Learning Beckhoff TwinCat3

[samvivi7]

Hey Everyone,

hope everyone is safe and healthy.

So I got my hands on the following hardware. I have no experience in programing in ST and very little experience with TwinCat 3
X1- Beckhoff computer —-CP6606 single touch panel
https://www.beckhoff.com/CP6606/
X1- EK1100 coupler https://www.beckhoff.com/EK1100/
X1-EL 1859 I/O card https://www.beckhoff.com/el1859/
X1-EL2911 — safety card https://www.beckhoff.com/EL2911/
X1-EL7201-9014 servomotor terminal https://www.beckhoff.com/EL7201-9014/
X1-AM8111-0F11-000 motor https://www.beckhoff.com.ph/english.asp?drive_technology/am811x.htm

Here is what I was able to get working. (list by hardware)
CP6606 – I was able to power up and configure the IP address so I was able to get it connected to my programming PC. (that all!!).
EK1100 -- wired and connected.
EL1859 -- got I/O working.
EL2911 – Safety input card can’t get it to work.
El7201-9014 – Servomotor terminal, was able to configure and get the motor to move with Drive Manager.
AM8111-0F11-000 – Servomotor works but gets really hot.

Here are the issues that I am facing. (list by hardware). I will expand on the issues if someone is willing to spare their valuable time.
CP6606 – I honestly don’t know how to get this working. I have no idea where to start. All I know is and was told in order to get this working I will need to run TwinCat 3.1.4022.9.
EL2911 the safety input card. I am not sure if I need a safety process Ex EL6900? I say this because, everywhere I looked when configuring the safety cards, you link the processor as the Physical Device and the safety I/O as the Alias Device (in the safety project). But…. I was told I do not need a processor. The problem is I cannot have one device (EL2911 input card) as both.
AM8111-0F11-000 – the Motor get really hot with no load on it. My guess is the holding brake is on while the motor is moving. But…… if I manually disable the holding brake and leave it for 1 minute or so it start getting hot. I am confused.

Hope I make sense above, I will really apricate if someone can help and/or are willing to spare their valuable time.
Thank you,
Sam.

 

[TurpoUrpo]

For safety program you would need a safe-plc that indeed is different card. I dont remember if you can link safety inputs directly to the unsafe-plc but even if you can, then they are just "normal" inputs for all purposes.

CP6606 is basically a plc with screen. So the process for it is basically the same as with other twincat plc's. How far did you get? just powered it on?

 

[LadderLogic]

For safety program you would need a safe-plc that indeed is different card.

Actually, EL2911 is one of the newer safety terminals that can act as a safety controller - somewhat limited in capabilities comparing to EL6900/EL6910, but good for simple safety applications.

 

[TurpoUrpo]

Actually, EL2911 is one of the newer safety terminals that can act as a safety controller - somewhat limited in capabilities comparing to EL6900/EL6910, but good for simple safety applications.

Thanks for making this a good day, I learned something new

I had missed that entirely, have not been doing Beckhoff safety in few years thought...

Anyway, he should start with the normal plc side and when thats running, go with the safety.

 

[samvivi7]

For safety program you would need a safe-plc that indeed is different card. I dont remember if you can link safety inputs directly to the unsafe-plc but even if you can, then they are just "normal" inputs for all purposes.

CP6606 is basically a plc with screen. So the process for it is basically the same as with other twincat plc's. How far did you get? just powered it on?

Hey TurpoUrpo,
thanks for replying and your time. My issue with CP6606 is, how do i upload a simple project to it?? i have it connected. i can put it into RUN, Config mode, and i see the terminals.

this is my network topology:
My PC --->CP6606 --->EK1100

So if i make a simple project of turning on and off a input/output via a screen.
i mean on the HMI.
Do i make a VISU ???
Do i make a separate Twincat HMI project ??
i am just confuse on how to make CP6606 run on its own.
i hope i make sense. again thanks for the help.

