Red Lion to AB1400 and Emerson Unidrive with Crimson 2

[irondesk40]

Could someone lead me in the right direction? Using Crimson 2 and a 306 hmi unit how would you set up the allen bradley micrologix 1400 plc to be able to reference a servo drive that I can currently turn on manually from the HMI unit with a manual Pushbutton.
Basically when I push the push button on the plc it turns on a bit in the servo drive which is referenced as Register 18_Data Word 1_Bit2. The Modbus address is 41812. Then in the servo drive I have a program that will perform a index move when 41812 goes true.
How can I take the Micrologix 1400 plc and have it linked to the servo drive that is connected to the Red Lion HMI and in the PLC have it reference for example modbus address 41815 in the servo drive?
If i understanc correctly I need to set up some type of data block assigned to the modbus address in the drive.
Any advice would be helpful. Has been a challenge at the moment, but slowly learning from reading post on this site.
Thanks

 

[DamianInRochester]

Do you have a motion module plugged into your drive (ie SM-EZ-Motion or SM-Appplication Plus, etc.)? you really need a motion module to do indexing. And to be clear, I assume you are using a UnidriveSP as opposed to the older classic Unidrive.

Normally with modubus comms to the UnidriveSP, the menu items correlate direcly with the Menu and Sub element. So 41815 is simply Menu 18, Sub element 15. This is a generic user read/write integer.

Is the ML1400, G306, and the UnidriveSP all on the same RS485 network? If so who is the master?

 

[irondesk40]

Damien
Yes it is the Unidrive with the EZ motion module.
I have been able to create screens in the HMI and manually start the drive to index. I have also created screens in the HMI to communicate back to AB plc.
I have those on a memory stick, will follow with another post and attach those.
What I am trying to do now is figure out how to take the plc and when the machine goes into to run mode have it start the drive index as well.
Will get the files and attach them on a post in a couple of minutes.

 

[irondesk40]

here is the files.
they are CTvue and CT configurator files.
Actually Crimson2 relabled to CTvue since it has the built in drivers for the unidrive.
in the CT configurator file I can also start the index move if I do the following

Do While Bit.Index_Run or Input??=on

I was trying to figure out how to possibly map the plc directly to one of the bit addresses similiar to the way the Bit.Index_Run is actually bit 18_12_4182. If i am looking at it correct the modbus address for the 18_12 is 41812.
If i wanted to linke a Bit in the allen bradley plc such as B3:9/0 to the address in the drive for example 18_15_41815 how exactly would you accomplish this.
Thanks

 

[DamianInRochester]

I would recommend doing things a little different than you have.

First, I would have ALL control bits controlled through the ML1400. So instead of the HMI program setting bits in the Unidrive, have the HMI instead direct those requests to the ML1400. That way they are not fighting each other and nothing can happen unless the ML1400 knows about it. I am not a big fan of systems where you have a triangle of control because it is never clear where the commands are comming from.

Next, instead of using full integers as "bit" commands I would instead create a command word that contains all the control bits. This way all of your control can be transmitted with one single word. Menu 18.15 is a 16 bit register.

In the PowerTools sofware you will notice under Axis1 Devices/Vars a sub item called Packed Bits Control Words. Enable check box. You will notice you can assign the bits of the control word to anything now. Then in your modbus mapping at the bottom, you would just map 18.15 to be the "control word". In the same fashion the Packed Bits Status Word is a great way to build your own custom status word to read back to the ML1400.

Finally, on the HMI side you will probably have to use it as a Gateway. Below is a link to a Crimson 3.o video on "Protocol Conversion". Watch this video and you will understand how to get the ML1400 integer to the Unidrive Integer. The screens will not be identical in CTVue (aka Crimson 2.0) but the functionality is basically the same.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT-pWVdWadY

 

[irondesk40]

Thanks, will print this out and try and get it all to sink in.
If i understand correctly then it is a better idea to let the plc turn on a output and then have that output go to a input on the Unidrive sp drive to start the drive to start running,the same as the Start Run PB that I have created on the page for manual control of the drive.
Then in the program in the Unidrive where i have the pushbutton bit starting the index then just or that with it as well.
Have to admit this is all pretty confusing to me. The fact that the undrive display that is a Redlion with the unidrive drives built in is something that I am starting to like, but having a pretty steep learning curve since this is all new to me.

