Crimson 3.0 Emulator PLC communication

I'm new to Crimson 3.0 so bear with me. I have a AB Micrologix 1200 plugged into my desktop COM serial port. I can see the PLC just fine in RSLinx so I know it's communicating with the computer. So I built a rudimentary panel in Crimson with some data entry, couple push buttons, etc just so I can see the PLC and the emulator communicating and check my tag addressing. When I run the emulator though, none of the values in the PLC are pulled into the emulator and no data entered in the emulator is making it to the PLC. I never have even seen the COMM light on the PLC blip since I've been using Crimson. I thought this would be relatively simple since the MicroLogix doesn't use ethernet. I have the link settings for the emulator set up to map to the COM 1 port (I've tried mapping it to programming port and serial comms port). Under communications, I'm using the RS-232 Comms Port, DF1 Master v1.02. My communication setting match what the PLC is setup for (baud rate, error checking, duplex, etc). The PLC is showing up as 'PLC1' in Devices in the resource pane and all of the data files under it (outputs, inputs, bits, floats, etc) show up as yellow icons.

It's clear Crimson is not communicating with the PLC and I'm hoping it just because of some setting I've missed due to my lack of familiarity with the software. Any advice on where to go or what to check from here would be appreciated. Thanks.

I have had mixed results using the emulator to talk to a real PLC on etherent, and have not tried it serially. I have had better luck with the DF1 Master driver on etherent than I have had with the DF1 vie EIP/PCCC, and when it works, I still have at times had to escape and restart the emulator occasionally to get comms, but you're doing serial, so I don't know if that "try again" methodology applies.

First thing though, make sure RSLinx is completely shut down. Nothing else is going to be able to use that PC serial port as long as there's a RSLinx serial driver running.

In the emulator make sure you click use the serial port.
I am not infront of a pc now (cell phone). Third from right in the file menu bottom selection should open up the emulator settings. You will see where it is set to share the serial port Ethernet, etc. Select the serial port. This makes the C3 use your PC serial port. As Paul said shutdown Linx. C3's emulator will open up and run but it will not usethe serial port if something else is using it.

As OkiePC and JeffKiper have mentioned make sure you have linx shut down. From there assuming you have the emulator configured for the right serial port on your PC it should work. Can you send me your file so I can double check the port settings in reference to your PLC?

[email protected]

Thanks
Jeremy

I assumed Linx would be tying up the COM port so I was only using it as a means to ensure I was getting communication between the desktop and the PLC. I did shut down the Linx application and service before trying to get communication between the C3 emulator and the PLC. Under Link Options I have send to emulator checked, and under emulator configure I have Programming port set to COM 1 and all others disabled. I have also tried mapping COM 1 to Serial Comms Port 2 and disabling the programming port with no success.

I was trying to pull screen shot in here to show my configuration, but to no avail.

Also, all the data tags I imported from the .csv file I made are showing up with red icons. I'm assuming this is just representative of a lack of communication with the PLC. When I run the emulator any data displays only show ---.

I have global communications enabled and OLE for Process Control (OPC Proxy) disabled. I believe that's correct. Thanks for your help so far guys.

Did you email Jeremy yet?

You said. CSV Are you trying to datalog with the emulator? It will not do them
Do you just have a data tag on the screen to show values?

Not trying to data log, I just pulled all the tags out of the old PanelView HMI program into an .csv and imported that to C3.

OK create a tag from scratch. I only do tag importing on huge conversions. I prefer to create them as new. I can group them in the way I want.

Sorry I can't get my PC up and running now. In the basement because of tornados and 2" hail.

JeffKiper said:

Sorry I can't get my PC up and running now. In the basement because of tornados and 2" hail.

Click to expand...

Programming support during tornado weather? Awesome. I tried making a few tags from scratch with the same results. I specified them as source PLC and I'm pretty sure they are addressed correctly.

Example: Stored value in PLC is addressed F8:31 and in Crimson its source PLC F008:0031 access set to read and write.

Tim James said:

Under Link Options I have send to emulator checked, and under emulator configure I have Programming port set to COM 1 and all others disabled.

I have also tried mapping COM 1 to Serial Comms Port 2 and disabling the programming port with no success.

Click to expand...

Since you're emulating a G304K, there are two serial ports. The programming port, and the Comms Ports, the RS232 Comms port, is what I would expect to be "Serial Comms Port 2" as shown under the emulator configuration. I think you need to map the emulator "Serial Comms Port 2" to your PC COM1 (or whatever real COM number is being connected to the PLC.)

Is COM1 the port number on your PC that works with RSLinx?

In your application, you will want the PLC driver set up under the Comms port, not the Programming port. Probably the RS232 port...not sure if hte emulator is smart enough to map a RS485 port through your PC RS232 port. This is where a phone call to Red Lion would settle it quickly.

You can use the programming port, but it is probably wise to leave it un-configured so you always have a "way in" after programming the little Kadet.

Tim James said:

Also, all the data tags I imported from the .csv file I made are showing up with red icons. I'm assuming this is just representative of a lack of communication with the PLC. When I run the emulator any data displays only show ---.

Click to expand...

