Guzik - WITE32 2.40 Release Notes

WITE32™

Version 2.40

11/10/99

Modifications
1. Spinstand parameters renamed
2. New parameters in the spinstand EEPROM
3. "Control | Gate…" and "Control | Track format…" merged.
4. Guzik PRML channel optimization changed.
5. Abort button in engineering mode changed.
6. New style of production operator panel.
7. New style of Head Amplifier Parameters panel.
8. Format of the WITE32 MS Access database files changed
Fixed Bugs

Introduction

The 2.40 release incorporates new features introduced after the WITE32 2.35 release. (This document uses the WITE32 2.35 release notes as a base line for comparison.)

Modifications

Spinstand parameters renamed

Two parameters are renamed in the spinstand drivers for S311, S312 , S312MP, S312MPCF, S1701MP, S1701CF, S1701A.

*Previous parameter name*	*New parameter name (WITE32 v2.40)*	*Description*
Current Spinstand	Preferred COM Port	Preferred communication port. WITE32 scans this port first for the spinstand connected. Valid values: 1 – COM1. 2 – COM2.
Maximum Spinstand	Number of COM Ports	Number of communication ports to scan. Valid values: 1 – scan only preferred COM port. 2 – scan both COM1 and COM2.

Unlike the previous versions of WITE32, version 2.40 requires these parameters to be set properly. You might get the following error messages after you install version 2.40 of WITE32 over a previous version and run an old product with wrong settings: "Failure to communicate with a spinstand" and/or "Communication port N is not present". If it happens, please click the Edit Driver Parameters button in the Product Configuration dialogue box and change your Number of COM Ports and Preferred COM Port parameters.

The following table lists the combinations of parameters for different configurations:

*Number of COM Ports*	*Preferred COM Port*	*Spinstand Configuration*
1	1	Spinstand must be connected to COM1, otherwise "Failure to communicate with a spinstand" error message appears, WITE32 will not start.
1	2	Spinstand must be connected to COM2, otherwise "Failure to communicate with a spinstand" error message appears, WITE32 will not start.
2	1	Spinstand can be connected to either COM1 or COM2. COM1 is preferred. If Spinstand is connected to COM2, warning message "Improper Driver Parameters or Communication port 2 is not present. Check Driver Parameters (Number of COM Ports and Preferred COM Port)" will appear. It is warning only, WITE32 will work in this configuration. It is recommended to reconnect Spinstand to the COM1 to stop getting this message.
2	2	Spinstand can be connected to either COM1 or COM2. COM2 is preferred. If Spinstand is connected to COM1, warning message "Improper Driver Parameters or Communication port 1 is not present. Check Driver Parameters (Number of COM Ports and Preferred COM Port)" only, WITE32 will work in this configuration. It is recommended to reconnect Spinstand to the COM2 to stop getting this message.

The picture below shows the Parameter Editor dialogue box as it appears in WITE32 v2.40:

New parameters in the spinstand EEPROM

Two new parameters have been added to Spinstand EEPROM:

Serial Number is the spinstand serial number which can be found on back panel of the spinstand. If you need to reprogram the EEPROM, please specify the real spinstand serial number. The parameter is set from either the Spinstand Parameters dialogue box in the regular mode, or from the expanded Spinstand Parameters dialogue box in the Factory Settings Mode.

Manual Unclamp parameter if enabled, decreases the air consumption by keeping the disk clamped all the time after Spinstand was powered up and the first start command was issued. The parameter is accessible only from the expanded Spinstand Parameters dialogue box in the Factory Settings Mode. The feature is available in 312MPCF, 1701CF and 1701A Spinstands only.

If this feature is enabled, and you want to unclamp the disk manually, you must do the following:

Select the Configure | Device menu item in the WITE32 Engineering Dashboard. The Device Configure dialogue box appears.
Press the Run Alignment Program button in the Device Configure dialogue box. Alignment program main window appears.
Select the Test | Exercise menu item in the Alignment program main menu. The Exercise menu dialogue box appears.
Press the Unclamp button in the Exercise menu.

The extended Spinstand Parameters dialogue box (Factory Settings mode)

The Spinstand Parameters dialogue box (regular mode)

"Control | Gate…" and "Control | Track format…" merged.

Control | Gate… and Control | Track format dialogue boxes have been merged into Control | Gate and Track Format configuration dialogue box.

The following parameters have become ZONE-DEPENDENT.

sector mode
number of sectors
table of enabled sectors
skew index

The Gate and Track Format dialogue box is shown below.

Guzik PRML channel optimization changed.

The pattern CHOPPRF in the file CLKREC.PD2 has been added. If you run Guzik PRML channel optimization, please copy manually the files: CLKREC.PD2 and CLKREC.EP2 from the \WITE32\DEFAULT folder into the product folder, where you run the optimization.

Abort button in engineering mode changed.