 

[samvivi7]

Actually, EL2911 is one of the newer safety terminals that can act as a safety controller - somewhat limited in capabilities comparing to EL6900/EL6910, but good for simple safety applications.

Hey LadderLogic
Thanks for the reply and your time. can you please show me on how i can configure this??

 

[Mara]

My issue with CP6606 is, how do i upload a simple project to it??

Here's the instruction how to activate configuration and to upload the boot project:

https://infosys.beckhoff.com/english.php?content=../content/1033/tc3_plc_intro/3470887819.html&id=

 

[TurpoUrpo]

Hey TurpoUrpo,
thanks for replying and your time. My issue with CP6606 is, how do i upload a simple project to it?? i have it connected. i can put it into RUN, Config mode, and i see the terminals.

this is my network topology:
My PC --->CP6606 --->EK1100

So if i make a simple project of turning on and off a input/output via a screen.
i mean on the HMI.
Do i make a VISU ???
Do i make a separate Twincat HMI project ??
i am just confuse on how to make CP6606 run on its own.
i hope i make sense. again thanks for the help.

Have you installed XAE on your PC, do you know how to do a small program and run it locally?

It is basically the same way, but you need to add route to the CP6606

https://infosys.beckhoff.com/englis...3_system/html/tcsysmgr_addroutedialog.htm&id=

Have you seen this? http://www.contactandcoil.com/twincat-3-tutorial/quick-start/

Its little old, but still with quick browse looks valid.

TwinCAT3 has pretty steep learning curve, I would suggest you start with doing small program to run locally.

Then procreed to get that same program to CP6606 and then adding PLC-Visu, its easier than the Twincat HMI (I'm also not sure if Twincat HMI can run on CP6606).

And when these are running proceed adding IO and safety.

 

[LadderLogic]

Hey LadderLogic
Thanks for the reply and your time. can you please show me on how i can configure this??

Well, in a forum post it can be described only briefly. In TwinCAT, you create a safety project, add a safety group. The group will contain a 'target' - you will link it to your safety controller terminal. Then you will have to add what is called 'aliases' for each safety terminal (safe inputs and safe outputs) in your system as well as for some non-safety I/O used to interface the safety system with the main control. Each alias will be linked to the actual terminal.

Then you create your safety logic using safety function blocks and connecting them. In the process, you will be declaring safety variables ('Switch1_ChA', 'Switch1_ChB', 'Reset_Estop' and so on, as needed. Then, in Variable Mapping table, you will link all these variables to the aliases created before.

Only after that, you should be able to download your safety application to the safety controller. And don't forget that each terminal with a safety function will have a tiny DIP or rotary switch so some unique safety address can be set.

Long story short: as TurpoUrpo wrote above, TwinCAT is powerful but has steep learning curve and learning it exclusively on your own is not easy. Ideally, if you or your boss can arrange for a few days beginners training at the nearest Beckhoff office, it would be the best way to start...

 

[AlfredoQuintero]

Hello samvivi7:

A couple of comments from someone who has struggled to learn TwinCAT and so far made some progress. My advice is more basic than that of our colleagues as I am not a professional PLC programmer, but I hope it may still be useful.

1) You say "I have no experience in programming in ST": TwinCAt does have very good support for ladder. You can call ST POUs from ladder and vice-versa. If you wanted to do a project using only ladder, you should have no problem doing this. ST may be better for certain things, so hybrid ladder and ST projects is what I do.

2) Something which took me a while when I was starting with TwinCAT was interpreting error messages, because TwinCAT uses a lot of their acronyms and if you are not used to their meaning it takes a while to figure out. I think if I was fluent in German, using the German language environment might be easier, as I find some explanations in the help files and error pop-up messages not entirely straight forward, as if it was done by engineers without having some editing by professional linguists. But then again English is not my mother tongue so the problem might well be me, although I do not get the same feeling when reading Logix Studio or TIA pop-up messages. Maybe making a table with the meaning of AMS and stuff like that could help relieve a lot of the growing pains.

