In this video we’ll setup a Productivity 3000 as an Adapter – this guy from the Overview
video - so other hardware can act as a Scanner and get periodic updates from us as an implicit
background task. The Productivity Series Controllers are incredibly
flexible when used as adapters – you can set them up with up to four data blocks, with
each containing input and output data arrays. Remember: “Input” is the data requested
as input to the scanner, output is data output from the scanner to us. The point of view
is always from the device that initiates the conversation – input to him, output from
him. Launch the software and make sure you are
using version 1.10.0.7 or later to get the Ethernet/IP functionality. Also, make sure
you have the latest firmware for the controller. I’m using version 1.1.15.91 so yours should
be at least that. And I have to warn you – if you call support the first question they are
going to ask is what software and firmware are you using – so save yourself some time
and go ahead and update those to the most current versions.
So we have the latest software, the latest Firmware, we’re connected to the hardware
which we have already auto detected and configured. All we have to do now is configure the Adapter
– and that’s the easy part! Here we go …
To setup the Ethernet/IP adapter, we can either go to Setup, Comm Adapter Configuration, Ethernet/IP
Adapter, OR my preference – I just come over here to the setup tree, expand the hardware
adapter branch, and there it is, Ethernet/IP Adapter. Double click on that.
That brings up a dialog that looks like this. We enable the Adapter by checking this check
box right here. We select the number of data blocks we want,
most of the time you will only need one so we’ll leave it that. If you need more, you
just change the value and you get more tabs down here in the dialog. Again, we’ll stick
with one for this example. You can enable either the Input data block
or the output data block or both. Let’s enable the Input Data – remember, that’s
the data that the scanner will be reading from us as input to itself.
Here we enter the data array we want to give the scanner access to. I haven’t defined
mine yet, so let’s pretend this Productivity 3000 is running an eight lane candy bar wrapping
machine and we want to monitor the quantities rejected on each lane. So I’ll call it “Lane
Rejects.” Now as soon as I try to do anything like click
down here, I get a dialog like this. The software says – wait a minute – you haven’t defined
that array yet, and it gives me a chance to do so. I love that I don’t have to pre-define
all my arrays – I can just make them up as I need them. Let’s select an unsigned
8 bit array – and while we only need 8 bytes of data – one for each lane - I may expand
this in the future, so I’m gonna set this up with the ability to handle .. oh I don’t
know – how about 32 lanes which is 32 columns of this 1D array.
Great. My 32 lane data array is defined. Well, guess what? Down here in this box I can limit
how much of that data is exposed to the scanner. I only have 8 lanes running today, so I’m
just gonna put an 8 there. That will limit the amount of data that is sent back to the
scanner to just those 8 bytes. You can see that here. The message size will be 8 bytes
going back to the scanner. These guys over here are automatically generated
so you don’t have to worry about filling them in, BUT, you DO want to make note of
them because it’s these four items that you’ll need to setup the scanner. The Scanner
video configures a Scanner to talk to this adapter, so you can see how this all fits
together. For now, just know that this is key information so keep it handy.
Well, that’s it. We’re done. As soon as we transfer this program to the Productivity
3000, scanners will be able to connect with us and start getting periodic updates at the
rate they request. And remember - This runs completely in the
background, so we just forget about it. All our program has to do is maintain that array
of data – the Productivity 3000 takes care of pushing that data out to the scanner for
us at the rate it requested. For example: If we were to simply open a Dataview and put
some data in that array, any connected Scanner would see it immediately. How about that?
Now, suppose we wanted to create a data array that the scanner can write to, to configure
the lanes this adapter is controlling? Well, it’s the exact same thing. We just click
on this guy, assign an array – we’ll call that Lane-Config, setup the data array – we’ll
use 8 bit unsigned integers and we need 8 of those - we tell it how many elements we
want to accept – we’ll accept all 8. That’s all there is to setting up an array the scanner
can write to. Once again, these numbers are really important
– they’re the numbers the Scanner is going to need to setup the output channel it will
use to talk to this adapter and configure the lanes of our candy bar machine. So keep
those handy too! Here’s a hint – suppose the candy bar
lanes are not as efficient as we hoped and an 8 bit unsigned integer isn’t big enough
to handle all of our candy bar rejects? How do we fix that?
That’s one of the cool things about the Productivity Series Controllers – While
this dialog is up, I can come over here and click on my TAG database, bring him up, filter
on that variable name, which we know as name something or another – here it is – Lane
Rejects – and we change it! Let’s bump it up to a 16 bit unsigned integer and close
out the TAG Database. Let’s come back here and re-load that guy
to make sure to make sure he gets it. And sure enough we’re looking at a 16 bit array
and notice that while I have 8 elements exposed now the message is 16 bytes , right? Because
there’s two bytes per element. That’s exactly what we expect. Perfect.
So setting up the Productivity 3000 as an adapter couldn’t be easier. You just enable
the feature, fill in the blanks and you are done. That data is now exposed to any scanner
that wants to connect to us. Normally, that will be your existing controller
network monitoring the Productivity 3000 to keep an eye on how things are going – in
our case, it old be how the candy bar wrapping machine is going.
There’s another video that shows you how to setup the Productivity 3000 as a Scanner.
In that video we actually connect to this Adapter and we’ll see how hassle free it
is to use the Productivity 3000 to share data using this implicit communication method of
the EtherNet/IP standard. If you need help, contact AutomationDirect’s
FREE award winning tech support during regular business hours – they will be happy to help
you. And check out the forums – there are lots of folks there that love to share their
years of experience. Just don’t post any questions directed at AutomationDirect’s
support team there – they may not see them. Performance Plus Value – That’s Productivity.
From Automation Direct.