Leopard II manual Table of Contents

1.5Installing the C-Max Utility

Now that your hardware is installed, you will need to install and configure the C-Max utility software. The C-Max program serves as a program editor, touch screen editor, event viewing tool, and many other functions. In order to program and use the Leopard II you will first need to install C-Max on your personal computer. All specific examples given in this document are given using C-Max version 2.00e which was the current version as of this writing. Your computer needs to be running Microsoft Windows 95 or later to use C-Max.

1.5.1Installing from a CD

Your Leopard II was packaged with a CD containing the C-Max utility. The installation from a CD is very similar to installing most other Microsoft Windows applications. Simply insert the CD in your drive and the installation program should be launched automatically. If the installation does not start by itself, browse your CD drive and look for a file named “Setup.exe” in its main directory and then open the file. You will then be prompted through the installation process. Follow the instructions in the C-Max Installation paragraph below.

1.5.2Installing from a compressed file

If you obtained C-Max from a source such as the Internet, it will come as a self-extracting compressed file. Simply execute to file as a program and the decompression will be automatically started. The installation program will suggest that the files be written to the “C:\temp” directory but any other temporary installation directory may be used and specifying a non-existent directory will cause the directory to be created. Once that is finished, you will need to browse to the temporary directory that was used and run the “Setup.exe” file to launch the installation of C-Max. You will be prompted through the installation process. Follow the instructions in the C-Max Installation paragraph below.

1.5.3C-Max Installation

The default installation path will usually be “C:\Program Files\ADI\Adicon2500”. Unless there is a need to install it in another directory, it is easiest to leave the default path as it is.

1.5.4Configuring C-Max

Once C-Max is installed on your personal computer, there a few settings that must be finalized before you can use it. Start the C-Max utility by clicking on Start  Programs  C-Max Control. You can also create a shortcut for your desktop by creating a new shortcut to the “Cpuxa.exe” file in the installation directory. Once started you will get a screen similar to the following (fig. 5)

Finally, look at the “Time Settings” area and enter your latitude and longitude, along with your time zone (in relation to GMT) and check the daylight savings time box if applicable. To know your required time zone setting, you can open your Windows time setting utility by double clicking on the time in your system t
ray and then clicking on the “Time Zone” tab. You will see a window similar to the following (Fig. 7):

Fig. 7
In this example you can see the “GMT –06:00” that corresponds to the Central Time zone, and the “-6” that was correspondingly entered in Fig. 6

These settings allow the Leopard II to automatically calculate the sunrise and sunset times for each day of the year. Once finished, click on “OK” to close the setup window. You can now verify your settings and connections by clicking on Comms  Attach to Controller. You should see a screen similar to the one in fig. 8:

Fig. 8
This is the Controller Access screen. All the pull down menus listed at the top give you access to various utilities that will be covered elsewhere in this manual. The important thing to look for right now is the TX and RX squares in the lower left corner of the screen. They should both be blinking alternately as C-Max obtains the ongoing status of the Leopard II. You should also look at the “Firmware” and “Application” fields to see that a value has been read from the Leopard II. The actual values may differ from the ones shown in fig. 8 since ADI regularly updates the firmware and software of its controllers. When you access this screen for the first time, you may get a message box on your screen stating that your controller does not have the latest executive version and ask you if you want to load it now. This might happen if the version of C-Max on your computer is newer then the version that the Leopard II was first initialized with. You should agree (click on Yes) to the reloading of the new executive. You can find out more about reloading the executive and it’s exact purpose in the manual section dealing with the C-Max utilities.
If you see the TX and RX squares blinking regularly then your C-Max installation and configuration is complete and you may now begin using it. If the squares do not blink and you get a message box with a communications error then you will need to verify that the correct serial port is selected and/or verify the actual cabling between your PC and the Leopard II.
If C-Max programming is totally new to you and you would like to have a feel for how to proceed with creating a working application, or you would just like to have the immediate satisfaction of seeing it “do something” then the next chapter will be of interest to you. It literally holds your hand through the process of creating a simple working program. If you are already experienced with versions prior to C-Max 2.0 then a good place to start is by reading the section on Projects since this is the main addition to C-Max as of version 2.0.