DirectSoft 6 / DL06 Programming

Hey everyone,


Working on a system with a Koyo DL06 processor and it's my first experience with them. I have DirectSoft 6 and we got the program off of the processor and I've made some small edits, I'm just curious if there's anything I have to look out for when downloading the new program back to the controller. I'm sure I'll have to adjust some totalizer values and the like to match the values pre-download, but will I have to keep an eye on anything else in anyone else's experience?



As a side note, I'll never take using RSLogix for granted again Once I understood the ins and outs (no pun intended) of moving things into the accumulator and then outputting them into a memory address it's actually fairly easy, but the ease of use of AB software is pretty glaring in comparison. I did find the AB to AD primer on Bernie's website, as well as several threads on here that were all helpful, just want to make sure I don't get bitten when I show up on site by wiping out what they have. Obviously I plan on doing a fresh upload/read of the program from the processor just before I do my download.


Thanks!

It has been my (limited) experience that when you upload, you get the program but no data. Same for downloading which might be handy for your case. I would still make extensive use of pen and paper to record all the important stuff.

And changing the data values is such a pain with Directsoft. Maybe there are better ways than to open a Data View, type in the addresses, turn on the edit field, type in the values you want, click on the send edits button.

Also when online, to see the values and status of logic, you'll need to turn on the Status option. Each time I have to work with DirectSoft, I offset the pain by telling myself "well at least you didn't have to battle with RSLinx drivers to establish communication." BTW, if you have RSLinx installed, be sure it is stopped or at least any serial drivers are stopped if you are trying to connect DirectSoft serially to the DL06. The one time I struggled with DL communications it was RSLinx that was stomping on it behind the scenes.

There is some newer firmware for the DL series that allows the use of "Iboxes" which can greatly reduce the amount of code block required for common tasks like scaling analog inputs for example. It basically encapsulates many of the load and store operations and makes for much more readable code. I did work on one system a few years ago where I updated the firmware just to gain those instructions. It was square root based math for a venturi tube flow calculation and eliminated at least 10 lines of obfuscated code.

That’s extremely helpful, thanks for the tips. I believe I’d seen you mention in another thread about RSLinx tying up the serial ports, and I’ve run into that problem before so I had thought of that, but it is a bit of a pain that I’ll have to re-enter a lot of the data. Thanks again!

When you upload/download "program" means just the ladder logic while "project" means the ladder logic plus the data tables. The second is closest to the AB upload/download. The option for transferring just the "program" is most helpful to not disturb the currently running data.

bernie_carlton said:

When you upload/download "program" means just the ladder logic while "project" means the ladder logic plus the data tables. The second is closest to the AB upload/download. The option for transferring just the "program" is most helpful to not disturb the currently running data.

Click to expand...

That’s great to know, I found it very strange that there was no data table transfer, it’s a relief to know that it’s an option. Thanks Bernie!

OkiePC said:

There is some newer firmware for the DL series that allows the use of "Iboxes" which can greatly reduce the amount of code block required for common tasks like scaling analog inputs for example. It basically encapsulates many of the load and store operations and makes for much more readable code. I did work on one system a few years ago where I updated the firmware just to gain those instructions. It was square root based math for a venturi tube flow calculation and eliminated at least 10 lines of obfuscated code.

Click to expand...

Just getting into IBoxes now, they seem to be kind of a mix between the default instructions and AOIs that I'm used to in Logix. I'm specifically looking at the ANSCL (analog scale) IBox, it says 12-bit BCD to BCD scaling, I assume I'd be out of luck if I'm using a 16-bit analog input card? Was happy to see the IBox until I realized there seems to be a mismatch between resolutions of the instruction and my input card. Would love if there were an equivalent of the Scale with Parameters (SCP) in Logix, but I can work without it.