XL200 Version Information

As products are developed, tested and then subjected to the realities of a manufacturing environment, improvements are made in terms of reliability and performance. New features and functions desired by customers are added and refined. Throughout the evolution of the product, changes must be tracked and each release must be easily referenced. This is the reason hardware and software products at AMS Controls (and in almost every other engineering firm) are tracked by software and hardware version numbers.

The XL200 Series machine controller can be field flashed with new software versions, and it can be flashed with different software models. The software model and version supported by any XL200 controller depends on the hardware revision of the unit.

The process of evolving hardware is tracked by a Revision Letter at AMS Controls. In terms of the XL200 Series machine controller, there is a CPU Board Revision Letter and an Input/Output (I/O) Board Revision Letter. The CPU board dictates the highest software version supported by a particular unit, and the I/O board revision indicates whether the unit supports open loop software, closed loop software, or both.

Rev. A & B I/O boards could only support open loop or closed loop, but not both. This means if you own a XL200 controller with a Rev. A or Rev. B I/O board, you must have AMS change out the board in order to go from open loop to closed loop software, or closed loop to open loop software.

All I/O boards Rev. C and later support both open loop and closed loop software. You need only flash the unit with the desired software model.

Latest Release by Version

Software versions 1 and 2 are no longer supported or developed. Versions 3 and 4 are currently supported and are being developed concurrently for most features. Some features will show up in version 4 software that will never be available in version 3 software, due to the limitations of the older hardware revision (this was also the case between v2 and v3).

What does the software version number mean?

Software versions are expressed as 3 sets of numbers separated by “points” (.). The first number refers to the major software version and often ties the version to a specific hardware revision. The second number is a major release version. Every so often, the Engineering Department at AMS generates a “new release” that includes any new developments, features, functions and bug fixes since the last release. The last number is a maintenance release version, usually created in situations where a customer is experiencing a serious bug that affects production, or has paid for a new feature that they desire immediately.