Balluff I/O Link devicenet

I was wondering if it is possible to have the balluff i/o link in the device net format to be a plug in play for recipe load. i have a small mig station with a fanuc robot. depending on what jig i plug in i want ti to know what clamp outputs to turn on and what oart sensors to look at. the balluff module will stay on each individual jig and have it own node address. would this be a plc error when it doesn't see one of the nodes or can i have just identify the one plugged in.

There will probably be error trapping involved when the device disappears so you really know its gone, but the PLC should not care, and the adapter module may show a list of nodes missing, but it should be possible to set that up.

I am not familiar with the Balluf product you mention so the connecting and power supply loading need to be studied, you don't want to cause a hard bus fault or overload on inrush and lose the whole network.

Perhaps using explicit messaging only and keeping them out of the scan list would work better, you would have to run a series of messages during tool changes.

How many jigs?

It may be critical how the devicenet is configured since many of its nodes will be in error state at most times, you may consider how you poll them carefully.

What PLC?

OkiePC said:

There will probably be error trapping involved when the device disappears so you really know its gone, but the PLC should not care, and the adapter module may show a list of nodes missing, but it should be possible to set that up.

I am not familiar with the Balluf product you mention so the connecting and power supply loading need to be studied, you don't want to cause a hard bus fault or overload on inrush and lose the whole network.

Perhaps using explicit messaging only and keeping them out of the scan list would work better, you would have to run a series of messages during tool changes.

How many jigs?

It may be critical how the devicenet is configured since many of its nodes will be in error state at most times, you may consider how you poll them carefully.

What PLC?

Click to expand...

slc5/04 and there are 2 jigs at one time. op loads one station while robot welds other station and visa versa. There are 6 total pairs right now and want to add a seventh pair. right now they use a big harding plug that uses relay contacts on two 16 bit cards and each jig just uses the pins it needs. I have 4 outputs left but need ten for the next jig. I have room for one more 16 bit card but if they get another job later I'm toast. I was thinking if it read the node do a jsr to the logic I need to run for that jig that way it did not matter about other nodes or do some sort of jumper/plug system to keep line alive.

I'm having trouble understanding exactly what you want to do. It sounds like you're considering replacing a hardwired I/O interface with a networked I/O interface.

I did something similar recently where I had removable jigs that contained a 871TM DeviceNet proximity switch.

When the prox switch wasn't connected to the network, it indicated that the jig wasn't in place and powered up. We detected that fault and wouldn't let the machine run.

When the prox switch *was* connected to the network, we sent DeviceNet Explicit Messages (MSG in the ControlLogix, DEM in the SLC if you have recent firmware) to read the Serial Number attribute. The controller did a lookup of serial numbers that corresponded to different jigs and ran the corresponding program.

You could always use 32 bit cards instead of 16 bit cards, and keep your hard wiring connections.

I have several jigs to hook up each one is a different job with say 1-4 inputs and several clamp cylinder outputs. I want to put one of the configurable i/o modules on each jig so when the machine is set up with this jig it knows by the devicenet node which inputs to look for to say part is there and which outputs to fire before the robot comes in to weld on part. this way the number of jobs is unlimited to the amount of nodes I can put on the line. i was figuring that the node# would fire the JSR to the ladder I want to run.

alan_505 said:

You could always use 32 bit cards instead of 16 bit cards, and keep your hard wiring connections.

Click to expand...

if i used 32 bit cards i would just have to keep hard wiring these Harding plugs every time and i would have to have multiple females at the junction box where they plug in meaning the operator could plug it into the wrong plug.

You can get keyed harting plugs.
I would look at remote IO on a bus system similar to Ken Roach idea.
Balluff make a contactless remote IO for jigs.

each jig has the clamps and prox's mounted on a 18"x 28" square they just set it in there the tighten down the knobs so that is why i need something to identify the jig and do output and inputs seperate. guess the several DN prox could identify the different jigs but still need the i/o to change some only have 2 clamps and some have 5 and the same goes with the inputs they vary on each jig.

I just used the 871TM proximity switch as an example; we also had ordinary I/O onboard the removable jig, using 1734-ADN adapters. You could use Baluff if that's what fits for your application.

Detecting the DeviceNet node address is certainly one simple way to detect that a particular jig is mounted to the machine, and has the benefit of being super-easy to read and set.

But it also has the disadvantage of being easy to change, so if somebody changes the DeviceNet node address of your 2-clamp jig to be the same as the node address of the 5-clamp jig, the machine can't tell the difference.

That's why I also used messaging to the Identity object. It makes changing the jigs a more complicated project, but it makes the possibility of running the process with the wrong jig very low.

OK thanks Ken

and You used the DEM command to read the identity the jig right? i am looking at that right now how to configure. Once again thanks to you all for all your help in this manner.

In my case the controller was a ControlLogix, so the message function used the ControlLogix MSG instruction.

But the DEM is similar. You need to know the Service, the Class, Instance and Attribute, and the size of the data.

The Service will be "Get Attribute Single". The Identity Object is Class 0x01 and Instance 0x01.

Attribute 0x01 = Vendor (16-bit UINT)
Attribute 0x02 = Device Type (16-bit UINT)
Attribute 0x03 = Product Code (16-bit UINT)
Attribute 0x04 = Revision (two 8-bit SINT)
Attribute 0x05 = Status (16-bit Word)
Attribute 0x06 = Serial Number (32-bit UDINT)
Attribute 0x07 = Product Name (Short String)
... and so on.

RSNetworx for DeviceNet software has a simple "SCIA Editor" that lets you send raw DeviceNet messages by specifying the Service, Class, Instance, and Attribute. It's a good way to prove that the device is replying the way you expect before you try to configure a MSG or DEM instruction in the controller.

I don't have the license for the rs networx and don't think they are going to buy it we are a small co with only 160 employees and they are kinda on the tight side. I just took this job 2 weeks ago they have been without engineer for 5 months and it is going to take me months to clean up all the copies of programs they have out all over this place. I am trying to put out fires right now while cleaning up programs. this is got to be done by October 10th when they start running this new product. once again thanks Ken.

While RSNetworx will work for Nodes 0 through 5 in 'Demo' mode, you can't get it to install in the first place without buying a license.

If you ever want to maintain or modify a machine that uses DeviceNet, your company will eventually have to buy that software tool.

It sounds to me like installing a Baluff I/O Link device and putting it into the 1747-SDN DeviceNet Scanner's scanlist configuration is a step that hasn't been done yet. That will require RSNetworx.

I have got my mock system hooked up now and where I have my problem is getting the node address to an "N" file to tell PLC what to do once it reads this. As far as I can tell it is word 210 in the m1 file. But depending on what AB document you read it seems to conflict. In my DEM I have tried to read Assembly,Get single attribute,read parameter,and custom but the service code for the custom is fuzzy. I can not find a single document that put this all into layman's terms to do. I have to have this working by Christmas shutdown and this is the one hurdle I can't jump here. All I want to do is plug in two jigs that have a 16 point input block on each and a 6 Valve SMC valve block for the nodes that it reads from those 4 devices select a program to run, and a weld schedule and robot program to run. then be able to unplug all of this and plug in two different jigs read those 4 and select different job to run. I have to do this for a total of 8 jobs which gives me 32 nodes total. Please help or tell me where to get some good diagrams of documentation to use. I have a SLC 5/04 ver"C" Frn 10