Red flags simply mean those are "flag tags" (bits, boolean, 1 or 0) to an external device. I think blue tag icons mean internal, red for external, gold for complex code, purple for arrays.

The "---" does mean a lack of communication.

Tim James said:

I have global communications enabled and OLE for Process Control (OPC Proxy) disabled. I believe that's correct. Thanks for your help so far guys.

Click to expand...

I agree, that does sound correct.

I am sure it's something simple, maybe baud rate or device type? Call Red Lion. It's not the same as calling most big companies which we tend to dread. They will get you quickly to an actual technical expert, like Jeremy, Dan or one of the others.

Paul

I second Paul's idea call the guys up at RL. They are great. If I had. Laptop in the house I would set it up and try it.

I have the DF1 driver set up under the RS232 Comms and I have tried emulator mapping to the Serial Comms Port 2 to my PC COM 1 port. I did email the setup to Jeremy, maybe he'll have some insight for me. Unfortunately I have been pulled away from my little experiment for today but I hope to get back to it Monday. Thanks again guys.

Success! Momentarily anyway. So I failed to remember that this particular MicroLogix 1200 (l24-BWAR) has a standard channel 0 Comm port AND a specific programmer/HMI port (both 8 pin mini DIN). Typically I am able to run an able to program and run an HMI from either port unless I setup up one port for something specific in RSLogix. I looked back at my RSLogix controller setup and both ports are configured identically for DF1. But for fun I figured, what the heck, it might work. Sure enough, I plugged into the HMI/Programmer port and bingo, C3 emulator started reading and writing data. Very strange, but glad it is working.
Still having trouble figuring out how C3 is translating the tad address format from the PLC though. For instance when I drag and drop a specific bit tag, like B3:6/9 it is only identified where it is being used as PLC B003:0006 when in fact that is the array and I only want the 9th element. I can't figure out how to tell C3 to look only at that 9th bit in that array.

Thanks so much guys.

On the tag "Data" tab, look for the "Treat As" field and set it to Bit Array Little Endian. Then below that choose the bit number.

That little tidbit of info has tripped up most of us in the beginning. Then you can do all sorts of cool things with the rest of the tag options, like format the on and off states for the bit and colors, so that when you drop it on a page, and choose to pull the format and colors from the tag, the text and colors are already done.

Once you get a tag how you want, you will find that the (right click on the tag) copy and "paste special > selective" options are very powerful ways of applying specific properties to masses of bits with a couple of clicks...

Also, you can use windows copy and paste to duplicate tags, then change the word and bit references to suit you. There is also the "smart duplicate" button at the top. It will do the same things as copy and paste, except it will increment the word address for you. This is more useful for numeric tags than bit tags though.

When you want to change the address that appears in the Data field for a tag, you can use the "Pick..." button and associated dialog box, or you can double click the field and carefully edit it right there. I prefer the latter method in most cases.

One of the coolest features of Crimson is that you can rename a tag (or a page, or a program or a folder) at any time, and the software will take care of all references to that item everywhere throughout your application, unlike Panelbuilder or FTView.

Another thing I find very useful for apps with lots of tags is using folders to segregate them. Also, you can list the tags in any order, move them around with drag and drop, etc. And, you can right click and sort alphabetically too.

A couple of things I learned recently:
1) Don't begin a tag name with a number. I imported some tags from a PB32 application (over 1400 tags) and a handful of them started with a number. Crimson did not bark at me until I started using them on pages, and it took me a bit to figure out why it complained.

2) Don't name a folder "Numeric". This appears to be a reserved keyword. There is probably a list of reserved keywords somewhere, but that one I learned the hard way after renaming a folder full of tags.

3) Don't end a tag with an underscore followed by a number. If you do that, and then move the tag, Crimson will alter the number at the end (sometimes). It will still work, it just may confuse you if you go looking for "PB_02" and find out Crimson renamed it "PB_" or "PB_1".

If you screw up and create a bunch of errors; look at the bottom of the editor for the Errors indicator which should always be gray. Click on that errors indicator if it turns red, and the focus will jump to the first error. There is also a search results list that will list all the errors (Press F8 or go to View, Search Results). If you figure out you have a hundred errors because you, for example, deleted a device that was referenced 100 times, recreate the device, then right click on the Errors indicator, and "Recompile Database" Often Crimson will fix all those errors for you very quickly.

Here's a very simple example I shared that has some basic things set up for a SLC that may give you some ideas if you pick it apart:
http://forums.mrplc.com/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=980

Thanks for all the advice Okie, I'll keep a copy of that post for future reference. My tags appear correct, as far as the 'treat as' 'little endian' and bit number. I guess my question is when addressing an object like a momentary button on a HMI page I don't seem to be able to fully identify the bit. I've got a button with action set to momentary n.o., but I am only able to identify it as far as PLC1 B003:0006, I don't see anyway within the button definition that I can specify the bit number (it's B3:6/9). If I try to just drag and drop the tag from the resource pane I get an error "unexpected identifier".

I know the emulator is communicating with the PLC well since I have verified that I can read and write data. I just want to be able to manipulate some control bits and see the associated output control on the the PLC and so far I haven't been able to get that working.