AOI to sync slave controller clock to master controller clock messaging question

[bigLee]

Hello,
I am trying to create an AOI that will retrive the clock datetime bits from a master plc through a generic message read instruction and periodically ssv it's local clock.
I am having issues creating the message where the user will just enter the ip address in a string data type and the AOI passes it to the message instruction bits.
I seem to be getting hung up on the message path.data[0] bit. Which is the number of octets with "dots" of IP address.
My input parameter string is the same as message path string DINT with a SINT[82]. All controllers are either 1769 compact or 1756 L81E so no crazy path/port specs.
It works fine moving my string bits data[0]-[9] to msg path.data[2]-[11] respectively.

The issue comes with anything higher than an 8 octet ip address. For instance xx.x.x.x (8)is working fine but I cannot get a xx.x.x.xxx(10) to work. For anything but an 8 octet address path.data[1] is '$08' A 10 octet is
'$1'. I've tried moving this to the register but it returns a '$t'

What is populating this register? Any insight from any of the pro's out there is appreciated as always.

Instuction notes said to enter string address omitting commas in hex. This also did not work.

 

[plvlce]

I've not yet dealt with a user-entered address, but I ran into something similar when I was setting up a MSG which iterated through a list of destinations.

iirc what you are seeing in data[1]is the length (number of SINT) of the IP address, just shown to you as ascii because you are looking at it in a String. I believe for an address 10 long you should have $l (note that's a lowercase L, not a one). You can change how it shows from ASCII to decimal under the 'Style' column if you want.

As a side note, I believe odd lengths had an extra $00 inserted directly after the IP portion in the path string although this was not counted towards the length in [1]

 

[Contr_Conn]

If I recall, the Message path string must have even number of bytes. There is an easier way to handle path by using the Module parameter. Check Rockwell AOIs like Stratix and DLR for path handling.