Asi Master fuctioning as Gateway

Hello,

Im new on these forums, looked around a bit everywhere trying to get simple and correct information but nothing seems to help at all. So this is where i stranded.

I started my internship at a company. The task is to get some functionalities working on a sorting system. The functionalities i'm talking about are: a Cognex Vision camera ( shouldnt have any issues with this one ) and some IFM DTA100 RFID Read/Write heads ( troubleshooter right now ).

All the hardware is implented and works as it should be ( afaik ). The system cosists of a couple tracks running down some boxes, the boxes are detected by optic cells and there also are some barcode readers on the Sorter, all these work already. There are also RFID Tags on the boxes ( IFM E80813 ). The issue is the communication between the RFID heads and my Siemens Step 7 application. There are 2 IFM DTA100 heads installed on the Sorter. These heads are linked via an M12 cable to ASIBus, from there on theyre linked to an ASI Master ( IFM AC1305 ). The ASI Master is linked to a Siemens S7-400 PLC through Profibus DP.

When i started the internship i was informed the hardware would all be correct and that the connections inbetween the PLC and Sensors ( DTA100's ) would be working. After some research i found out that nothing really worked, the trouble started here.

I havent done anything like connection DTA100's or any kind of sensore through an ASI Master with different field busses so i really havent got a clue how i am supposed to get all this working.

I would want to read the information the tags contain with the DTA100's and from then on receive the information in my Step 7 application. Ive heard a huge amount of different guides/story's of how to get this linked.

Could someone please explain me how i read/write the information in the RFID Tags in my Step 7 application? I havent got a clue what to do anymore. Imagine as if you have to explain this to a monkey, because thats about as much as i know about AsiBus -> Profibus DP connections.

List of things i would like to know:
- What kind of data do the DTA100's even send out? ( Words, Bytes etc... )
- Ive heard about the extra need of CoDeSys to configure the ASIBus to Profibus DP connection.
- How do i configure my ASI Gateway in my Step 7 Hardware Configuration?
- What data type am i supposed to read the RFID Tags with in my Step 7 application?
- A step by step guide to get all of this working, written as simple a monkey could understand

I know this sounds quite complicated and its probably to much im asking for, but i really hope someone could help me out on this issue.

Thanks

I can imagine people wanting more information about the system and its components, please ask me if you need anything to fix the issue, please also tell me how to check the information you want to receive.

TLDR: Need to get RFID Heads ( IFM DTA100 ) to Read/Write information to RFID Tags ( IFM E80813 ), through ASIBus to an ASI Master ( IFM AC1305 ), from then on to a Siemens S7-400 PLC through Profibus DP. Explain it like you would explain a monkey.

Did you look at example projects that are on IFM site?

TurpoUrpo said:

Did you look at example projects that are on IFM site?

Click to expand...

Yeha i did but its not quite clear what i have to work around that to get it working.

wvos said:

..

List of things i would like to know:
- What kind of data do the DTA100's even send out? ( Words, Bytes etc... )
- Ive heard about the extra need of CoDeSys to configure the ASIBus to Profibus DP connection.
- How do i configure my ASI Gateway in my Step 7 Hardware Configuration?
- What data type am i supposed to read the RFID Tags with in my Step 7 application?
- A step by step guide to get all of this working, written as simple a monkey could understand

Click to expand...

Answer to bolded parts is in example project and no, you should not need codesys to configure ifm asi gateways, atleast i have never needed, but dont remember types i have used tough.

If you want to learn to do it, you need to think about it. Then when there is things you dont understand, we can help to get it.

TurpoUrpo said:

Answer to bolded parts is in example project and no, you should not need codesys to configure ifm asi gateways, atleast i have never needed, but dont remember types i have used tough.

If you want to learn to do it, you need to think about it. Then when there is things you dont understand, we can help to get it.

Click to expand...

Yeah i reckon the post seems like i havent done anything at all and am to lazy to do so, but trust me ive spend about 2 weeks on this module alone and i really cant figure it out.

There isnt one clear guide that explains this matter and im hearing 5 different solutions from 15 different people...

Just out of curiosity:
Are you working at a DC of a local supermarket in Veghel?

Fonzie66 said:

Just out of curiosity:
Are you working at a DC of a local supermarket in Veghel?

Click to expand...

No im woking at Actemium Veghel.

Hello,

Reporting back, i downloaded the .GSD file from the ifm official site. Did this a long time ago and it just didnt show up in my hardware catalog, turns out i had to refresh/update it.

Placed the module in my hardware config and took the entire range of inputs in a variable table and there were my beautiful inputs.
I gues the most complex issues always have the simplest of solutions.

Thanks for the help anyways