iqToolPro User Manual

Connections /

Find the master, and see what it reports about itself.

Covered in 1.3.

Port /port

Configuration and live status for one port.

Choose the port number at the top and press Read.

Configuration

Port Mode, Validation & Backup, IQ Behavior, Cycle Time, and the Vendor/Device ID used for validation. Edit, then Write; Reset restores what was last read from the master.

Power Control

Switch port power off permanently, on permanently, or off for a set number of milliseconds.

Status

Refreshed once a second: the port's state, the connected device's identity, the port quality bits, and any diagnostic entries the master is holding.

Process Data /process-data

The cyclic data exchanged with the device, refreshed once a second.

What you see depends on the port's mode.

IO-Link mode — input

Process Data In shows the raw frame as hex, and beneath it the named fields the description declares. A value that changes flashes green for a second, so you can watch one field without staring at all of them.

IO-Link mode — output

Process Data Out is an editor, not a display. Each declared output field gets the control its type implies — a list of named choices becomes a dropdown, a plain on/off a checkbox, anything else a text box. Set the values and press Write PDOut; Reset returns to the last known output.

Bits that no field declares are always sent as zero. If no description covers the output, you get a grid of raw bits to click instead — the only way to write an output nothing describes.

C/Q modes

In DI C/Q mode the single input bit is shown. In DO C/Q mode you get the current output state and buttons to set it HIGH or LOW.

IODD /iodd

The device's own parameters, named and grouped the way the vendor intended.

Along the top: the port number, Match from device (search the local library), Load file (a .zip or .xml you supply), and Clear.

Below that, the description's identity, the Language selector, and the Role selector — Operator, Maintenance or Specialist. The role decides how much the vendor exposes; Specialist shows the most.

Each tab is shown as one fully expanded tree. Opening it reads every value in the background, so the page stays usable while it fills in.

Editing a parameter

Writable parameters have an editor, and under it a grey line stating what the description allows — range -50…50 °C, up to 8 characters, 12 hex octets. Values are shown and entered in the units on screen, scaling included.

Type an unacceptable value and the limit is replaced by the reason as you type, the box turns red, and that row's Write is disabled until it is fixed. Nothing is sent to the device that the description already rejects.

Each row has its own Read and Write; Read all refreshes the tab. Parameters that are commands rather than values appear as an Execute button.

Live values

Parameters the description marks as changing on their own — temperatures, hour counters, signal quality — are re-read continuously while the tab is open, and flash green when they change. The header shows how many are being watched and how long a full pass takes.

Device Access /device-access

Direct read and write by index and subindex.

For when you know exactly which parameter you want, or when there is no description. Choose a format — byte array (hex), decimal, hexadecimal, or UTF-8 string; the numeric formats are big-endian. Read and Write are independent panels.

Data Storage /data-storage

The device's parameter set, as held by the master.

This is how a configured device is cloned onto a replacement: the master keeps a copy, and writes it into whatever device is plugged in next.

Press Write, and the port restarts into the new configuration.

Leaving both IDs at 0 is deliberate — the master fills them in itself from the device on the port, so there is nothing to look up and nothing to mistype. Read the configuration back afterwards and you will see the real Vendor and Device ID in place of the zeros you wrote.

Autostart will not do. In Autostart the master does not use the Validation & Backup setting or the two IDs at all; writing Autostart leaves whatever was there before. Data storage needs the manual mode together with a backup-enabled validation setting, which is why the two are set together above.

The two backup settings differ in direction:

• Compatible + Backup & Restore (0x03) — the master both takes new values from the device and writes its copy back. This is the one to use while configuring a device.
• Compatible + Restore only (0x04) — the master writes its copy into the device but never takes anything new. Use it once the stored set is the one you want and should not drift.

Reading and writing the object

Read from master fetches it and shows the header — parameter checksum, Vendor ID, Device ID, Function ID — followed by every stored parameter. Save to file writes the raw object to a .bin; Load file opens a saved one for inspection without touching hardware; Upload to master writes one back.

ParamDownloadStore sends that system command (0x05) to the device on the port. Changing a parameter does not by itself start data storage — the device has to be told the change is complete. Press it after changing parameters, then Read from master to see what the master holds.