 

[irondesk40]

I have watched the video and was able to simulate what was in the video but when I opened up the PowerTools pro program and I tried to see how to link a bit that I may be able to use to start the index in automatic, I was not able to figure that out. Too much thinking for one day. Thanks

 

[irondesk40]

Dan
Here was my attempt at simulating the video.
What I could not figure out was how to then link the B3 address to items in the PowerTools pro that could be used to start the index.
Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[DamianInRochester]

Thanks, will print this out and try and get it all to sink in.
If i understand correctly then it is a better idea to let the plc turn on a output and then have that output go to a input on the Unidrive sp drive to start the drive to start running,the same as the Start Run PB that I have created on the page for manual control of the drive.
Then in the program in the Unidrive where i have the pushbutton bit starting the index then just or that with it as well.

That's not really what I was saying. Basically what I was getting at is right now the way you have it set up the Unidrive would be getting commands from two different sources. I think it is better to have all commands to come from the PLC. It can still be modbus, it can still pass through the HMI, but the PLC will always be pulling the puppet strings so to speak.

 

[DamianInRochester]

Irondesk,
I have modified your files a bit. You made a NEW protocol block instead of adding a gateway to an existing block.

What I show is linking one N integer N7:00 to Unidrive Address 18.16. I then in PTools show how to map that to the Control Word. And then when you look at the Control word you will see how I mapped it to your existing bits.

I then made a Status Word, put a few assignments to it as an example, linked it to Unidrive address 18.17. On the CTVue I created another gateway to send this Status word to N7:01 of the ML1400.

Obviously you don't have to use the memory registers I did, but it will give you the idea. You can either reference the N registers by bit in the PLC instead, or copy the B bits to the N register and vice-versa.

The Packed Control Words and Packed Status bits in Power Tools was a fairly recent addition, but it is a very powerful tool for controlling the drives over a network.

Good Luck!

 

[irondesk40]

Thanks a million. I will download it and look it over later tonight or in the morning when i get back in the office.
Have spent all day yesterday and today just to get to the point I am at and just burned out at the moment, if you know what I mean.
THANKS

 

[irondesk40]

confused why bits not retaining names

I attached a file. I have a question that I hope you could answer for me. I tried calling Emerson tech support to get them to help me figure out why I have gone brain dead, but it was too late in the afternoon .
I attached 2 files. One I labeled machineupload, the other I named test.
In the file labeled machineupload if you look at the Device/Variables bits you can see where the bits where named.
Then if you go to I/O Setup and look at Assignments and Bits the names they where created are still there in the Source section.
Now if I do the same for a test file I was creating and go in Device/Vars and select a bit and name it and then go into the I/O Setup and look under Source, the name I changed it to under Device/Variables is not there. Any advice on why this is happening. I do not have it connected to any hardware but I thought it would stay what I named it.

 

[DamianInRochester]

I attached a file. I have a question that I hope you could answer for me. I tried calling Emerson tech support to get them to help me figure out why I have gone brain dead, but it was too late in the afternoon .
I attached 2 files. One I labeled machineupload, the other I named test.
In the file labeled machineupload if you look at the Device/Variables bits you can see where the bits where named.
Then if you go to I/O Setup and look at Assignments and Bits the names they where created are still there in the Source section.
Now if I do the same for a test file I was creating and go in Device/Vars and select a bit and name it and then go into the I/O Setup and look under Source, the name I changed it to under Device/Variables is not there. Any advice on why this is happening. I do not have it connected to any hardware but I thought it would stay what I named it.

Only attachment is a PDF

 

[DamianInRochester]

I see what your talking about now. It is a refresh issue in Powertools. If you save the program. Close, and then re-open you will find that the names are then shown in the assignments. A bit of a quirk/bug with the software. I have noticed it before in the past but it never had an operational significance so I didn't raise too much of a fuss about it.

 

[irondesk40]

okay, will try and rename a bit and then save and reopen the file and see it that does it.