2 Visual Components Manuals

Introduction to Visual Components 2.3
Task class 4 is an 'idle time class' from the point of view of the cyclic
Automation Studio program. Idle time would be important here in a project
which contains visualization componenets.
TC#4 is set to 10 ms in our example. Here, the tolerance time is very often set
to 1000 ms or more. If TC#4 executes longer than 10 ms, then it will be
restarted after another 10 ms at the latest.
For example, if TC#4 executes 19 ms (10 ms grid and 1000 ms tolerance), then only 1 ms idle time remains in a
20 ms period.
TC#4 is then immediately restarted in the 20th ms by the set 10 ms grid.
If the cycle time for TC#4 is increased to 30 ms and 19 ms is still the execution time, then 11 ms idle time can be
used for the visualization application.
A further increase to 50 ms gives 31 ms within the 50 ms cycle.
1 ms from 20 ms = 5% for idle time
11 ms from 30 ms = approx. 30 % for idle time
31 ms from 50 ms = approx. 60% for idle time
(Of course, these figures only apply if all other tasks use 0% of the CPU or something similar)
As made evident by the example, idle time can be very much improved by using a careful approach. It is
especially recommended to critically examine all components according to their time requirements when the
CPU load is very high.
In addition to cyclic programming, B&R Automation Studio provides non−cyclic programming. With this special
variant, additional optimized results can be achieved with regard to the runtime behavior of the system.
Non−cyclic taks can be activated with any priority and are not dependent on runtime monitoring.
4.12.9 Tips and Tricks − Touch Pad
It is possible in Visual Components 2.3 to create separate touch pads.
The following files are necessary to do so:
− a *.tpi file
− a *.bmp file
Note the following when creating .tpi files:
File extension of an original .tpi file (numpad):