Dashboard /dashboard

A presentation of the device on one page, showing only what you choose.

Named panels, each holding the parameters, process data values, commands and device information you picked from the device's description. It needs a connected master and a description bound to the port.

There is one dashboard per device type (VendorID and DeviceID). Plug in another device of the same type and its dashboard appears; plug in a different type and that type's dashboard, or none, is shown. A device that is unplugged and reconnected, or a master that is disconnected and connected again, shows its dashboard again.

The sample dashboard

The first time a device type is connected while iqToolPro runs, Dashboard shows a sample built from the device's description:

1. Identity — the device identification block;
2. Identification — the parameters of the description's Identification menu;
3. Parameters — the parameters of its Parameter menu, submenus included;
4. Observation — the parameters of its Observation menu.

A menu the description does not have gets no panel. Every writable parameter has its editor; the sample holds no commands. Change it with Edit, or close it with Close dashboard — it does not come back until iqToolPro is started again.

Creating a dashboard

1. Open Dashboard. With no dashboard open for this device type, the page says so.
2. Click Create dashboard. The page switches to edit mode with one panel, Identification, holding the device identification block.
3. Add panels and items as below, then click Done.

Adding a panel

1. Click Edit (skip this while you are still creating the dashboard).
2. Click + Panel in the toolbar. A new panel — Panel 2, Panel 3, … — appears at the end.
3. In the panel's header, type its name and choose its width: ⅓, ½ or full width. On a narrow window every panel takes the full width.
4. Add items to it (next section).
5. Click Done.

Adding items to a panel

1. In edit mode, click + Item under the panel.
2. The list shows everything the device's description offers, grouped the way the description groups it:
   • Identification — the device identification block;
   • the description's Identification, Parameter, Observation and Diagnosis menus, with their submenus where the description has them — for example Parameter › Statistics › Lot Counter;
   • Process data — the fields of the process data input;
   • System commands — the system commands the description offers;
   • Other variables — parameters no menu shows.
   Each entry says what it is: parameter, PD, command or identity.
3. Type in the filter box to narrow the list — by name or by group.
4. Click an entry to add it. An entry already in the panel is marked ✓; you can still add it again.
5. Click Done to close the list.

Changing items

In edit mode every item has:

• a name box — type a name of your own; leave it empty to use the description's name;
• ↑ / ↓ to move it within the panel, and ✕ to remove it;
• for a writable parameter, Editable — tick it to show an editor with Write on the dashboard.

Some parameters can be shown but never edited, and say why instead of offering Editable: the Direct Parameter pages (index 0 and 1), the System Command (index 2), DS_Command (index 3) and Device Access Locks (index 12) — the same indices the Validation page never writes. The System Command is offered only as its separate commands, each with its own Execute, so a command is never sent by mistake.

Moving and removing panels

In edit mode, each panel's header has ◀ / ▶ to move it left or right, the width selector, and ✕ to remove it — together with its items, and without asking. Nothing changes until you click Done; Discard throws away every change since Edit and brings back the dashboard as it was.

Using the dashboard

• Values are read once when the page opens. ↻ beside a value reads it again, ↻ in a panel's header reads the whole panel, and ↻ Read all reads everything.
• Process data values update every second on their own.
• An editable parameter shows the value the device holds in its editor, and the range the description allows underneath. A value outside it is marked red as you type and Write stays disabled. A list starts at — choose — until the value has been read. After Write the value is read back, so what you see is what the device holds.
• Execute sends a command; the line underneath says when it was sent and any message the description gives for it.
• A write-only parameter shows write-only instead of a value.
• The identification block shows the vendor logo, the device picture, names and IDs, the description's version, the transmission rate, minimum cycle time and SIO support, and the connector with its pins and, where the description gives them, wire colours.

Saving and loading

1. Save to file downloads the dashboard as iqToolPro-dashboard-<vendor>_<device>.json into the browser's download folder. Keep it, or send it to someone with a device of that type.
2. Load from file… opens such a file and shows it at once — on this PC or another, in the desktop tool or the browser version.

