Advanced

Redundancy

When using manual recovery add the device x:REDUNDANT_RESET, where x is the main controller station number.

Example: 2:REDUNDANT_RESET is connected to the controller with station number 2 according to the station settings. When this digital device is set the driver will try to reconnect to the main controller the next time it sends a telegram.

Stations

Under Stations, IP addresses, address parameters and system models can be stated.

Up to 20 stations can be configured. Each specifying IP address, model and TSAP or rack/slot number.

Note: Station 0 is the default station and must be defined.

The parameters differ between the S7-200 and the S7-300/400/1200/1500 systems. See the description for the different systems. Also the S7-200 parameters are entered in hexadecimal and the S7-300/400/1200/1500 parameters are entered in decimal format.

Note: S7-1200/1500 systems must use the ISO Transport over TCP protocol.

How to configure redundant stations

Configure the stations as normal and in the Red.station column add the station number which should be used if the connection to the selected station is lost. Entering the same value as in the Stations column will disable the redundancy function.

Example: Station 0 is the main station and station 1 is the redundant station. In station 0 set Red.station = 1.
In station 1 set Red.station = 1 because redundant stations are not in use for this station.

Digital Signals

For digital signals you state current bit in the byte. For example I50.3 means bit 3 in input byte 50.

yyyy = 0 - 8191
no = Data Block number
xxxx = address (minimum value = 0, maximum value depend on the controller)
b = bit number 0 - 7.

Writing bits of device type E/I, A/Q and DB from the HMI to the controller is done in three steps:

1. Reading the whole byte from the controller to the HMI.
2. The current bit is set/reset in the HMI.
3. Writing of the whole byte from the HMI to the controller.

Note: During the time it takes for the HMI to do the three steps the controller may not change the other bits in the current byte since it will be overwritten.

Analog Signals

For bytes, you state the suffix B after the data type.

xxxx = address minimum value = 0, maximum value depend on the controller
no = Data Block number
adr = Data byte within the data block

For 16-bit numbers, you state the suffix W after the data type; e.g. MW100 means 2 bytes from memory byte 100-101.

*S5TIME uses a special format of the data, see section S5TIME objects below.

xxxx = address minimum value = 0, maximum value depend on the controller
no = Data Block number
adr = Data Word within the data block

Note: When storing ASCII values in 16-bit numbers the eight least significant bits contain the second ASCII code.

For 32-bit numbers, you state the suffix D; e.g. MD100 means 4 bytes from memory byte 100-103.

xxxx = address minimum value = 0, maximum value depend on the controller
no = Data Block number
adr = Data Word within the data block

S5TIME objects

S5TIME is a format to represent time data in the controller. The data consists of 16 bits where bit 12 - 13 represents the time base (0 = 10ms, 1 = 100ms, 2 = 1s or 3 = 10s) and bit 0 - 11 represents the time value in BCD format. The maximum value that can be represented is 9990 seconds.

The value of the time base depends on the preset value of the time register:

The S5TIME tags can be read and written from the HMI. To address them a 'T' is added as a suffix to the type string in the address.

Examples:
- MWT20 reads and writes memory word 20 in S5TIME format.
- DB4.DBWT2 reads and writes word 2 in data block 4 in S5TIME format.

More examples can be found in the table for 16-bit numbers.

The value of the time data in the controller is represented as a 32 bit value in the HMI and that all time values are shown in milliseconds.
For example 1h50s will be displayed as 3650000 and 2m30s as 150000. All new values that shall be written to the controller must also be in milliseconds, range 10 - 9990000, the value will then be converted to S5TIME format before sent.

Indexing Data blocks

Example:
DB4I2.DBW10 will address word 10 in data block 4 + (value of index register 2)

Control the preset value for timers

In order to control the preset value for S5TIME objects in the controller from the HMI, perform the following operation:

Add a data register for TV/TW on the S5TIME block in the PLC program.

The time base is controlled with the first digit in the object which can be 0, 1, 2, or 3 (10 ms, 100 ms, 1 s or 10 s). The three remaining digits represent the time value. Desired preset value for the timer is acquired by multiplying the time base with the time value.

0000-0999 = 10 ms - 9.99 s 1000-1999 = 100 ms - 99.9 s 2000-2999 = 1 s - 999 s 3000-3999 = 10 s - 9990 s

Use the minimum and maximum input levels for the object in the HMI to protect the time base.

