Composer Max Batch Ripper Drivers

[EliC]

-very long initialization. The arm is moving aimlessly a lot.
-long pause between commands to the arm
-seems to only retrieve discs from bin1 of 5 bins. Never looks to another bin for more discs
-not getting or putting discs properly into 2 lower of the 4 drives, when trying to access the 2 lower drives it set to the same drive position as the 2 upper drives. Works fine when placing discs, they just fall a little further, but when trying to pick it tries to pick from the height of the upper drives
-opens the right 2 drives (looking at the unit) but the arm attempts to go to the left 2 drives for placing the discs

[EliC]

Re: Composer Max Batch Ripper Drivers

-when unable to get new discs, gets stuck and keeps going between drive and bin, while an unload job is waiting.

[bhoar]

Re: Composer Max Batch Ripper Drivers

1-very long initialization. The arm is moving aimlessly a lot.
2-long pause between commands to the arm
3-seems to only retrieve discs from bin1 of 5 bins. Never looks to another bin for more discs
4-not getting or putting discs properly into 2 lower of the 4 drives, when trying to access the 2 lower drives it set to the same drive position as the 2 upper drives. Works fine when placing discs, they just fall a little further, but when trying to pick it tries to pick from the height of the upper drives
5-opens the right 2 drives (looking at the unit) but the arm attempts to go to the left 2 drives for placing the discs

1. Yes, for two reasons: a) error handling is currently poor, so extra reset commands are sent and b) on every tray close, i spin up and check for a disc, even if I am closing between a reject/unload and a load. I'll be tackling some of this in later versions of the ULCLI.

2. Probably due to 1b above.

3. yes, i need to add explicit stack managment (most multi-stack unts do this automatically).

4. Will need to add support for drive height.

5. You'll need to change the --drivebank=1 to --drivebank=2 for the right side drive configuration.

6-when unable to get new discs, gets stuck and keeps going between drive and bin, while an unload job is waiting.

6. The bank locking ensures that an unload/load or reject/load cycle must complete before servicing any other drives in the bank. Was the unload pending on a lower drive in this case?

EDIT: oops, I misunderstood. Yes, the end-of-batch (end of input) behavior is cruddy as it is now. You may have to manually clear the discs pending unload in the drives when you reach the end of your input stack, unless you add more discs.

As it stands now, you should be able to use the top left and top right drive with one input, one output and one reject stack.

-brendan

PS - thanks for all the help via email in closing in on a partly working driver for the max!

[EliC]

Re: Composer Max Batch Ripper Drivers

4. Will need to add support for drive height.

Drive heights are not specified per say, but when a command is sent to the ripper for a specific drive, the robot knows the drive height. The problem is the position being sent to the robot is for the upper drive bays.

[bhoar]

Re: Composer Max Batch Ripper Drivers

Drive heights are not specified per say, but when a command is sent to the ripper for a specific drive, the robot knows the drive height. The problem is the position being sent to the robot is for the upper drive bays.

That's really what I mean - every other device either only has one drive location (for all drives - the device just goes to the load/unload position, then goes "down" until it hits an open tray, which could be one of up to eight different drives) or only cares which drive bank it is in (again, positioning to a bank and then going down until a drive tray is encountered).

The Max is the only unit I've run across where you have to specify the exact drive in a matrix fashion. I call this drive height only because that maps to an additional feature in my abstracted model* of units where I already use "drive bank". With the max, it's really more of a 2x2 drive matrix with direct addressing.

-brendan

* the abstracted model matters in terms of management of open trays and whether or not they interfere with other nearby drives, allowing more fine grained locking in the future. this could also become useful for allowing multiple trays to remain open for accelerated load/unload cycles at start/end of batch.

[EliC]

Re: Composer Max Batch Ripper Drivers

Brendan,
Thanks for the hard work. Looking forward to the next version of the drivers.

[EliC]

Re: Composer Max Batch Ripper Drivers

Using lastest drivers
-which drive in the matrix is A? B? C? D?
-how many of the bins is the robot using? which ones? for what?
-robot does not seem to respond at all (robot is fixed and responding in Primo)
-every test I run in the configuration menu gives the following error:

[][cancel batch]

[EliC]

Re: Composer Max Batch Ripper Drivers

Finally got something that may have more meaning:

MOVE:2 SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SICommand Failed: _MOVE`{ib}:I{ib}M PICK SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SICommand Failed: _PICK:BXOLast command failed or timed out, skip value is cyclebins...
MOVE:3 SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SICommand Failed: _MOVE`{ib}:I{ib}M PICK SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SICommand Failed: _PICK:BXOLast command failed or timed out, skip value is cyclebins...
MOVE:4 SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SICommand Failed: _MOVE`{ib}:I{ib}M PICK SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SI SICommand Failed: _PICK:BXOLast command failed or timed out, skip value is cyclebins...

[EliC]

Re: Composer Max Batch Ripper Drivers

what is the drive bank setting? Maybe this is where I am going wrong?

[bhoar]

Re: Composer Max Batch Ripper Drivers

what is the drive bank setting? Maybe this is where I am going wrong?

Is the baud rate set correctly? Is the com port set correctly?

-brendan

[EliC]

Re: Composer Max Batch Ripper Drivers

yes, baud and com are set correctly in dBpoweramp

Tested and working fine with both Primo and GD3 Encode Center - I know the baud and com are independent in these programs, just saying the robot is working.

[bhoar]

Re: Composer Max Batch Ripper Drivers

yes, baud and com are set correctly in dBpoweramp

Tested and working fine with both Primo and GD3 Encode Center - I know the baud and com are independent in these programs, just saying the robot is working.

Do the commands work correctly in hyperterm?

Perhaps the baud rate is adjustable and these other programs first probe to find the serial port speed?

Anyway, as I said via email, I can't check against my unit till saturday.

-brendan

[EliC]

Re: Composer Max Batch Ripper Drivers

I will wait patiently until Sat. In the mean time I will be busy swapping out drives. Anyone in the market for some Pioneer DVR-105 drives?

[bhoar]

Re: Composer Max Batch Ripper Drivers

I will wait patiently until Sat. In the mean time I will be busy swapping out drives. Anyone in the market for some Pioneer DVR-105 drives?

Just for reference purposes, I strongly suggest leaving either the top or bottom pioneer drives in to begin with, until you get the alignment right on the replacements and/or double check whether they need to have the faceplates removed and/or have the metal casing modified.

-brendan

[EliC]

Re: Composer Max Batch Ripper Drivers

Primera sells the PX-716A with a standard bios, so I think at least that one is safe. If the other drives don't work I will have to buy some more 716s.