Distributed logic control system and method

An apparatus for indicating errors in a machine comprising:

• means having a table containing a list of zone names, input/output names, input/output images for each zone and allowed zones for each said zone;
• a memory containing a plurality of error designations;
• means for formulating an error message from said table and memory indicative of said error condition;
• and
• means for implementing an algorithm which selects data from said table and combines the data with other fixed words to generate an error message.

An apparatus for indicating errors in a machine comprising:

• means having a table containing a list of zone names, input/output names, input/output images for each zone and allowed zones for each said zone;
• a memory containing a plurality of error designations;
• means for formulating an error message from said table and memory indicative of said error condition;
• and
• means for generating the error message from the names of the last valid zone and the input/output names that caused the input/output image to not match the last valid zone or any of the allowed next zones.

An apparatus for indicating an error condition of a machine comprising:

• means for looking up a zone name and an input/output name;
• means for determining an error designation from a plurality of error designations indicative of an error condition;
• means for combining said zone name, said input/output name, and said error designation into an error message;
• and
• means for displaying said error message.

A method for indicating an error condition of an apparatus comprising the steps of:

• looking up a zone name and an input/output image name;
• determining an error designation from a plurality of error designations indicative of said error condition;
• combining said zone name, said input/output name, and said error designation into an error message;
• and
• displaying said error message.

A method of indicating an error condition of an apparatus having at least one mechanism, one input, one output and a plurality of states of operation characterized by:

• storing a unique zone name for each zone of said mechanism,
• storing a unique input/output name for each input/output,
• providing at least one template containing fixed words and blank spaces, and
• upon detecting an error, selecting zone and input/output names for insertion into the blanks of the appropriate template to generate a message using data stored upon detection of the error.

An apparatus for indicating an error condition in a machine having at least one mechanism, one input, one output and a plurality of states of operation characterized by:

• means for storing a unique zone name for each zone of said mechanism,
• means for storing a unique input/output name for each input/output,
• means for providing at least one template containing fixed words and blank spaces, and
• means, upon detecting an error, for selecting zone and input/output names for insertion into the blanks of the appropriate template to generate the message using data stored upon detection of the error.