Design Guidelines
Transport System Design
QuickStick HT User Manual
89
Rockwell Automation Publication MMI-UM007F-EN-P - September 2020
Ethernet Motor MICS File
The MagneMotion Information and Configuration Service (MICS) file is used to define the
Ethernet track topology for the motors using Ethernet communication in a transport system.
The file also describes the interfaces and physical hardware connections to the motors.
The MICS file works with the Node Controller Configuration File, which specifies the config-
uration of components within the transport system, such as; node controllers, paths, nodes,
and motors. Each path that is defined in the Node Controller Configuration File defines the
specific motors and their relationships to the motors on that path. The MICS file then defines
the MAC address and IP address for each of those motors.
The MICS file contains the following:
•
MAC address for each motor.
•
IP address for each motor.
•
Transport system location for each motor.
•
Physical orientation of the motors.
The MICS files are written in XML format, which allows the file to be backward and forward
compatible and easily extended. A newer version of software can easily ignore older unused
XML tags. An older version of software can ignore newer, unknown XML tags. The XML file
format is human readable, which allows manual editing. XML files can be viewed with
browsers or code editors in tree fashion (with the ability to expand or contract elements that
contain other elements).
An overview of the XML format can be found in the XML Pocket Reference
*
. Basically, an
XML file contains a hierarchical set of elements. Each element consists of an opening tag,
<
Tag_name
>, and a closing tag, </
Tag_name
>, with either data or other elements in between.
In general, each tag starts with <
Tag_name
>, and ends with </
Tag_name
>. In this implemen-
tation, an element contains configuration data or other elements, but not both.
When a motor powers up, its network and topology information (from the MICS file) is pro-
vided to it dynamically by the node controller that is responsible for its path. The topology
information the motor receives includes its IP address, subnet mask, default gateway, and
information about its neighboring motor connections.
The MagneMotion transport system accepts any valid IPv4 address scheme to operate. The
motors with those addresses must be on the same subnet as the node controller responsible for
them. It is important to keep unnecessary broadcast traffic off the transport system network as
it can impact overall system performance. For a large transport system, it is typically useful to
organize the IP structure that includes the path/motor information in as shown in
Motor Communication Recommendations
*
Simon St. Laurent and Michael James Fitzgerald,
XML Pocket Reference: Extensible Markup Language
(USA:
O'Reilly Media, 2005).