I think overall it is a very good PLC system, and once you get used to its idiosyncrasies I think you will be able to develop great applications. Good luck.

 

[samvivi7]

Have you installed XAE on your PC, do you know how to do a small program and run it locally?

It is basically the same way, but you need to add route to the CP6606

https://infosys.beckhoff.com/englis...3_system/html/tcsysmgr_addroutedialog.htm&id=

Have you seen this? http://www.contactandcoil.com/twincat-3-tutorial/quick-start/

Its little old, but still with quick browse looks valid.

TwinCAT3 has pretty steep learning curve, I would suggest you start with doing small program to run locally.

Then procreed to get that same program to CP6606 and then adding PLC-Visu, its easier than the Twincat HMI (I'm also not sure if Twincat HMI can run on CP6606).

And when these are running proceed adding IO and safety.

Thanks for the reply. Pls see attached to what i have done so far. nothing impressive lol.
you're right Twincat does have a very steep learning curve.

next will start adding I/O and writing a small program.

 

[samvivi7]

Well, in a forum post it can be described only briefly. In TwinCAT, you create a safety project, add a safety group. The group will contain a 'target' - you will link it to your safety controller terminal. Then you will have to add what is called 'aliases' for each safety terminal (safe inputs and safe outputs) in your system as well as for some non-safety I/O used to interface the safety system with the main control. Each alias will be linked to the actual terminal.

Then you create your safety logic using safety function blocks and connecting them. In the process, you will be declaring safety variables ('Switch1_ChA', 'Switch1_ChB', 'Reset_Estop' and so on, as needed. Then, in Variable Mapping table, you will link all these variables to the aliases created before.

Only after that, you should be able to download your safety application to the safety controller. And don't forget that each terminal with a safety function will have a tiny DIP or rotary switch so some unique safety address can be set.

Long story short: as TurpoUrpo wrote above, TwinCAT is powerful but has steep learning curve and learning it exclusively on your own is not easy. Ideally, if you or your boss can arrange for a few days beginners training at the nearest Beckhoff office, it would be the best way to start...

Thanks i appreciate all the input thus far. here is what i was able to do but still have a lot of questions. well one step at a time.

 

[samvivi7]

Hello samvivi7:

A couple of comments from someone who has struggled to learn TwinCAT and so far made some progress. My advice is more basic than that of our colleagues as I am not a professional PLC programmer, but I hope it may still be useful.

1) You say "I have no experience in programming in ST": TwinCAt does have very good support for ladder. You can call ST POUs from ladder and vice-versa. If you wanted to do a project using only ladder, you should have no problem doing this. ST may be better for certain things, so hybrid ladder and ST projects is what I do.

2) Something which took me a while when I was starting with TwinCAT was interpreting error messages, because TwinCAT uses a lot of their acronyms and if you are not used to their meaning it takes a while to figure out. I think if I was fluent in German, using the German language environment might be easier, as I find some explanations in the help files and error pop-up messages not entirely straight forward, as if it was done by engineers without having some editing by professional linguists. But then again English is not my mother tongue so the problem might well be me, although I do not get the same feeling when reading Logix Studio or TIA pop-up messages. Maybe making a table with the meaning of AMS and stuff like that could help relieve a lot of the growing pains.

I think overall it is a very good PLC system, and once you get used to its idiosyncrasies I think you will be able to develop great applications. Good luck.

Thank you for the valuable advice. i misspoke when i said "I have no experience in programming in ST" i am aware that TwinCat has ladder and FB.
As i am not proficient in both of them and looking at ST. which looks very powerful and interesting. i wanted to just stick to ST.

i am hoping if i can get PLC programming down in ST then ladder and FB will be much easier. hope i make sense here.

 

[LadderLogic]

Thanks i appreciate all the input thus far. here is what i was able to do but still have a lot of questions. well one step at a time.

Variable FBErr is an output of the safety system so it has to link with an input (i.e. declared as %I) variable of the PLC program. I do not see any.

I think this is the problem.