Cognex 5100 to SLC5/04 Serial

Hello,

I have two Cognex 5100 cameras and an Allen-Bradley SLC5/04. I have the two vision cameras connected to each other on Ethernet and am sending data from one to other over Ethernet without any problems. I now need to send data serially from one of the cameras to Channel 0 of the SLC5/04. I have a Cognex expansion module for each camera.

I set up a WriteSerial command in the Cognex software and chose a cell to output. I have gone through and configured the serial port settings to match the Channel 0 settings in the SLC. I have configured the SLC Channel 0 for User Mode. I am using the ARD command in the SLC. I've never done serial comms in a SLC before so I don't know if this is correct. The ARD command is enabled but not receiving any data. Any pointers as to what I'm doing wrong? Thanks.

Rob

There are several serial examples in the SLC Platform programming manual.
Why not just buy an NET-ENI module for the 5/04 and pass information on a common Ethernet Bus?
The Cognex Tutorials show EXACT serial examples using a SLC5/03 for the many models that they sell. I completed a project with 2 1000's and a 5/03 the same way as configured in their examples.
I have the Cognex Training manual at home...I will see if there is anymore information in that. (Although I believe it is a printed copy of the PDF's that are available on Cognex's website.

Thanks for the reply. I had originally intended on using the NET-ENI module but the Applications Specialist at my supplier as well as my rep from Allen-Bradley told me it can't be done. They both said Cognex does not support the NET-ENI module. As a matter of fact I even had the NET-ENI on order already and then I cancelled it when everyone told me it wouldn't work. You know AB, once you break the seal you can't return it so I went the safe way.

That's another discussion in itself. I need to know how to do it serially. I couldn't find anything in the Cognex set-up manual, tech notes, or the training manual my supplier gave me. I will check the SLC manual and also the Cognex tutorials. Thanks.

Try hooking the serial between the cognex and your PC.
You can then monitor what is coming out via hyperterminal. This will verify a couple of things. Comm settings are correct and your serial cable is good.
Once you reconnect to the PLC...
Use the ACB instruction on the PLC to see if any characters are being received in your buffer.
The ARD instruction reads the exact number of characters you tell it too. If there is not enough characters in the buffer, it will not complete the read.
The ARL instruction reads up to the exact number of characters or the first 'Line feed'

All if these instructions fire on a false to true transition.
You should send data to the PLC before trying to activate any of these instructions.

Tim

I know this may sound inappropriate but if one takes all the time you need to make this work and multiplies it by your hourly rate... would this justify upgrading 5/04 CPU to 5/05 one, with Ethernet port on it?

Unlike the serial connection, Ethernet connection between Cognex and a Slick is well-documented on Cognex web site and works OK. And it's fast too.

SLC5/05 is not an option. Customer spec is 5/04 because of the seven DH+ networks they have in their plant which this machine needs to tie into to get data from another PLC. Thanks anyway.

Still looking into the other suggestions, unfortunately I didn't get a lot of time to look into it today. Will try again tomorrow.

OK, I used Hyperterminal and connected the Cognex5100 to my computer. I didn't see anything. So, I connected the PLC to my computer and used Hyperterminal. I was able to send and receive data between the computer and the PLC with no problems. So I'm left wondering if there is something in the Cognex I am supposed to be triggering to actually send or receive data. Does anyone know? I do have the Cognex system set up for a manual trigger which I am executing but I'm obviously missing something. I've got an e-mail in to my supplier's Application Specialist but I haven't heard back yet.

Alright I got it. Kcarlen thanks for pointing me to the Cognex tutorials. I couldn't find the EXACT examples you were referring to but I did find a tutorial where they talked about triggers for sending serial data; funny how the set-up manual and software help file doesn't mention this. Anyway, one way to do it (which I used) was to use the CellState feature and assign a trigger to the WriteSerial command.

Thanks for the replies.