Unity Pro I/O Scanning

We have a system with 6 Premium PLCs that are connected via an ethernet network. Communication has been established to all 6 PLCs from the SCADA network (we pass the is it plugged in test). One of the PLCs need to act as a master and needs to read 9 words from each of the other 5 PLCs and then write 6 words to the other 5 PLCs. I have been told using the I/O scanning option is the easiest way to do this. I have set up the Master to scan the other IP addresses, including my Master Object, Slave Index and length. However, I am not getting any data exchanged.

My question is this, in my "slave" devices, is my data to be stored in %MW, or should it be in %IW for inputs and %QW for outputs? If it needs to be in %IW and %QW, how do I map my data to fictional input and output words. When I simply assign the address as %IW100, for example, I get an error when I analyze/build that says "The instance is located on an address the isn't configured."

Thanks in advance for any help.

Thilgs said:

We have a system with 6 Premium PLCs that are connected via an ethernet network. Communication has been established to all 6 PLCs from the SCADA network (we pass the is it plugged in test). One of the PLCs need to act as a master and needs to read 9 words from each of the other 5 PLCs and then write 6 words to the other 5 PLCs. I have been told using the I/O scanning option is the easiest way to do this. I have set up the Master to scan the other IP addresses, including my Master Object, Slave Index and length. However, I am not getting any data exchanged.

My question is this, in my "slave" devices, is my data to be stored in %MW, or should it be in %IW for inputs and %QW for outputs? If it needs to be in %IW and %QW, how do I map my data to fictional input and output words. When I simply assign the address as %IW100, for example, I get an error when I analyze/build that says "The instance is located on an address the isn't configured."

Thanks in advance for any help.

Click to expand...

I can't help you with setting up the I/O scanner in unity, I have yet to do that. When setting it up in Proworx Nxt, I usually read/write 4xxxx registers which would correspond to %MW regitsters in Unity.

The error that you are getting about the address that isn't configured is easy to fix. Once in Controller properties, click on the Configuration tab. The State r=Ram settings on the right hand side has to be configured large enough that the address you are trying to access is listed.

i.e. If you are trying to access %IW300, you would need to ensure that the numver under %IW is set to at least 300.

Hope this helps,

Stacy

Your data needs to be in %MW words. %IW words are read only and come from the input modules.

Diagnostic bits

How can I know that Ethernet connections with other PLCs are not broken? Are there any diagnostic bits that show which PLCs are answering now and which aren't? Where can I find such bits?

Thanks!

USe the fonction GLOBAL DATA EXCHANGE

Yes there are diagnostic bits, but you have to tick a box somewhere to configure them. Sorry haven't got unity with me at the moment so I'm just running on memory. Seem to remember having to use the XIP? driver. If no-one else can help I'll have a look tomorrow

Geoff

Hi there
I think the easiest way is to use global data to do this. But you can do this in IO scanning as well. I used global data to transfer words between 2 PLC's. Global data set up is so easy compared to IO scanning. Please have a look at the attached screen shots and follow the instructions. If you need further assistance I can help you.
Regards

Ranjith

Hi Schtiel
To monitor ethernet devices you need to create a tag in IO derived variables. Then you can use that tag to monitor all the devices in IO scanning table and also Global data status.

regards

Ranjith

Thanks for your help!
In T_COM_ETYX103 IODDT type I've found everything I was looking for.