A dashboard you changed and have not saved says Not saved to a file; closing it then takes a second click. Close dashboard only closes it in iqToolPro — files are never touched.

A file made for another device type can still be loaded: the page names the type it was made for and asks first. Anything in it that this device's description does not have is shown in red as missing — remove those items or leave them.

Visualization /visualization

Values plotted and monitored over time.

Needs a description bound to the port — everything here is named and scaled by it.

Pick a parameter from the list (type to filter, or use the caret for the whole catalogue), choose Text or Graphic, and press Add. Text tiles show the current value, and become an editor with their own Write button when the parameter is writable. Graphic tiles draw a curve.

Operation time sets the window — a duration and a unit — and Start / Stop control sampling. The line underneath shows the window, the achieved cycle time, and how many cycles have run.

Each chart carries its own scale selector and an Auto-fit tick. Left alone the axis uses the range the description declares, printed beneath the chart; Auto-fit scales to the data actually arriving.

Each added parameter costs one request per cycle, so the cycle time grows as you add more. Sampling stops when you leave the page.

Export CSV, beside Start / Stop, saves what the window holds as a CSV file: one row per cycle, one column per parameter on the page, headed with its name and unit. Every row starts with the clock time and Elapsed since sampling start [ms]; all parameters read in the same cycle share that time, and a read that failed leaves its cell empty. Numbers use a decimal point and columns are separated by commas, which is what Python, MATLAB and most analysis tools expect. Excel set to German opens it in one column on a double-click — use Data → From Text/CSV instead. To keep a longer stretch, set a longer duration before pressing Start.

Validation /validation

Checks a connected device against its own description, and reports every check of a parameter on that parameter's one line.

The checks are split into tabs, one per kind of testing: Parameters and Data Storage (described at the end of this section). The panel above the tabs is shared: the port number, Start validation, the case count, the result badges and the progress bar always refer to the open tab, and each tab keeps its own results when you switch away. Tabs cannot be switched while a run is in progress.

It needs three things: a connected master, the port in Operate, and an IODD bound to that port. Without any of them the page says which one is missing rather than starting.

Five things are never written, whatever the description says about them: Direct Parameter pages 1 and 2 (index 0 and 1), SystemCommand (index 2), DS_Command (index 3, where a write would start a data storage upload or download) and DeviceAccessLocks (index 12). Write-only parameters and system commands are listed but never touched — a write-only parameter cannot be read back, so there would be no way to put the original value back.

The table has four sections:

A parameter row has three result columns:

A dash means the parameter has no such check: a read-only parameter has nothing to write. A run takes the parameters one at a time — read, write, out of range, then the next.

Results are pass, warning, fail or skipped. A warning is a difference that is not a defect — a device that does not implement an optional parameter, a vendor name written “SICK AG” where the description says “SICK”, or a value the device holds that its own description does not permit. A fail is a real disagreement: an identity that does not match, a value that reads back differently from what was written, or a forbidden value the device accepted.

Reading the table. Each parameter is one line: its name, a result in each column, and the single most useful piece of information — its value when everything passed, the most serious reason when something did not. Click a row to open it. An open row lists each check in turn with its result and everything it did in the order it happened: what was read and how many octets came back, or the before / wrote / read back / after of a write test. Opening a row closes whichever row was open before, so the table stays short.

A parameter addressed by subindex — the Direct Parameter pages, Device Access Locks, an array, Data Storage — is one row until you open it, and then shows its subindexes underneath, each with its own columns, tinted as one block. Its own line shows the octets it occupies (00:40:40:1B:…) rather than a decoded value, because the subindexes are what carry the values. While such a row is closed each column shows the worst result inside it, so a failure can never hide inside a folded parameter.

A row is hidden only when every check in it was skipped; the Show skipped switch brings those back. On a typical device many checks are skipped, and each says why.

Whole against parts. When a parameter has subindexes and the device offers them separately, the run reads each one on its own and compares it with the same field taken out of the whole-parameter read. These are two different services on the device, and one that answers them differently has a fault neither read shows alone. If the parameter simply comes back different every time it is read, the run says that instead — a value that will not sit still cannot be compared with itself.

