Logic IO Newsletter
November 24, 2009


Dear RTCU User,

Another year is approaching the end - a very tough year due to the deep global financial crisis, that has been and is still with us. In the M2M business the situation seems to improve, and in the past 2 months we have been challenged to cope with the increase in demand for our products. We hope, that this positive trend continues into 2010 for the benefit of our partners, customers and suppliers!
 

As the financial crisis impacted our business this year, we are even prouder once again to receive the prestigious AAA (Triple-A) credit rating, the highest obtainable from D&B. Only approximately 2% of all Danish companies are currently able to maintain the AAA rating!
Read more here!

Receiving the AAA (Triple-A) in the current financial situation combined with the fact, that we have been in the business for almost 10 years makes the clear and strong statement, that
Logic IO is a strong, reliable and trustworthy partner for now and the future.


This newsletter announces major software releases, as the X32-firmware for the MX2i and DX4 Series are now released in version 2.00. The RTCU IDE is released in version 5.50.
The combined features of these releases are quite astonishing and include: SMTP support, up to 2.5 times more code-space, 3.5 times more data-space and 25% more voice memory!!
This huge boost in memory capacity does NOT even require a new more expensive unit - just a simple and free firmware upgrade and of course the new (and free!) RTCU IDE V5.50.
This is the Seasonal present of the year from Logic IO!

Please get even more excited by continuing to read all the details below...
 

Season's Greetings and a Happy New Year

...from the Logic IO Team!
 

** Vacation Notice **
Logic IO will be closed from December 23, 2009 until January 3, 2010 (both days included).
During this period support will be limited and only available through email.


Firmware V2.00 for the RTCU MX2i / DX4 Series


This is a major release of the X32-firmware with exciting news such as support for SMTP alllowing the application to send e-mails with attachment directly to your in-box!
There is also support for the advanced X32 compilation mode available in the new RTCU IDE 5.50. This feature is offering up to 2.5 times more code-space for REALLY HUGE VPL programs by using part of the Voice memory. In the X32 compilation mode there will also be an increase of the data-space (RAM) available to the VPL program of astonishing 3.5 times -- and if this is not enough, there is additionally 25% voice memory available.


The full list of news:

Enhancements:

  •  X32 mode with user defined VPL/Voice memory ratio yielding a  2.5X
     increase in code-space!
  •  ...dramatic increase of 3.5X in VPL data-space (RAM) and a +25%
     increase in Voice memory!
     
  •  Full SMTP support.
     It is possible with this exciting feature to send emails with attachment
     directly from the unit!
  •  I/O Extension and MODBUS support for the MX2i Series.
  •  Full support for two I/O Extension nets operating seperately as master/slave.
  •  ID-Button functionality (owiButtonWriteData/owiButtonReadData) to
     Read/Write to ID-Buttons!
  •  Increased stability and performance when using the 1-Wire functionality.  
  •  Function (gsmSendFlashSMS) to send a 'flash' SMS message appearing immediately
     on receivers mobile-phone.
  •  Function (gwTimeGet) to get Local / UTC time from the
     GPRS Gateway time-synchonization service.
  •  Number of user-defined characters in displayDefineChar increased to 32.
  •  + other minor enhancements. 

Bug Fixes:

  •  Power management on the DX4 did not work correctly in relation to the
     dedicated RS485 channel.
  •  navDeviceSerial could return negative number. Now changed to return a string.
  •  navEtaAutoSet did not work correctly with no active stops.
  •  navMessageReplyReceive returned wrong timestamp.
  •  GPRS recovery boot #1 after prolonged connection problems to network.
  •  Seldom case of prolonged time for GPRS session establishment in some networks.
  •  Powering up the GSM-module on the DX4 Series could in special cases
     take several minutes to finish.
  •  gsmGetProvider may return 0, even that gsmConnected returns TRUE.
  •  UDP/IP functions not working.
  •  + other minor bug-fixes.


Most of the above features also requires the installation of the new RTCU IDE 5.50.

