best way to pass input to addon instruction

for micrologix devices rslinx 5000

I am task with adding some static bars to one of our lines. The current code has 2 bars already in place. I'm going to add 7 more (9 total) so I figure that since the code repeats I'll create an add-on instruction that will do all the work neatly. The data comes from a controller which talks to the plc via ethernet. The controller stores all the data for all the bars in a single array of INT, size 117. For the add-on instruction I don't need all 117 entries, I just need 1 or 2 of those. For example, data[19] and data [22].

Here is my question. Since that data is an input to the add-on instruction do I pass in the whole array (117 elements) or just the part of the array I need? The thing is that I want to get away from knowing exactly which array element belongs to which bar. All the data is separated equally for example the status data for bar 1 is stored in data[19] and for bar 2 is in data[28] (9 addresses apart). I don't know how data is passed in a plc but it would seem to me rather wasteful to pass a whole array just to get 2 elements out of it.

Micrologix runs with RS500, I guess it was a typo.
For each of you AOI instances just copy (use) the part of your 117 elements that refers to that instance in particular.
Move externally your data to tags inside your AOI each one individually

I have no idea, but the wastefulness is only if the array is passed by-value; if it's passed by-reference then it's actually less wasteful. I imagine if you pass the array as an InOut, then it will be passed by-reference.



Does your MicroLogix even support AOIs?

if you are using Micrologix using RSlogix 500 software and AOI is not available to you
they are only available in the Logix5000
you could create a subprogram with local tags and copy it for each bar