1998/01/05 Caterpillar

5130 (5ZL, 7TJ),
5130B (4CS),
5230 (7LL) Excavators;
785B (6HK),
789B (7EK),
793B (1HL),
793C (4AR) Trucks;
784B (5RK) Tractor;
992G (7HR),
994 (9YF) Wheel Loaders

Reference: Service Manual Module, SENR6059-04, "Vital Information Management System (VIMS)"

The VIMS-PC V2.4 Upgrade Software Package includes:

1. Caterpillar Common Services (CSS) Version 1.4.

2. VIMS-PC version 2.4.

3. Information System builder (ISB) Version 1.2.

To ensure compatibility it is necessary to upgrade all of the programs included in the upgrade package at the same time, in the order listed above. It is strongly advised to use this bundle of three software programs to replace all present versions. These software programs are fully backwards compatible and will function with all VIMS machines in the field.

This document provides a brief description of changes made to VIMS-PC Communicate, Analysis and Merge programs, Caterpillar Common Services and Information System Builder. The changes represent new features as well as improvements to existing functionality. This article is a summary of the readme and on-line help files released with the software programs. The readme and on-line help files can be accessed while the programs are operating. Refer to these files for further assistance in resolving setup and operational questions.

Caterpillar Common Services V1.4

* "CSSEXE" has been added to the path statement of the AUTOEXEC.BAT file to ensure a proper path.

* Database drivers have been modified to resolve compatibility problems with older database versions. VIMS-PC V2.4 and ISB V1.2 MUST be used with CSS V1.4.

NOTE: If a change has been made to the AUTOEXEC.BAT file, CSS will offer to reboot the computer. If no changes were made, the program will only display a message to reboot the computer.

* The install procedure for VIMS-PC has been changed to perform in the following manner:

New Install: A dialog box will inquire where the files to be installed are located (A:V is the default drive). No other dialog boxes will be displayed, installation starts automatically from this point.

Upgrade: The dialog box will display as with the new install, but will be followed by a screen inquiring whether to update or re-install VIMS-PC. Again, after this point the installation is automatic.

NOTE: The installation process for other software applications has not changed.

* The databases have been updated to increase accuracy on conversions.

VIMS-PC: Version 2.4

VIMS-PC V2.4 contains enhancements and improvements as listed below.

Changes Which Affect All Programs:

* The install process is improved to avoid error messages that are sometimes caused by variations in service tool hardware.

VIMS-PC Communicate:

* Communicate Preferences restricts the "Attempts to Communicate" to no less than five.

* The "View Real Time" function has been improved to prevent duplicate parameters from being displayed, each having a different value.

NOTE: The user may experience some scrolling problems in View Real Time. If so, use the keyboard arrow keys to scroll up and down rather than the scroll bar.

* The serial number/equipment number menu and date/time/SMH dialog buttons function are improved.

* During downloads, dynamic (short term working) memory and temporary disk space are required on the service tool. When insufficient space is available, the download will fail. Version 2.4 detects failures to open files, write, allocate memory, and copy the downloaded data. These failures are reported via a message box and the incomplete download files are deleted. If a download fails from insufficient disk space, delete unneeded files to create sufficient disk space and close any un-needed programs that may be running, then re-attempt the download.

* Downloads require temporary storage to copy data from the machine. Previous versions assumed a specific system temporary directory, "c:VwindowsVtemp". This directory may not be present in Windows 95, and causes the download configuration to fail without warning. VIMS-PC version 2.4 determines the appropriate system directory to use and creates it if needed.

* Configuration and other types of downloads including payload can now be downloaded directly to the "A:" drive.

* When the "A:" drive is used to download the configuration, significant time is spent copying the file from the temporary directory to the floppy drive. The hourglass cursor is now displayed during this time.

* ISB began including preceding spaces in the part number stored in configuration files. VIMS-PC uses this part number to create a file name on configuration download. To prevent illegal file names, all spaces, dots and slashes are replaced with underscores. This feature was revised in this version, to compress leading spaces before substitution, avoiding confusing file names.

* When there is no downloaded data, the download status indicates "no data" and no file is created.

VIMS-PC Analysis

Data file problems between VIMS-PC, CSS and ISB have been resolved. VIMS-PC V2.4 MUST be used with ISB V1.2 and CSS V1.4.

* Printing is more reliable in Windows '95. Improvements include printing datalogger and event recorder graphical reports.

