Red Lion Crimson communication

I am communicating from a G315 to ControlLogix PLC.
I am sort of Phase 3 testing: application is mostly full featured and i have created lots of simulation logic to load the system.

I am seeing confusing problems: it appears that not all data is making it from PLC to G315.

Application communicates via EIP / imported tags. I imported tags into Crimson via L5X.

Is EIP via native tags the most sensible way to communicate with CLX processor? should I take the steps in TNOI17 (Crimson to CLS via EthernetIP)?

TNOI29 sez Crimson reads controller tags only. I am using program tags.. i assume this is an improvement over the older documented Crimson 2 environment?

any troubleshooting advice?

thx
gf

Follow-up questions ...

What is the most efficient/best/fastest comms way to communicate EIP Native Tags to / from Crimson?

Fr'instance: Is there a benefit to organizing PLC data into arrays? or a user defined data type?

Should I expect an application with several thousand internal tags and several hundred EIP tags to keep up?

How can i determine if the application is dropping communications?

On my first application, I decided to use generic tag names for communication between a G306A and a Compactlogix L23E.

I use tag arrays. I have tag name like HMI_Real[0 - 1000] HMI_Dint[0-100], etc.

I did much of the PAC programming first, and when I got ready to start working on the HMI app, I didn't want to import all the tags, only those needed by the HMI.

So, I made a copy of the RSLogix file, deleted everything that was not needed by the HMI and exported the remaining as a L5k file. In Crimson, I imported that file.

I have not had any trouble with this method, and it seems to be the most efficient way of doing things.

Later, I did add some Crimson tags to access new things in the PAC (quite a few actually), but I made them manually and just pointed them at the same device. I did not try to edit the imported tag list.

I have both Controller and Program scope tags in the file and I even have one UDT tag.

reply

Yes, I'm with you on importing tags from CLX.

How do you manually enter an EIP tag name? I have to pick from a list (8 mouse clicks per if you count, ... and i did.)

I reimported the tag list from CLX several times. works okay if you do not change tag names - but only add new ones. i had to remove references to tags that were deleted or changed before i imported the L5X file - otherwise Crimson took issue with me and faulted.

I use several UDT - but they appear as separate tags - that i select one at a time.

Does G315 handle arrays faster or slower than single element tags?

Is 'EIP native tag' the fastest/best communication with CLX? (not necessarily the same as fastest to code)

hoy7t said:

How do you manually enter an EIP tag name? I have to pick from a list (8 mouse clicks per if you count, ... and i did.)

Click to expand...

I lied. I didn't do it that way apparently. After a closer look:

It turns out that some of my displayed objects' references are done without tags, but by directly browsing the imported file and "Pick"ing the name from that imported list.

Those that I thought were manually created, appear to be based the same way. I poke into one of them and found that they, too, have a Pick button which leads to the imported file.

Sorry for the misinformation.

Bottom line:
Make your tag names generic, never rename them in RSLogix, and leave plenty of room for spares...

hoy7t said:

Does G315 handle arrays faster or slower than single element tags?

Is 'EIP native tag' the fastest/best communication with CLX? (not necessarily the same as fastest to code)

Click to expand...

I can't answer those questions. I think there are many variables which affect the read/write speeds, and that Crimson will try to do things as fast as possible or as fast as demanded by the application.

Things like the update speed of the page on which a tag is displayed, how many tags are being read for alarms and many other things would go into that calculation.

Your method will be dependent on what is most important to you. The TNOI17 tech note describes the EIP Slave option which is a faster method of communication. The TNOI39 tech note describes the Native Tags via L5K option which is the easier method. If you plan to use the Native Tags method you can't manually create tags in the HMI, you will have to reimport your L5K file with the new tags. When using the Native Tags option arrays in the PLC are faster than individual tags but in my experience still not as fast as the Slave driver. In C3 you can map to controller or program tags, in C2 its controller only.

Thanks
Jeremy