Powerflex datalinks

[A_G]

I'm working on an existing system and I would like to read/write to some additional Powerflex parameters in the Studio5000 logic. My understanding, I can do this by configuring the datalinks. My question is, will this change the existing drive program itself (the way the drive itself has already been programmed). The drive was set up a while ago by someone else and it has been running fine and I don't want to change any internal drive programming. Does modifying the datalinks just change what the PLC sees? Thanks in advance

 

[joseph_e2]

As I understand it, setting up datalinks will change the value of some parameters related to the datalinks themselves, but shouldn't affect other programming. It does, however, require downloading to the drive and to the PLC, so your system will need to be stopped.

 

[JohnCalderwood]

If you want to read information, then you can send message instructions to the drive.
Think the details should be in the Embedded Ethernet manual for the drive.

 

[5618]

Setting up datalinks will require some simple drive parameter changes. There's four parameters where you can add the parameter numbers of up to four other parameters to read as inputs. Outputs might be up to two, not four. This can be done through Studio, CCW, or at the drive.

Changing the module definition to add the datalinks will create a new module defined datatype and make the drive tag that type. You will need a download for that. It should not affect any existing drive tags, just add some more elements for the datalinks. (Disclaimer: if you're doing something weird with the drive tags like COP the entire structure to an INT array, this would probably mess with that. I don't expect anyone except Jeremy to do that)

A scattered read MSG is another way to read multiple drive parameters. I do that often because four datalinks isn't enough for everything I want to see. Be careful doing write MSGs to the drive. I wouldn't want to write repeatedly and burn out the flash after some thousands of writes.

 

[alan_505]

Different models of PowerFlex have different number of datalinks.