CAES ULTRA Machine Control ; Guidance Products Computer Aided Earthmoving System Caterpillar

Overview

There are two types of switch inputs; conditional switch inputs and physical switch inputs.

A conditional switch input occurs when a condition, or set of conditions, is met. For instance, a dump switch could be conditionally triggered to load material into the truck when the bucket reaches a specified angle as measured by its tilt sensor.

A physical switch input occurs when a hardware switch is manually activated by an operator.

Conditional Switch inputs

Conditional switch inputs are controlled by CAESultra. When CAESultra detects that a set of conditions has been met, then a conditional switch input is triggered. For example, when the bucket reaches the angle specified by the $ Excavator Dump Minimum Angle key, thenCAESultra triggers the dump switch and the material is loaded into the truck.

Physical Switch Inputs

CAESultra allows configuration of up to six separate physical switch inputs. The configurations available for these switches are:

Load - Loads the bucket with the material that the bucket is currently located in.

Dump - Dumps the material that is currently in the bucket into the truck.

Load/Dump - Alternates between loads and dumps.

Send Truck - Sends the current truck load of material and clears the relevant materials windows.

Clear Truck - Clears all materials that have been loaded into the current truck.

Ripper Engaged - Engages rippers for ripper mapping.

Machine Reverse - Puts the machine in reverse.

Menu Function - Performs any selected menu function. Used in conjunction with the "$ Switches Command" key.

Enter - Performs the keyboard "Enter" button function.

The physical switch inputs are connected through the digital data pins in the 70-pin Deutsch connector. The $ Switches Config key controls the switch types and inputs.

$ Switches Config - Determines how CAESultra interprets signals from external switches. These keys work in conjunction with the keypad.ini files.

Reference: For additional information on the $ Switches Config key, refer to Systems Operation, "Machine Configuration File".

Switches Command

Any function that is accessible through the CAESultra menu can be mapped to a physical switch. The menu function is mapped to a switch by specifying the function's command identity in the $ Switches Config key and in the $ Switches Command key.

$ Switches Command - Maps a menu command to a switch. When the switch occurs, then the menu command is activated.

A CAESultra function is mapped to a physical switch by assigning the command identity of the menu function to the appropriate switch.

The list of command identities is obtained using the following key in the Machine Configuration file.

$ Log Menu Ids - Lists the menu commands in the DiagMsgLog file when CAESultra is started. The command identities can be reviewed by opening this file.

Note: After the list has been generated, the $ Log Menu Ids key should be removed.

Reference: For additional information on these keys, refer to Systems Operation, "Machine Configuration File".

Pressure Switch Inputs

The dual GPS antenna excavator system uses a set of pressure switches that are treated separately from other physical switches. The switches are located on the hydraulic lines of both the stick and the bucket. When the bucket angle requirements have been satisfied, a dig state occurs when both of these pressure switches indicate a load.

Switch Diagnostics

The "Switches" dialog is used when troubleshooting switches. As shown in figure 1, this dialog contains both the configuration of each switch and the current state of each switch. Perform the following steps in order to open the Switches dialog.

1. Open the CAESultra main menu.

2. Select "Diagnostics" from the main menu.

3. Select "Switches" from the Diagnostics menu. The "Switches" dialog is opened.

Illustration 1	g01189316

Switch Configuration

The keys apply to switch configuration:

Until the release of CAESultra version 2003.1.0, the syntax for the switch configuration keys in the machine configuration file was the same as that for the keypad.ini file. After the release of CAESultra version 2003.1.0, the keys were modified to reflect the syntax of the keys in the machine configuration file.

These changes do not affect the format of the switch configuration keys in the keypad.ini file that is used for CD1040 displays. However, any other older format switch configuration keys must be updated to the new standard when CAESultra version 2003.1.0 or later is used.

Reference: For information pertaining to the formatting of switch configuration keys, refer to Systems Operation, "Machine Configuration File".