APT software & CTI PLC download problem.

[Goku]

Good day everyone,

Is there someone on the the forum that knows Simatic APT software.
I'm trying to program a CTI 2500-C300 PLC with APT v1.9
I can connect but after donwloading for the first time its tells me the memory is full. Even if you remove the battery and power to reset and try to download again, same story.
With Workshop I've got no problem connecting, downloading or programming.
Is there anyone with a bit of advice or maybe a example APT project or something.

Thanks in advance

 

[Ken M]

The APT compiler should produce a detailed report of how much memory it has consumed, broken down by all the memory areas available in the CPU. That may provide some starting point.

Another thing is, what did you tell APT was the target system? Since it would know nothing about any CTI CPUs, which TI CPU did you aim it at?

Finally, as we come to the end of this first dredge along the muddy bottom of my memory banks, I recall there were several types of APT download available: full, partial, etc. I think only the 'full' actually downloads the memory configuration to the CPU before dropping the code and data in to place. If you try anything else you could be trying to squeeze code in to too small a configuration while unallocated RAM lies there unused.

I'll have some further thinks about this, but let me know any other symptoms you have.

Regards

Ken

 

[Goku]

Thanks a lot Ken M, I will have a look.

The CPU's got 512k memory which should be alot.

Iserted the 555 CPU in APT, thats what the guys at CTI told me to use.

 

[Ken M]

The CPU's got 512k memory which should be alot.

Aaahh, not necessarily. There were two memory sizes of TI555 : the -1103 or -1105, and the -1104 or -1106. These were 384kB or 1.8MB in capacity. If you've specified the larger memory capacity to APT, it's perfectly possible that the compiler would generate a memory configuration all the way up to 1.8MB if that's what your application called for. Whatever memory size you specify will represent a limit for the compiler and it will trip out with an error when it hits that. I assume you had no error during compilation otherwise you'd have mentioned it (you would have, wouldn't you?).

I think you definitely need to check the standard compiler report to see what the successfully finished code & data requirements are. If they exceed 512kB we may have a clear indication of the problem. If not we need to do some further investigation.

Regards

Ken

 

[Ken Moore]

Which model 555 did you select? The odd numbered models, 1101,1103, 1105 only have 384k of memory. I was thinking if you selected one of the lower range models, the software would not load anything over 384k.

One of us "Ken's" is right, just don't know which one.

 

[Ken M]

Hi Ken

Something for us to get our teeth in to!

With APT I think you separately specify the general CPU model, and the memory capacity available. This stems back to the days of the 560/565 where APT needed to know the CPU type (could it use SFPGMs, what was the balance of retentive Cs available etc) and also needed to know the amount of memory you might have added as extra memory cards. Obviously adding memory wasn't a feature of the 555 but I think the same fields remained. I wonder if Goku would have specified the CPU type as 555, and then specified memory separately as 512kB. However I don't know if APT would permit free form entry for memory capacity of whether it was smart enough to say 'if it's a 555, you have a choice of either 384kB or 1.MB' Conceivably, knowing his physical memory was more than 384kB, Goku selected 1.8MB, but now the download file is having problems configuring 512kB of memory as if there were 1.8MB actually there.

Regards

Ken

 

[Goku]

My APT program doesnt give me the option of selecting between the -1103 or -1105, and the -1104 or -1106.
The TI555 I selected's memory is 384kb default. I tried downloading like that and also changed it to 512kb. But makes no difference.
The error report only says "not enough memory"
Could it be a problem that I'm using APT v1.9 and not v1.9A?
I made a little test program where I just turn an output ON. So there's no big program or errors in it.

 

[Ken Moore]

How about the memory configuration. Even though your program is small, if you have more memory configured than the plc contains, you are going to get an error. I've never used the APT software, just Tisoft and Workshop, but have worked with the 505 line a lot.

Have you spoken with CTI? Their tech support is usually pretty good.

 

[Ken M]

OK, remembering that APT was a good old DOS program, not enough memory where? Could this message be telling us that there's not enough PC memory rather than PLC memory?

No way, old man, what kind of idiot are you? Why, Goku's probably got 1GB of memory or more in his PC.

Yeah, well, DOS doesn't know anything about that, it only knows about the first 640K. And I do know that by the time you'd shovelled all the custom drivers that APT used for mice and printers in there (yes a DOS program that used a mouse!) you ended up with a lot less than the 640K free. And you had to go through that awful procedure of creating expanded memory (or was it extended memory?) and loading the drivers in to this high memory so that you could do all the program work in low memory.

Has this specific APT installation ever been online to any PLC or is it a new one which has only ever been used offline? Since you won't or can't tell me what the compiler report says regarding memory configuration, I'll now forget that and move to PC memory. What chance of an answer to this?

Regards

Ken