Please download from www.logicio.com


RTCU IDE V5.50

This is a major release of the RTCU IDE with exciting news such as an advanced X32 compilation mode giving up to 2.5 times more code-space for REALLY HUGE VPL programs by using part of the Voice memory. In the X32 compilation mode there will be an increase of the data-space (RAM) available for to the VPL program of astonishing 3.5 times -- and if this is not enough, there is additionally 25% voice memory available.
All this is available on ANY X32 based unit with only a firmware upgrade to V2.00 and the installation of the new RTCU IDE 5.50!!

Another major new feature is the support for passing reference parameters to a FUNCTION. Using the new keyword ACCESS as an attribute to VAR_INPUT variables, it is possible to return an arbitrary number of parameters back to the caller of the function.
 


The full list of news:

General Enhancements:

  •  X32 mode with user defined VPL/Voice memory ratio yielding a 2.5X
      increase in code-space!
  •  ...dramatic increase of 3.5X in VPL data-space (RAM) and a +25%
     increase in Voice memory!
  •  Compiler support for passing reference parameters to a FUNCTION with
     new ACCESS keyword.
  •  Two I/O Extension Nets can be configured.
  •  SMTP functions included in Help and Wizard.
  •  Functions added to Help and Wizard: gsmSendFlashSMS, gwTimeGet,
     owiButtonWriteData and owiButtonReadData.
  •  New improved Garmin Navigation sample project.
  •  Improved installation, including the Microsoft Visual C++ 2005
     Redistributable Package being automatically installed.
  •  Connect to unit using GPRS Gateway now includes drop-down with last entries used.
  •  Keyboard Accelerator table included in the on-line help.
  •  New SMTP - Tank Monitoring - sample project included in installation.
  •  + other minor improvements.

Simulator Enhancements:

  •  gwTimeGet support.
  •  Full support for the new SMTP functions.
  •  gsmSendFlashSMS support. 
  •  + other minor enhancements.

Bugs which have been fixed in this release:

  •  Restart of Simulator with serial port in use failed.
  •  Simulator: navMessageSend returned -2, when using user replies.
  •  Simulator: Creation of 2GB SD-CARD not possible.
  •  Projects with I/O Extensions could sometimes be created in a non-X32 project.
  •  Compiler: Access of data-space > 64 KB generated incorrect code.
  •  Voice recorder using low-quality recording did not work on all sound-cards.
  •  + other minor bug-fixes.


Many of the above features also requires upgrade to the new X32-firmware V2.00.


By using the new ACCESS attribute in a function it is possible to pass a parameter
by reference
. The standard parameters pass method is by value.

When a parameter is passed by value, a copy of the parameter is made. Therefore, changes made to the formal parameter by the called function is not possible and will therefore have no effect on the corresponding actual parameter.

When a parameter is passed by reference, conceptually, the actual parameter itself is passed (and just given a new name -- the name of the corresponding parameter). Therefore, any changes made to the formal parameter do affect the actual parameter. For example:

   FUNCTION test;
   VAR_INPUT
      a 
: ACCESS INT;
    END_VAR;
      a 
:= + 1;
    END_FUNCTION;

 
  VAR
         x : INT := 10;
 
 END_VAR
;

   test
(a:=x);


In this example 'test's parameter is passed by reference by the use of the ACCESS attribute. Therefore, the assignment to 'a' in 'test' is actually changing the variable 'x', so the value of 'x' after the function call will be 11.
It is even possible to pass a STRUCT_BLOCK to a function using the ACCESS attribute. For additional information please refer to the RTCU IDE documentation.

The ACCESS attribute works on ALL UNITS (except SMALL memory models) and with any firmware version.

 

Please download from www.logicio.com


RTCU Communication Support Package (CSP) V1.20

The latest release of the RTCU Communication Support Package V1.20 includes the following enhancements:

Enhancements:

  •  Support for X32 compiled projects with increased memory and
     user defined code-space / voice ratio.
  •  The target ICP004 (DX4) was missing in past H files.
  •  Country code with the format +XX establishing a CSD session, was fixed to work.


The RTCU CSP V1.20 is used in the RTCU IDE V5.50.
 
Please download from www.logicio.com

For further questions or enquiries:





Logic IO ApS
Holmboes Allé 14
8700 Horsens
Denmark
Telephone: +45 7625 0210
Fax: +45 7625 0211
info@logicio.com
www.logicio.com

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