CNC Seating Buck Version 2023

• File > Import Ergo Data: Imports ergonomics data for multiple vehicles from an Excel data base – for more details see: Importing ergonomics data from an Excel data base
  
  After the successful data import, all the imported vehicles will be shown in the “Vehicle” combo box and the ergonomics reference points coordinates will be shown in the corresponding spin boxes. The spin boxes will be activated or deactivated according to the seating buck configuration.

• Connect: Starts the EtherCAT connection to the servo controllers of the connected seating buck and opens an UDP connection to communicate with the Virtual Reality software, e.g. Autodesk VRED Professional – see: Ergonomics Plugin
  This function will also parse the configuration file of the connected seating buck: C:/ProgramFiles/nVIZ/Ergonomics/<version>/cncSeatingBuck.config.
  The correct configuration file should be available after the installation, if you have selected the correct seating buck name on the installer screen. After the first installation, you will need to edit the configuration file. Please open the file and check the line “NAMING-CONVENTION” to make sure it corresponds to your seating buck ID – to be seen on the label of your seating buck. Go to the line “SETTING-NETWORK_INTERFACE” and edit it to match the ID of your network interface connection from your host PC’s EtherCAT master to the EtherCAT slaves (=controllers) on the seating buck. If you do not know the correct network interface ID, read next paragraph. When a successful connection is established, the status table will show the status of every EtherCAT slave (= controller on the seating buck).
  NB: Do not modify any other entries in the configuration file without consulting nVIZ!
• Disconnect: Closes the EtherCAT connection to the EtherCAT slaves (= controllers on the seating buck) and the UDP connection for the Virtual Reality session.

• NB: Make sure it is safe to operate the seating buck before enabling the power stages!
• Enable: Enables all power stages of the electric actuators on the seating buck and releases the brakes of the drives. This is the first step to take after connecting to the CNC seating buck.
• Disable: Disables the power stages of the electric actuators and applies the brakes of the drives. The brakes will hold all drives in their current position.
• Homing: Moves all electric actuators to their home position for referencing. The actuator for the seat’s longitudinal position, has it’s homed position at it’s maximum stroke. All other actuators have their homed position at their minimum stroke. Homing needs to be performed only once after every power-on for the encoders in the electric drives to find their reference position. The referenced status is shown in the status table for every actuator and needs to be “1 = True” for all actuators before the seating buck can be positioned.
• STOP: Stops all electric drives immediatly.

• Reset Steering Angle Zero: Only for seating bucks which are not equipped with a SENSO Wheel. These will have an angle encoder to transmit the steering angle. Turn the steering wheel to zero angle and then click this button to align the physical steering wheel angle with the virtual scene. For seating bucks equipped with a SENSO Wheel, see the SENSO Wheel documentation for resetting the zero angle position.
• Invert steering angle: Only for seating bucks which are not equipped with a SENSO Wheel. Check this checkbox if the physical steering wheel and the virtual scene are turning in opposite direction. For seating bucks equipped with a SENSO Wheel, you will need to invert the direction of rotation in the virtual scene. For Autodesk VRED Professional, invert the “Gain” value on the options tab of the nVIZ Motion Plugin.

• NB: Make sure it is safe to operate the seating buck before positioning!
• Vehicle: If you have imported an Excel data base, you can select one of the imported vehicles from the “Vehicle” combo box and the spin boxes will be filled in with the values retrieved from Excel.
• Spin Boxes: The spin boxes will be activated or deactivated according to the seating buck configuration. If you do not have an Excel Data base available to import, fill in the spin boxes with the seat reference point, steering reference point, center console reference point, heal point and ball of foot coordinates. All values are expected to be in millimeters and in the vehicle coordinate system.
• STOP: Stops all electric drives.
• Position: Moves the seat, steering and center console to the defined position. This will initially be the design-(K0)-position for the selected vehicle as given by the data imported from the Excel file.
• Command Line Input: For nVIZ’ debugging purposes only.

Status Table: The status table continuously reports the state of all EtherCAT slaves (= controllers on the seating buck).
For detailed information, hold the mouse over one of the cells. This will display tool tips with information, such as the name of the electric drive or the meaning of the displayed code value.
NB: Keep an eye on the forces reported in the table. All forces should continuously remain below 80%. Higher forces can cause an overload of the actuator due to blocked slider mechanisms.

Warnings and error messages will be reported per actuator on this tab. Any error will put the servo controller into error mode and stop the actuator. Further operation is only possible after removing the cause for the error and acknowledging the error.
Additional documentation to each error code can be found in the file: C:/ProgramFiles/nVIZ/Ergonomics/2023-0beta1/CNCErrorList.txt

• Acknowledge: The “Acknowledge” button will reset the servo controller’s state machine and put the actuator back into the operational mode.

NB: Be very careful with these options! Contact nVIZ, if you are uncertain about these functions!

• Move Seat to Transport Position: All actuators have their homed position at their minimum stroke, except for the seat-longitudinal-position-actuator (Seat-TX). For transportation of the seating buck, this actuator should also be moved to it’s minimum stroke! Click on the button to move the seat forward / backward. Release the button to stop the movement.
• Increment Individual Actuator: If a pair of actuators, which need to move in sync (LH-side/RH-side), get jammed, the forces will exceed their maximum value and the controllers will go into error state. In this case, remove the cause for the blocked actuator and then carefully align the stroke of both actuators again by incrementing the stroke of the LH-side or the RH-side actuator individually. After aligning the stroke, perform a homing operation to reset the seating buck!
• Advanced Homing Option: Some of the actuators need to move in synchronized (LH-side/RH-side) and right side) to not jam the mechanism. The servo controllers will stop, if the difference between left and right position exceeds a certain value. Only! in cases where homing is no longer possible because the pairing distance check interrupts the homing, first! remove the cause for the blocked actuator, then uncheck “Enable Pairing Distance Check” and try homing again.
• D-Box Motion System: Launches a console application for testing the D-Box Motion system, only for seating bucks equipped with the D-Box Motion system.