members Association

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Q1: Is any other documentation required to become a member besides the application form?
Q2: Can anybody join?
Q3: Is there a membership fee to join, or an annual cost to members?
Q4: What are the benefits of being a member?
Q5: I am considering developing for MECHATROLINK, can I become a member?
Q6: Can I change my membership ranking after I've already joined?
Q7: Is there an additional fee when changing member registration information, or when changing membership ranking?
Q8: We would like to change the individual in our company who currently handles communication with MMA.
Q9: Can two separate departments in our company log in at the same time?
Q10: Can I change the password once I've joined?
Q11: I forgot my login ID and password.
Q12: How do I order a catalog?
Q13: Although I am registered as a Registered Member, can I still purchase the Simple Kit and ASIC files?

Q1: Are MECHATROLINK compatible products devices that can use MECHATROLINK in common use?
Q2: I see that you have both MECHATROLINK Ⅱ and MECHATROLINK-Ⅲ. Will MECHATROLINK-Ⅱ be discontinued?
Q3: What are the features of MECHATROLINK-Ⅱ?
Q4: What are the features of MECHATROLINK-ⅡI?
Q5: We are looking for MECHATROLINK-compatible products that we can use with our company's system, but have unfortunately been unable to find anything. As we have experience developing network products, we would like to develop a MECHATROLINK device that we can use with our company's system. Is this possible?
Q6: A MECHATROLINK-Ⅱ network has terminal resistance at each end of the network, but I can't find any terminal resistor products for MECHATROLINK-Ⅲ.
Q7: MECHATROLINK is supposedly an open-network, but does the MMA conduct product certification?
Q8: Is there a set period of time when someone has to apply for a product to be certified by the MMA?
Q9: I would like to purchase a MECHATROLINK-compatible products.
I would like an estimate on a MECHATROLINK-compatible product.

Q1: Can subcommands always be used in the 32-byte mode of MECHATROLINK-Ⅱ?
Q2: When the subcommands are available, subcommands are not always required for whole operation in M-II (32-byte mode).What kind of measures are necessary, when not using subcommands?
Q3: Which timing does the slave station establish the connection with the master station?
Q4: Although the transmission cycle can be changed for MECHATROLINK-Ⅱ, the Servodrive that I'm using does not have a switch to set the transmission cycle. What do I need to do to set the transmission cycle on the Servodrive?　
Q5: Station addresses are separated by device type with MECHATROLINK-Ⅱ, but how are they separated?
Q6: Do the transmission cycle and communications cycle have to be the same for the same transmission line?
Q7: The slave devices have a dip switch for setting the node address, data size, etc., but I can't find the switch that sets the comm. cycle. How am I supposed to set it?
Q8: Can commercially available USB cables be used for MECHATROLINK?
Q9: How are communication retries carried out in a MECHATROLINK-Ⅱ network? And what happens when a communication error occurs beyond the set communication retry count?
Q10: In the description of the procedure from membership to product release it is stated that "certification testing is not mandatory", but are there any restrictions or other considerations if no certification testing is done?
Q11: When creating a MECHATROLINK-Ⅱ master or slave device, what ASIC should be selected?
Q12: What is the reason that the minimum cable length in the MECHATROLINK-Ⅱ network is 0.5 m?
Q13: In the MECHATROLINK-Ⅱ network is there transmission delay that occurs at each node?
Q14: I would like to use parts that are not listed as recommended parts.

MECHATROLINK-Ⅱ

Q1: Are 15 slave stations connectable to communication LSI JL-080 in M-I?
Q2: Does access driver perform management of communication phase?
Q3: If a product has passed certification testing and is then upgraded, can it still be treated as a certified product?
Q4: The maximum number of slave stations in the sample source code for the JL-080 master is set to seven (#define SLV_ST_MAX 7 /*Maximum Number of Slaves */), but is it ok to connect just three slave stations?
Q5: Communications are impossible if the WDT is set when initializing the ASIC in the master. (That is, communications are not possible if the WDT monitoring time (ms) is set.) What is the problem?
Q6: With a slave, the address, baud rate, and data size are read from the DIP switches and set in the MECHATROLINK ASIC, but how is the transmission cycle set?
Q7: Some commands can be used in any phase, but how should a slave respond if any of these command is received before receiving the CONNECT command?
Q8: What sequence is used to confirm the completion of MECHATROLINK-Ⅱ commands for which processing cannot be completed within one communications cycle? For example, if the CONFIG command is received from the master and the slave cannot complete processing for it within one communications cycle, what processing should the slave and master perform to confirm completion of the command?
Q9: If the master continues to send the same command while CMDRDY is 0, would not the slave accept the same command as soon as CMDRDY is changed to 1 and set CMDRDY to 0 again, creating an endless loop?
Q10: How should a slave respond if it is in warning status and the master sends the next command without clearing warnings and alarms?
Q11: Is a different command (e.g., NOP) sent so that the master knows when CMDRDY changes from 0 to 1? How should a slave respond if a command is sent?
Q12: In the slave we are developing, there are some alarms that cannot be cleared by using the ALM_CLR command to clear alarm/warning. Should CMDRDY be set to 1 when clearing is possible and set to 0 when clearing is not possible?
Q13: The master can detect alarms by looking at the status in the response from the slave, but how are communications error detected with a JL-052 slave?
Q14: How is data stored for the LATCH command, for example, when the latch position is 12345678H?
Q15: Is the JL-080 error output signal ERR1L latched inside the ASIC?
Q16: No interrupts occur in the JL-080 used in a master. What is wrong?
Q17: Is it better to use an external RAM for the JL-080?
Q18: Is detailed documentation available on the interface registers in the JL-080?
Q19: In MECHATROLINK-Ⅱ, what do the terms synchronous and asynchronous mean in cyclic communication?Also, it seems that there are commands for synchronous communication and commands for asynchronous communication, but what should we look at to distinguish them?
Q20: We are developing a MECHATROLINK-Ⅱ slave device: is it possible to increase the volume of data that a single MECHATROLINK-Ⅱ slave station can transmit and receive?
Q21: What is the update timing for I/O data when a JL-052 is used in the standalone mode?
Q22: What is the update timing for I/O data when a JL-080 is used in the standalone mode?

MECHATROLINK-Ⅲ

Q1: We connected an ICE and JTAG module for debugging the master device that we're developing. When we tried stepping through line by line, no interrupts were executed. Why is this?
Q2: Why doesn't the LINK LED light up when I connect the master to the slave device that we developed?
Q3: We are developing a slave device, but we can't get the interrupts to work even when we initialize the MECHATROLINK comm. ASIC. Why is this?
Q4: We would like to use a cable with an RJ-45 connector on one end and an IMI connector on the other. How should the line be bundled? Are there any RJ-45 connectors you would recommend?
Q5: Is the positioning reference for servo operation in the standard servo profile (POSING, etc.) relative positioning or absolute positioning?
Q6: When the comm. cycle is at least twice as long as the transmission cycle, does the transmission cycle write the same data after writing with the comm. cycle?
Q7: When developing a slave device, is it possible to check operation with the slave device alone?
Q8: When developing a slave device, what kind of master device is needed to verify operation with event driven communications?
Q9: What are the conditions to send an interrupt from the slave device during cyclic communications?
Q10: Are interrupts executed during event-driven communications with the slave device?
Q11: The send-receive buffer in the ASIC used in MECHATROLINK-Ⅲ is an alternating buffer. How much time does it take to replace data in the send-receive buffer?
Q12: I would like to know more about the memory map of the Communication ASIC.

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