Data storage is read from the device, not from the master: DS_Command, State_Property, Data_Storage_Size, Parameter_Checksum, and the Index_List of parameters the device wants saved, each named from the description. The section is skipped when the description does not declare data storage. What the master holds is a different thing: it lives on the Data Storage page, and the Data Storage tab tests it.

An open row has a Rerun beside each check, to repeat that check alone, and Rerun all to repeat every check of the parameter — for a parameter with subindexes, of its subindexes too. Cancel stops the run between checks; the check in flight always finishes putting its original value back first.

Many cases are skipped on a typical device, and the reason is always given. Most often it is “the description permits every value the type can hold, so none is forbidden” — there is simply no out-of-range value to send.

Keeping and reporting results. A run's results stay on the page — for each port and tab — when you visit other pages, and when the device drops out: an unplugged device, a port that leaves Operate, or a description released because of that leaves them as they are, with Rerun off until the device is back. They are cleared, with a note saying why, when a different description is bound or a device with another VendorID or DeviceID appears on the port — and by the next Start validation.

Report (PDF) saves the open tab's run as a PDF: the master, port, device, description and run times, the summary, then every failed and every warned check in full — its message, what passed over the wire step by step, expected against actual, the device's error code — and every other check on one line. The report is printed with Microsoft Edge, which Windows includes.

The Data Storage tab

Tests data storage through the master: whether the master's copy follows the device when the port is in Backup + Restore, and whether the master puts the device back when the port is in Restore.

The table shows the test's seven steps. Click a step to open it: its substeps are listed underneath, each with its own result. Every substep runs in order, and a substep that fails stops the test — the substeps after it show skipped with the reason. Only Start validation runs the test; there is no Rerun.

Changing a parameter does not by itself start data storage: the device has to be told the change is complete. That is what the system command ParamDownloadStore does, so it follows every change of the parameters, and the 5-second wait starts after it.

A step's result combines its substeps: fail or warning when one of them is, skipped when some did not run, pass when all passed. Click a substep for what it did — the port configuration it wrote, each port status change with its time, the octets it read. The compare and change substeps list one line per parameter under themselves, starting with ✓ or ✗. A parameter the tab cannot change (not in the description, never written, or with nothing writable in it) is named with the reason and makes that substep a warning.

Events — not implemented /events

Intended for the diagnostic events a device and master raise.

Nothing on the page is harmful; it simply does nothing. The columns are in place for when it is implemented: timestamp, qualifier and code, a description, and badges for type, mode and source.

Logs /logs

What the tool itself did.

Connection attempts, IODD downloads and cache hits, failed reads and writes, and unexpected errors. Entries carry a timestamp and a level, and anything with a stack trace has a details link.

The log file. The desktop tool also writes every entry to a file in the log folder beside the program, one file per day (iqToolPro-2026-10-07.log), kept 14 days. Each run starts with the tool's version and the machine, and each connect names the master that answered. An error that repeats unchanged — a page polling a master that stopped answering logs one every second — is written once, followed by how often it came again. Clear empties the list on the page; the file keeps everything.

• Save log… downloads today's file — every run of the day, not only this one. Send that file with a support request.
• Open log folder opens the folder in Explorer, for earlier days.

If the folder cannot be written — the tool installed where a user may not write, such as Program Files — the page says so and the log is kept on the page only. In the browser version there is no file: Save log… downloads what the page holds since the tab was opened.

iqToolPro in the browser

The same pages in a web browser, without installing anything.

At https://harleyincorp.bitbucket.io/app/. Differences from the desktop tool:

• Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome only. They are the browsers that can use a serial port (Web Serial); other browsers show a notice.
• Connect opens the browser's own list of serial ports — choose the IO-Link master there. Only an SMI iqLink can be used; a legacy iqLink cannot.
• IODDs are not downloaded from IODDfinder. Load the device's IODD once on IODD with Load .zip / .xml; the browser keeps it and binds it on its own the next time that device type is connected.
• Report opens the browser's print dialog; choose Save as PDF to get the file.
• What the browser keeps (uploaded IODDs) belongs to that browser on that PC, and is gone if the site's data is cleared.