SCL 500 Comm card

banghead
I'm trying to find the hardware for a SICK barcode scanner to communicate directly to a SCL500 5/05 5.20.00. The scanner uses ASCII.
right now we run the scanner data throught a PC application and have WonderWare on the ethernet communicating with the SLC. Right now we are having a few comunication problems that I think might be solved if I send the data directly to the PLC. However I don't know what kind of comm card I should look into to accomplish this task. Any info or direction would be greatly appriciated

Thanks

1746-BAS Basic Module should be able to do it.

You can send ASCII right to the SLC's channel 0 RS-232 port.

Here's some info!

big thanks

thanks alot I think I have the information I need now. You guys are a big help to someone just ketting started in this stuff.

Thanks Again
Rusty

Any Clues

I have never worked with the ASCII files on the PLC. What do I with the data? Is their a subroutine or file that haves to be implemented or specific command for converting ASCII to a integer? I know I'm asking allot but to be honest I have only two years experience with PLCs while the simple logic and programming came easy for me this is all Greek.

ASCII commands

In RSLogix500, in your "tabbed instruction bar" >>arrow over to the ASCII section. There are all of the ASCII manipulation instructions for the SLC 500, If you don't understand look in RSLogix500 Help; "SLC Instruction Help" Most of the ASCII instructions start with an "A" (In help they are in alphabetical order).
I have not done a lot with ASCII, other than taking user entered text from a Panelview and storing/comparing string files.

Sparky said:

I have never worked with the ASCII files on the PLC. What do I with the data? Is their a subroutine or file that haves to be implemented or specific command for converting ASCII to a integer?

Click to expand...

I don't have the manual in front of me so this may not be 100% accurate but here goes.

Once the data has been sent to the PLC's channel 0 port it is made accessible to the ladder logic by the ARD (ASCII read insruction). This reads the port data into a string data type (ST9:4, for example) of your choosing. There are now several other instructions for dealing with the data. One of these (AIN?) will convert the string data to an integer and deposit it in, say, N7:30. I think you can specify where in the string the digits begin and how many are to be included in the conversion.

Some of the other string oriented instructions, which all begin with the letter 'A', can parse, concatenate, and move string data, etc. It's a bit clunky, IMHO, but with the right combination of instructions you can generally get done what you want done.

These don't necessarily have to be in a separate program but you may want to do that for readability/documentation reasons.

Enjoy!

Thanks

Thanks for the input guys.
I have the rung setup with the ARD instruction, That is no longer in error. I still haven't recieved any data on channel 0. I cannot get the information from one source to the other. How long is a normal string file ASCII file howmany elements should I have made my ST file? You know the simple easy stuff.

Thanks every one

I have the St file recieving the information. It's all down to the clearing of the buffer at the right time and PLC programming.
Thanks every one.
What a great sight.
I hope that some day I might know something to help someone else out.

If in the future you need to add another SICK scanner then Procomm makes a card that allows for two ASCII ports. The Procomm cards are easier to use than the Basic Module