PowerFlex 70 parameters via Ethernet

This was posted by a new Forum member on the Practice section so I'm re-posting on his behalf here:

How do I get the Drive parameter from the drive to the PLC ladder. i.e. Parameter 3 - Output Current.I am usig the 20-COMM-E Module for Ethernet communicatio between the Drive and the ControlLogix PLC.

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There are two mechanisms for exchanging parameters between ControlLogix and AC drives; DataLinks and MSG instructions.

DataLinks are expansion of the I/O data connection. Depending on your revision of RSLogix 5000 they can be clumsy or elegant... versions after v15 have a very simple mechanism for defining up to eight feedback parameters and providing them as named elements of a UDT for the drive.

MSG instructions can be used if you only want to read or write a value occasionally, or if you need to read more than eight of them. It's also pretty simple once you know the basics of the MSG instruction; you perform a "Read Parameter" message type with the Instance number = the Parameter number.

The first question, then, is "which revision of RSLogix 5000 are you using ?", and the second is "can you take the system offline to re-create the I/O definition, or does it have to keep running while you retrieve this value?".

I am in the programming Phase. Iam using Ver.18. I know the MSG way. How do I assign, for example Parameter 3--Output Current, To a User Defined Data Link? Thanks. Ben

There are plenty of User Manuals and tutorials on the topic. What you're looking for is called "Premier Integration" of AC drives. v16, v17, v18, and v19 are largely the same in this regard.

I did the following video tutorial a few years ago. It's not as thorough as the factory tutorials but is concise.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGYUWQY73EA

Excellent video!! thank you, we are going to use some powerflex, and this tutorial is very nice!, from the network you can change the speed of the motor controlled by the powerflex from the HMI (Panelview+), is it rigth ?

The short answer is "yes".

Generally you will not use a PanelView Plus to directly write the Output Frequency to the drive, but rather use it to set a tag in the ControlLogix which is then checked by logic for the appropriate value and sent via an I/O connection to the drive.