DrviceNet

All right I have read thru the Device Net Media literature that Ken has suggested, this was a good chunk of info on Device Net hardware. I just started reading thru another user manual “Device Net Modules in Logix5000 Control Systems” so far so good until I got to chapter 2-11 of setting the alignment option. Can anyone please explain to me what this option does?
Thanks
 
I don't have the book handy but I think that's part of the Scanlist configurator when you're mapping data to the I/O table of the scanner.

I use DINT alignment with Logix family, INT alignment with PLC-5 and SLC, and only use Byte alignment when I'm really cramming data into a small scanner.

This is just to tell the data mapping function of the scanner where to start when it maps a new connection.
 
Alignment....

When RSNetworks Auto-Maps the devices into the Input and Output tables, it just "fills" them from the bottom to top.

Since these tables are 32-bit wide, and DeviceNet data is 8-bit "byte-sized", often multi-byte data from a device can get split across two DINTs in the I/O mapping tables.

The alignment options just tell RSNetworks to start the next device at a new "boundary" to make the mapping neater. If I remember correctly, this new boundary can be the start of the next 16-bit, or, more commonly used, at the start of the next 32-bit word.

I don't like this auto-mapping, as it always makes the I/O interface tables look ugly.

What I do is map each device into the tables manually, at 2 x node address. This allows for up to 8-bytes of data for each node. If a node uses more than 8 bytes (not common), I then skip the next node address to allow the data to "overflow" into the next 8 bytes.

It fits in well with the I/O tables' sizes too, since you don't allocate node 63 to a device (default address), and common practice is to reserve node 62 for your programming/commissioning device (eg. 1770-KFD). Highest node address would then be 61, which would map to DINTs 122 and 123.

Hope this all makes some sort of sense.
 
:confused: does the.eds file contain the configuration of a device I/O? What software do I use in order to open the .eds files. I have a Turck status switch (Ni4-DSU35-2DNetX5-B1150-FKE4.3) I have the .eds file for that switch but I dont know what the file holds or what software to open it with.
 
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I couldn't resist.

*.EDS files are Electronic Data Sheets. They're just text; you can open and edit them in Windows Notepad or any other ordinary text editor.

RSLinx Classic uses EDS files to provide a little bit of information to the network browser; when the browser gets the Identity Object from a device it looks to the EDS file to determine which icon to display and whether to show a network bridge [+] sign.

RSNetworx for DeviceNet makes the most use of *.EDS files. It uses them to populate the Parameter Editor, or to configure and launch various applets that configure devices on the network (like FLEX and POINT I/O and Safety devices).

The Scanlist editor that configures an A-B DeviceNet scanner gets the default I/O data types and sizes for an I/O device from the EDS file.

To allow RSNetworx and RSLinx to use the EDS file, you have to Register it. You can launch the EDS Editor from within the RSNetworx environment, or via Start -> Programs -> Rockwell Software -> RSLinx -> RSLinx Tools, and run the Rockwell Software EDS Hardware Registration Tool.
 
I wanted to Thank you all for helping me to get to this point. I got to set up a small Device Net network today, by meaning small just a scanner and one Turck valve position sensor/indicator. Everything went smooth and easier than I thought, but without the help here this would be a nightmare. Now I’m planning on communicating with Ultra 3000 on Device Net.
Anyways Thank You all for your time.:geek:
 
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