String formats

The driver can use two different string formats. Either the standard format or the Siemens format. The standard format store the first character of the sting in the first byte, second character in second byte etc. The Siemens format on the other hand have max string length in byte 0, actual string length in byte 1 and the string itself from byte 2 and beyond. When using the Siemens format the first two bytes will not be visible to the user, but they can be accessed by addressing the bytes directly.

Note: When using Siemens format the string length is expanded with the two bytes needed for the string length bytes. This means a string with length 10 will actually read/write 12 bytes of data in the controller.

Time of day

The driver supports the Siemens Time of day format. The values are read/written to the controller as a 32 bit value but presented in the HMI as a string, the syntax for the full TOD-string is hh:mm:ss.mss where hh is the hour, mm the minute, ss the second and mss the milliseconds. The hour, minute and second are presented with two characters and the millisecond with three.
To read/write the TOD-data a string tag must be added in the project and the adress must start with "TOD:". The tag address in the PLC must be a 32 bit address. The length of the tag string is dependant of how many TOD-parameters that shall be read/written.

Example:

All TOD-parameters shall be accessed, the data is in DB1.DBD4. A tag is added in the HMI project with address TOD:DB1.DBD4, the data type of the tag is set to string with 12 characters.
If the decimal value 45000500 is stored in the registry this will be presented as the string "12:30:00.500" in the HMI.

Only the hours and minutes shall be accessed, the data is in MD0. A tag is added in the project with address TOD:MD0, the data type is set to string with 5 characters.
If the decimal value 66000000 is stored in the registry this will be presented as the string "18:20" in the HMI.

Only the hours shall be accessed, the data is in MD0 in station 2. A tag is added in the project with address 2:TOD:MD0, the data type is set to string with 2 characters.
If the decimal value 57600000 is stored in the registry this will be presented as the string "16" in the HMI.

If a new time of day value is to be written to the tag it can either be written in standard TOD format or hh, hh.mm, hh.mm.ss.

Example:

New value where all parameters shall be written: the string is entered as "12:30:45.500"

New value where only the hours and minutes are crucial: the string is entered as "15:20". The seconds and milliseconds are automatically set to 0 by the driver.

New value where only the hours shall be written: the string is entered as "20", all other parameters are set to 0 by the driver.

Station Handling

For communication with other stations than the default station, the station number is given as a prefix to the device.

Example:

2:MW8 addresses memory word MW8 in station 2.

5:DB1.DBW12 addresses word DBW12 in datablock 1 in station 5.

1:TOD:DB3.DBD12 addresses time of day dword DBD12 in datablock 3 in station 1.

Indexing stations

Station number may be an index, using an index register, The contents of the index register determine from which station the device will be read/written.

Syntax:
Iindexregister:device

Example:
I2:MW8

The indexregister may contain values 0 to 5. If a number to a station which does not exist is found, an error message is displayed.

Redundancy Variables

There are two internal variables availible when using redundant stations (see chapter settings), these are REDUNDANT_RESET and STATION_CONNECTED.

REDUNDANT_RESET is used when automatic redundant recovery is disabled. When a station is disconnected and the redundant station is activated a reconnect attempt can be made by setting the REDUNDANT_RESET tag to 1. The value of the tag is default 0.

STATION_CONNECTED is used to monitor if the current station is connected (the value of the tag is 1) or the redundant station is activated (the value is set to 0).
Note: This tag is only updated if there are active tags towards the station.

Both the redundancy variables can be station addressed as ordinary controller tags.

Examples:
1:REDUNDANT_RESET will force a reconnect attempt on station 1.
4:STATION_CONNECTED will check if station 4 is conencted.
I2:REDUNDANT_RESET will force a reconnect on the station addressed in index register 2.

Packing Of Signals

When signals are transferred between the driver and the controller, all signals are not transferred simultaneously. Instead they are divided into packages with a number of signals in each package. By decreasing the number of packages that has to be transferred the communication speed can improve. The number of signals in each package depends on the used driver.

In the SIMATIC ISO over TCP/IP driver different device types can be mixed in a package. Bits are only read together with other bits.
The used controller decides how many read requests (known as any pointers) that can be packed in one package. Arrays and strings (numeric tables, diagrams and string objects) are sent in separate packages.

Error Messages

The error message is shown on the display of the HMI.

If station 0 is not defined or if undefined stations are used, this will not generate any communication or errors.