Communication Citect/S7-300 using MPI (CP5611)

[Marie]

Hi,

I am trying to use CP5611 card to communicate between my CitectSCADA application and my S7-300 PLC via MPI. I did all the procedure I found in the S7NT driver help, but absolutely nothing works. I have an hardware alarm that says "PLC Server I/O Device offline, cannot talk...".

I would really appreciate some help here because I don't know where to start to find the problem. I am also having trouble during setup to set the adresses correctly. I mean I don't know if I'm setting them right...

Thank you in advance...

Marie

 

[dchartier]

Hello Marie;

I used to connect S7-300 PLCs to Citect through Profibus and MPI, back when the standard card was a CP5412A2 (already a couple of years ago). At the time, everything would fall into place if you had the latest driver from Citect and followed the help files step-by-step. If you have any more problems, I suggest you try the Citect user's forum, they have loads of people facing your exact problems everyday.

Sorry i can't be of more help,
Daniel Chartier

 

[Marsupilami]

To diagnose a connection problem with the S7NT driver is really a pain. there is almost no feedback on where the problem is, the only thing you get is there is a problem.

but there are some things you can try.

in the "simatic"-"simatic net" start folder there is a program called s7 connection diagnostic (softnet version 6.2 don't know in other versions)

there you can see the status of your connection it gives a litte information.

if the connection doesnt get activated the online path or the boards definition isnt correct

if the connection activates but gives an error (colors red) there is no connection or the connections are not downloaded to the PLC

if there are no connections visible then the pc station isnt correctly configured

If the connection is green then i would look at your tag definitions and iodevice definitions.

these are not the only possible reasons but the most common.

hope this helps,

Marsu

 

[JesperMP]

Is that S7NT driver an OPC connection ?
Or does it require a "Simatic PC station" to be setup ?
I may be able to help a bit, but I need to know some more details.

 

[Marie]

It is not an OPC Server connection.

I don't see anything in the s7 connection diagnostic...

Weird thing...

Marie

 

[Marsupilami]

So no entrys in the connection diagnostic means the pc station isnt configured.

did you create the connection in simatic net?

did you download the connection to the pc station or import the xdb file in the station manager?

what version of simatic net are you using ?

greetz,

Marsu

 

[Marie]

I redid the procedure and now I have a connection in the diagnostic. Its state is "Not Used"... Does that mean anything to you Marsu?Thank you

Marie

 

[Marsupilami]

Hey,

that definitively looks better.

the reason it says not used, is because the link between citect and simatic net is not correctly configured.

so you have to look at your boards definition.

in the special opt field there sould be an entry. this refers to the access point.

now if you go to the set PG/PC interface under the menu "Simatic"-"simatic net" (not the entry under "simatic" itself)

there you see a combobx with all defined access points. if yours is there the select it else choose <add/delete> and create one with the correct name.

after this select the correct interface for the entry point. in your case the MPI interface.

if this is all correctly configured, then when you start citect the connection should change from not used to something else and should get a color.

this is all out the top of my head so there could be some glitches in the description.

hope this helps.

Greetz,

Marsu

 

[Marie]

Hi,

I went to see the PG/PC interface and found out that the access point selected was not the good one, which is called MPI in my project.

However, the connection diagnostic did not change...

There is something that have bothered me for a long time: When I look in the Configuration Console, under Modules\CP5611\General, the type of module is selected as "Profibus" and I cannot change is (it is grayed). I know that CP5611 card can do both Profibus and MPI, but in that screen it has always been Profibus. When I go in NetPro and check the CP5611 card properties, the type of interface selected is MPI, so I guess the card is then configured to run MPI connection... right???

I wonder also if my settings in Citect are OK, especially the Port Number. Any advice to give me on that?

Thank you very much

Marie

 

[Marie]

Hi again,

I wonder about another thing... In NetPro, the Local ID of my connection is "S7connection_1"... Should that be somewhere in my Citect configuration??? For now I do not have that anywhere...

thanks

Marie

 

[Marsupilami]

so you now created an MPI acces point or did you change the boards form?

as for your ports definition. the port number is not relevant. only the special Opt field is. there should be the name of the s7 connection. defoult in simatic net something like "S7_connection_1" you can check this in simatic net. make shure these names match. if those are correct then when you start citect the connection diagnose should change.

as for the problem in the configuration console i dont think it is a problem but i am not shure.

hope this helps

Marsu

 

[Marsupilami]

and i forgot to mention.

the last thing that has to match is the application name. that name should be enterd in the address field of the io-device

greetz

Marsu

 

[Marie]

Just to resume what I understood, there are three things that must match in Citect and Simatic Net:

1- The application name in Simatic must be the same as what is written in the address field of the i/o device configuration in Citect
2- The name of the S7 connection in Netpro must match what is written in the special opt field of the port configuration in Citect
3- The access point name of Simatic must match the one in the Pc/PG interface and what is written in the special opt field of the board configuration in Citect.

I am pretty sure that I have the first 2 OK, but the 3rd I'm not sure. In the Configuration Console, I have these two access point:
"MPI CP5611(Profibus) CP5611"
"S7ONLINE CP5611(Profibus) CP5611"

I don't know which one I should use (my guess is on the MPI one), but when I go in the PG\PC interface, I try to select the MPI one, and click ok, everything seems fine but if I go back in the PG/PC interface, the S7ONLINE is selected. It seems to go back by itself, i don't know why...

Finally, I found out that I am no longer able to download my NetPro settings in the PLC. I get the error "Unable to reach the module Stationmanager via the online interface". Do you know how to fix that?

Thanks

Marie

 

[Marsupilami]

Indeed those are the 3 things that should match.

You can select either one of those access points, only the S7ONINE is the one used by the step 7 software.

the error seems to me as if you are downloading to the station manager and not to the PLC. and you dont seem to be able to reach the station manager.

what does the connection diagnostic say at the moment?

cant give you more information right now, i am at my home PC. But if you can download your program to the PLC, then use the S7ONLINE access point (change it in the boards configuration) then i think everything should work fine.

Greetz,

Marsu

 

[Marie]

I talked to some Siemens guy and he made me realise that my Station name in Simatic was not the same as my real station name. That was causing some of the problems.

I found also something which indicates that the connection isn't ok in Simatic. When I start Netpro, then select my connection, if I click on the icon "Activate/Deactivate Connection Status", I see that my connection is "Not available"... I don't know how to fix that... Any ideas?

Marie