CoDeSys 3

Hi

Previoulsy today I was disappointed to discover that most of the PLC manufacturers' products were not listed in the CoDeSys Device Directory (http://devices.codesys.com/device-directory.html)
when searching for the categories CODESYS SoftPLC System, PLC/Compact PLC and Panel PLC.
Does any of you know on which devices CODESYS 3 can be programmed and run?

Which field buses are compatible wioth CODESYS 3?

Where to I find a extensive tutorial material for learning CODESYS 3? Some 3o pages are not enough for the needs I have.

Many manufacturers rebrand CoDeSys with their own name.
Bosch Rexroth Indraworks is CoDeSys
EATON X-Soft is CoDeSys
Schneider SoMachine is CoDeSys
Wago uses CoDeSys
Exor uses CoDeSys

There are many others.

Bus support usually depends on what the manufacturer has included.
We have used

SERCOS 3
CanOpen
Ethernet I/P
DeviceNet
ProfiNet
ProfiBus
EtherCat
Modbus/TCP
Modbus/RTU
OPC/UA

There are some big names on the list, like Wago, Schneider and Turck. Siemens, Allen-Bradley and Omron are not, and probably never will be offering CoDeSys option.

In addition, almost all Beckhoff controllers are programmed with TwinCAT 3 which is a customized version of CoDeSys 3. All the major fieldbuses are supported of course.

I have just played around with CoDeSys V3 and the softPLC that comes with it, so I cannot say for 100% sure, but I would say that it is not possible to download your code to any physical controller with just vanilla CodeSys, if that was your intention.

For tutorials, you should check Wago's youtube channel, at least for previous version of CoDeSys they had nice and helpful videos available there.

Thanks for your input. Though I do not know exactly what you mean by writing "vanilla CoDeSys", other then that you don't refer to the ice cream flavour.

Sorry for being unclear, with vanilla I meant the version that you download from CodeSys webpage, which does not have any hardware catalogues or such that you could use to select the hardware you are downloading the code to.

Thanks for your answer so far. Here come more questions.

LadderLogic wrote:
"/.../almost all Beckhoff controllers are programmed with TwinCAT 3 which is a customized version of CoDeSys 3. All the major fieldbuses are supported of course."

What is different between an uncustomized version of CoDeSys 3 and TwinCAT 3? Is it not possible to download and/or pay for a CoDeSys USB dongle and use it directly in Beckhoff components (primarily PLCs and HMIs)?

Which Beckhoff controllers cannot be programmed with TwinCAT 3?

I have been told that EtherCAT can run on ordinary Ethernet cable. If that is the case it means that I have a pretty cheap alternative if I want to learn how to work with fieldbuses at home.

TwinCAT 3 is an unholy alliance between Visual Studio and CodeSys, where CoDeSys runs on Visual Studio. While technically it might be possible to open and modify PLC program done with TwinCAT with plain CoDeSys, I would not recommend you to do this, at least if you want to be able download the code to actual controller.

For learning you can install a Codesys runtime on a Raspberry PI and run it as a PLC, programmed from CoDeSys version 3, free to download from the 3S Software website. The hardware is cheap, although not as robust as an industrial style PLC.

The free Raspberry PI runtime will run for 2 hrs. Then needs a powercycle/reboot of the PI and will run again for 2 hrs etc. That is the only limitation of the free version, otherwise fully functional. Including web visualisation, so you can build the HMI for your PLC program in CoDeSys, it runs on the PI and you access it through any HTML5 web browser. From your PC, tablet, smartphone, whatever.

You can run programs without any hardware.

Codesys installs a simulator. It is an icon in the sys tray called CODESYS Control Win.
To use it set CODESYS Control Win as the project device.

It includes an OPC UA Server too, it can be Modbus TCP slave & master, also an Ethernet/IP Scanner or Adapter.

The free CODESYS Control Win also has the 2 hours limit.

AutomationEngineer82 said:

What is different between an uncustomized version of CoDeSys 3 and TwinCAT 3? Is it not possible to download and/or pay for a CoDeSys USB dongle and use it directly in Beckhoff components (primarily PLCs and HMIs)?

Which Beckhoff controllers cannot be programmed with TwinCAT 3?

I have been told that EtherCAT can run on ordinary Ethernet cable. If that is the case it means that I have a pretty cheap alternative if I want to learn how to work with fieldbuses at home.

Click to expand...

1. Primarily TwinCAT is customized to work specifically with Beckhoff controllers only. There is no dongle: you pay for the runtime when you buy a Beckhoff controller and the development part is free (well, almost: some additional functions require purchasing additional licenses).

2. The smallest ones that use ARM processor running at 600 MHz and below. So this basically excludes all the CX8000 series but includes CX9000 and up - more info on Beckhoff web site.

3. Profinet, Ethernet/IP and some other fieldbuses also run on Ethernet cables; the advantages of EtherCAT are elsewhere: it is blazingly fast, it does not use IP addresses, it can do real-time motion control and run machine safety protocol. If you go with Beckhoff option, EtherCAT is a given; other fieldbuses can be added into ECAT system later if needed.

LadderLogic said:

3. Profinet, Ethernet/IP and some other fieldbuses also run on Ethernet cables; the advantages of EtherCAT are elsewhere: it is blazingly fast, it does not use IP addresses, it can do real-time motion control and run machine safety protocol.

Click to expand...

To be fair, Profinet and EIP can do safety and motion control over Ethernet as well. I'm not sure I'd call that an advantage.

On the blazing fast end, I will grant you that although I'm pretty sure PN IRT theoretically offers cycle times that get close to Ethercat, I don't think i've run into any PN controllers that actually support less than 100us updates.