For the Panasonic, Tamagawa and Bosch absolute encoders, this is the encoder ID obtained directly from the encoder. For the Yaskawa Sigma II/III, the encoder ID is the same as the "Encoder type" (DataID 10027).

Alarms or faults returned from the serial encoder.  The following are the encoder alarms for the specified encoder types.  For more detailed information on these alarm conditions, please see Absolute Encoder section of the Software Setup section of the PreciseFlex Library.

Panasonic, Tamagawa and Bosch serial absolute encoders:

   bit 0 - Encoder over-speed error. Multi-turn counter is probably corrupted and axis zero position must be re-calibrated.
   bit 1 - Reduced encoder resolution
   bit 2 - Encoder run-time counter error
   bit 3 - Multi-turn counter overflow
   bit 4 - (reserved)
   bit 5 - Multi-turn data read error during power up
   bit 6 - Encoder supply voltage too low, system down
   bit 7 - External battery too low (warning)
   bit 8 - Communication time out
   bit 9:15 - (reserved)

Yaskawa Sigma II/III serial absolute encoder:

   bit 0 - Battery backup power is down, internal data lost
   bit 1 - Runtime encoder error
   bit 2 - Low battery voltage warning
   bit 3 - Possible error in absolute position data
   bit 4 - Encoder speed too high at power on
   bit 5 - Temperature inside encoder is too high
   bit 6 - Encoder RESET completed

Nikon A serial absolute encoder:

   bit 0 - (batteryAlarm)  External battery voltage too low (if below 3.0V, latched, reset using cmd 8/10; if below 3.2V, not latched, auto-reset)
   bit 1 - (errorMT)  External battery below 2.76V (latched, reset using cmd 10)
   bit 2 - (reserved, always 0)
   bit 3 - (overSpeed)  Encoder over-speed (latched, reset cmd using 8/10)
   bit 4 - (incError)  Error in incremental A and B signals (latched, cleared by cycling power)
   bit 5 - (stError)  Error in absolute position between sensors and ASIC (latched, cleared by cycling power)
   bit 6 - (psError)  Error in multi-turn counting (latched, cleared by cycling power)
   bit 7 - (busyFlag)  Runtime scan error (not latched, auto reset)
   bit 8 - (commTimeout)  Serial communication timeout.  This is not an encoder alarm but an error asserted by the controller's FPGA.
   bit 9 - (overTemp)   Temperature over 95 degC (not latched, auto reset)
   bit 10 - (memError)  Error accessing memory (latched, cleared by cycling power or cmd 8/10)
   bit 11 - (memBusy)  Error accessing memory (not latched, auto reset)

NOTE: Users typically do not have to deal directly with these alarm bits.  The system will interpret these errors bits and report them as necessary.

The raw absolute encoder position that is derived from both the encoder "single-turn" and the "multi-turn" data. This derived value does not have any adjustments applied to it, e.g. it is not corrected by the encoder sign or any offset value. Typically this value is only used during homing to determine the true axis position.

The encoder count value within one revolution.  For example, the single turn data of the Panasonic 17-bit serial absolute encoder ranges from 0 to (2^17)-1.

The encoder's multi-turn data. This value indicates the number of turns (full rotations in the same direction) that the encoder has made. Depending on the vendor, the range of the total number of turns varies.  Also, depending upon the type of absolute encoder, these values might only be updated once during the homing process or when the system is booted and not updated again.

Serial encoders typically accept commands from the host controller via the serial encoder interface and respond accordingly. During the run-time, the command that is normally issued is the periodic request to read the single turn encoder data.  Other commands, such as clearing encoder alarms or retrieving multi-turn data, may be issued by the host (controller) from time-to-time.  This variable displays the last command issued.

The system supports two encoder communication modes: synchronous (0) and asynchronous (1) modes. The sync mode is used during the normal run-time to retrieve the single-turn data from the encoder at a fixed update rate. During this mode, the encoder position is supplied to the servo feedback compensation software.  During certain diagnostic routines, the encoder is placed into async mode such that multiple individual commands can be issued. Typically, the axis power must be disabled before switching into the async mode.

Raw multi-turn data received from the absolute encoder. For most absolute encoders, this value is either the same as "Multi-turn data" (DataID 12254) or is equal to 0. For special encoders with more than 1 multi-turn count per revolution, this dataID shows the raw multi-turn data received from the encoder.

Total number of communication timeout errors that the controller has detected while communicating with a serial encoder.  For serial encoders, there is a continuous stream of messages that are exchanged between the controller and the encoder.  This stream operates at a regular frequency (typically 4khz or 8khz) and is used to read the current encoder position and error status.  If a message is not received from the encoder for whatever reason (e.g. no transmission, noise, unrecognized format), the error is indicated by this parameter.

Total number of bad position readings received from a serial encoder. For serial encoders, there is a continuous stream of messages that are exchanged between the controller and the encoder.  This stream operates at a regular frequency (typically 4khz or 8khz) and is used to read the current encoder position and error status.  If either (1) a message from the encoder is not received or is corrupted (as indicated by DataID 12259) or (2) more commonly, an encoder position is received but its value is rejected because it indicates a rapid acceleration that is not considered physically possible, the error is indicated by this parameter.

In case #2, the threshold for acceptable accelerations is defined by "Min. accel time to 5000 RPM, msec" (DataID 10252).  If the acceleration between subsequent readings exceeds the limit established by DataID 10252, it is considered a bad reading.

Typically, errors indicated by this parameter are due to noise in the encoder wiring.

If several sequential bad readings are detected, an "Encoder data or accel/decel limit error" (-3134) will be triggered.  Please see the documentation for this error for additional information.

(System diagnostic value) This parameter is available for debugging FPGA firmware.  Its interpretation is different for different versions of GPL and FPGA firmware.

(System diagnostic values) These are special diagnostic parameters that were added to analyze unusual encoder errors that are specific to a particular manufacturer.  Currently, this is used for Tamagawa encoders to analyze an error that results in the encoder counter reading jumping by 256 counts and then quickly recovering to the correct value.

Errors indicated by these parameters are encoder hardware problems and do not indicate noise or cable damage.

(System diagnostic value) These are special system debugging parameters.  They are used by Precise engineering to calculate the timing of events when encoders are booting up.