NOTE: If a problem occurs while printing the "Browse Event List" in Windows '95, perform the following procedure. From the Start menu, select Printer from the Settings menu. In the Printers group box, double click on the desired printer. In the Printer menu, select Properties. Select the Detail tab. Press the Spool Settings button. Go to the Spool data format drop box and change the setting from EMF to RAW.

* The Browse Event List function shows events which triggered event recorders or data loggers in a column labeled "Link". When this event is highlighted, the event recorder or data logger may be run by pressing the respective button on the bottom of the panel. When the event recorder or data logger is entered this way, the "File" button is grayed out to limit visibility to only the event selected in browse.

* When selecting Event Recorder from Browse Event List if there is no data stored for the selected event, an error message will display to inform the user.

* Browse Event List and Report Event List display diagnostic events consistently.

* Browse Preferences maximum events displayed range is now 1 to 1000 (for Windows 3.11) or 1 to 10,000 (for Windows 95). "Combine Consecutive Events List Occurrences" checkbox now works as expected, combining repeated events (greater than five) into a single record.

* The Browse Event "Print" menu now allows selection between Date/Time and SMU.

Reports (Events/Trends/Cums/Histograms):

* All reports have been improved to produce reliable data values. Time range input defaults are correct on trend, cumulative and histogram report criteria menus.

* The Trend report, descending date/time sort has been disabled to prevent inconsistent results, especially with large files.

* Trends print correctly on all pages.

* Very large trend files require significant amounts of memory to be allotted. This version recognizes and alerts the user of memory allocation errors by displaying an error message, then returning to the menu.

NOTE: Large trend files may not be viewable on PC's with limited memory.

* Cumulative and Histogram historical reports now show all downloads that occurred between the entered time range.

* The histogram report shows the service meter hour the download occurred instead of the number of service hours contained in the download. This change to SMH now behaves like cumulatives.

NOTE: This change occurs during the conversion process. Files converted with earlier versions of VIMS-PC will not be corrected. This included both .HST and .HHS files.

* Histogram Tabular reports define "L/T/H" to mean "Low/Target/High".

* The Loader Payload Summary Report has been revised extensively.

* The Loader Payload report dialog does not gray out the SMH Mode time selection for summary reports.

VIMS-PC Merge

* A new merge function was added to merge VMCONFIG.MST files. Before viewing data collected by a different Service Tool (computer), use this merge feature to update your Service Tool (computer) with information contained in the VMCONFIG.MST of the other computer. Additional improvements were made to prevent the loss of data in VMCONFIG.MST. This resolves the data logger and event recorder download conversion errors.

Information System Builder Version 1.2

This release (V1.2) of Information System Builder is supported on Windows 3.1, Windows for Workgroups 3.11 and Windows 95. Information System Builder V1.2 includes a startup compatibility check that will notify you if an incompatible combination of CSS, VIMS-PC and ISB is installed.

Caterpillar Common Services and VIMS-PC must be installed prior to installing or running Information System Builder. You must use the Caterpillar Common Services Install program to install Information System Builder.

If you have a previous version of Information System Builder installed, you will be asked if you want to Reinstall or Upgrade. Usually, you will perform an Upgrade. Reinstall will write over your release and revision archive files, leaving configurations in your archives that Information System Builder cannot access. To regain access to these configurations in the archives, import them directly from the archive directories. Importing the archived files will create new files. The old files remain in the archives and can be deleted after restoration.

Improvements

* Two new keypad commands have been added to support new service program codes in the 9.5x class of VIMS source software.

* The revision description of an imported configuration file will display instead of the default revision description.

* The "Fpcs2BktMaxWt - Change not allowed" message will no longer be displayed during "Loader Payload Bucket" setup.

* When a configuration is imported by ISB any channels detected that are not contained in the VMCHAN.MST file (VIMS-PC), are entered into the CHANNF.LOG file. The CHANNF.LOG file is a text file that can be used by VIMS-PC support personnel to update the VMCHAN.MST file to match the configuration.

* Database crashes caused by dependency on VIMS-PC files and blank serial numbers have been eliminated.

* The problem with the title and font of the "All Sections Report" of Loader Payload set up have been resolved.

* The "View Payload Navigator" selection of the Preference Menu has been changed to "View Payload Tool Bar".

* The "Truck" set up "Weight Default" field has been made view only.

* The problem of primary and secondary languages being swapped in the Truck, Material and Delay Code menus have been resolved.

* The "Release" and "Revision" description fields of the Configuration Selector screen have been made read only.

* "Saving a Configuration" screen has been changed to make it clear to the user to enter a new configuration description.

Order Information

The VOB Software Upgrade Options chart provides ordering information for the various options of the upgrade packages.