Abort button appears during execution of a test or a calibration procedure. It is pressed to interrupt the execution process. Starting WITE 2.40, new style abort button is available in engineering mode. Abort button appears as an "always on top" popup window and you can place it at any part of the screen. The window title contains the name of a running test or calibration procedure. Initially, abort button appears in an upper left corner of the desktop. You can always resize and reposition abort button. To do this, please open Configure | SoftButton… dialog and press Position Abort Button… button. Abort button appears in a current position. Resize/reposition Abort button to the desired location and press it to store new Abort button coordinates.

The following picture presents the new style of Abort button during its repositioning procedure:

New style of production operator panel.

The production operator panel was modified with the following key differences.

Feature	Before 2.40	2.40 and above
Switching to engineering mode	Using Config… button on production panel.	Using File \| Config… menu command.
Visibility of test execution buttons.	Always visible. Grayed if device is unavailable or system is in edit mode.	No test execution buttons are visible if no device is available.
"About" dialog	Full featured "About" dialog.	Simplified "About" dialog. Switch to engineering mode to get full "About" info.
The number of test execution buttons	7	4

The following picture shows a new style production panel in Edit mode (no test execution buttons are available):

The following picture shows a new style production panel in operating mode.

New style of Head Amplifier Parameters panel.

The dialogue box Control | HeadAmp... is enhanced in order to provide more flexible way of controlling Head Amplifier parameters. The 'Manufacturer Setup' button is removed.

The Head Amplifier dialogue box contains the following six tabs.

Parameters.
Wr/Rd.
Info.
Setup.
Faults.
Select.

Parameters.

It allows user to control properties of a head amplifier or a headstack in a familiar manner of the previous WITE32 revisions. However there may be a prefix in a form of "RxxDyy". This prefix denotes the physical register address and the hexadecimal placeholder of the bit field in the register. For instance, "R5D80" corresponds to the register 5 and a single-bit field at the leftmost (MSB) position.

Wr/Rd.

On this tab you see a number of controls which allow user to access physical registers of Head Amplifier. Please note that not every head amplifier has this feature. The reading and writing can be done only after device started. The data can be specified in decimal, hexadecimal or binary format. You specify the address of physical register and press either Write button or Read button.

When you read a physical register, the content of the register is displayed in all three formats.

Note. For head amplifier modules which don't support the physical register read/write interface all the buttons are disabled and the warning

"Control for this chip not implemented"

is seen at the bottom of the dialogue box.

Setup.

The only button Default Setup on this tab is used to set default values for all registers in the head amplifier.

Note. If you don't press Save button after setting default parameters, the parameters will change as soon as you switch to another zone.

Info.

The specific information about type of head, calibrator, construction and other details of head amplifier and head stack is available in this tab.

Select.

The drop-down list displays all head amplifiers supported in the current installation of WITE32. The Load button allows you to load explicitly a particular module even if it does not match the hardware. It is used for diagnostic purposes only

Faults.

This tab allows user to display the fault information on Head Amplifier chip fault lines. Top amplifier status is marked Fault line 0 and the bottom amplifier status is marked Fault line 1. In case of headstack only Fault line 0 is displayed. Some chips, which have internal result processing, display the content of the fault register or separate bits in that register to indicate different fault causes. Press the Refresh button to update the information. The information can be displayed only when device is started.

Note. If head amplifier can not read the fault lines or the fault register, the tab is blank.

Format of the WITE32 MS Access database files changed

Due to the Y2K-compliance requirements the following files are converted to the MS Access 97 format.

RWA.MDB
RWARSLT.MDB
WROFFS.MDB
HDA.MDB
W747.MDB
WGMA.MDB
WGRADE.MDB
WNLTS.MDB
WNORM.MDB
WPRML.MDB
WRESULT.MDB
ERA.MDB

When WITE32 starts loading a product it checks to see if there are files in the MS Access 2.0 format in the product folder. All the files from the list above are converted automatically, the backup copy is saved in the \WITE32\Product\BACKUP folder.

If any other file of the MS Access 2.0 format detected, WITE32 prompts you to select one of the three options:

Exit and convert the files manually using the MS Access 97 utility
Use the WITE32 automatic conversion tool (note that WITE32 converts only tables)
Ignore and continue working with the files in the MS Access 2.0 format. According to the latest information available from Microsoft this is functionally Y2K-compliant. This is the default selection.

Please, visit the Microsoft Web-site http://www.microsoft.com/y2k for more information.

Fixed Bugs

Bug fixed: wrong RPM measurement in system Dashboard for S-1701MP. When user changes RPM in the Configure Device dialogue box, WITE32 measures and displays wrong values of RPM in the Engineering Dashboard status bar (more than 1% error). Now WITE32 displays correct values.

Known Bugs

All the recurring known bugs are reported on our web site, www.Guzik.com. If you encounter a problem that is not on that list, please report it to Guzik customer support at Support@Guzik.com.

There are no new known bugs in this release.