ACESYS program

Unity Reference Manual

PLC Communication
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Index Range 0-1000
Contents
PLC Communication (Unity).....................................................................3
General........................................................................................................................................3
Purpose.................................................................................................................................3
Communication principle............................................................................................................4
Sending Data........................................................................................................................4
Receiving Data.....................................................................................................................4
Hardware Configuration..............................................................................................................6
PLC Program...............................................................................................................................8
Main Program Structure.......................................................................................................8
Variable Definitions.............................................................................................................9
PLC Program......................................................................................................................10
Sending Data...............................................................................................................10
Receiving Data............................................................................................................11

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Copyright © FLSmidth Automation. All rights reserved. Contents · i

PLC Communication (Unity)

General

Purpose
This manual contains a PLC specific description of ACESYS for the Schneider
Electric Unity controllers. This version of ACESYS for Unity is designed for the
HMI system ECS.
This manual has to be seen in consecutive with the generic ACESYS manual.

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Communication principle

The ACESYS implementation of PLC to PLC communication is based on global

data configuration.
Global data service is a real time Publisher/Subscriber mechanism providing an
efficient data exchange for PLC application coordination.
Ethernet cards supporting Global Data are arranged in a distribution group for the
purpose of application variable exchange and synchronization.
The ACESYS implementation is prepared to handle redundant network. Therefore
two distribution groups are defined named Primary and Secondary. To ensure
redundancy the variables are broadcasted twice via both distribution groups.

Sending Data
The variables to be send are defined as Publish in the data editor.

Primary
Ethernet
PLCxx_Primary Card

PLCxx_Data
Secondary
Ethernet
PLCxx_Secondar
Card
y
The variable PLCxx_Data are copied to PLCxx_Primary and PLCxx_Secondary.
These two variables are broadcasted to all nodes on the network via the distribution
groups defined on the networks.

Receiving Data
The variables to be received are defined as Subscribe in the data editor

Primary
Ethernet PLCxx_Primary
Card
PLCxx_Data
Secondary
Ethernet PLCxx_Secondar
Card y

The variables PLCxx_Primary and PLCxx_Secondary are received via the

networks. When new data are received the data are copied to PLCxx_Data.

4 · PLC Communication (Unity) Copyright © FLSmidth Automation. All rights reserved.

 Using the global data exchange requires configuration in the network configuration
as well as the data editor.
In the following table planning of variables to the communicated are shown:

Variabl Group Symbol PLC Number

e ID Name
1 2 3 … 16

1 Primary PLC01_Primary PUB SUB SUB SUB

1 Secondar PLC01_Secondar PUB SUB SUB SUB
y y
2 Primary PLC02_Primary SUB PUB SUB SUB
2 Secondar PLC02_Secondar SUB PUB SUB SUB
y y
3 Primary PLC03_Primary SUB SUB PUB SUB
3 Secondar PLC04_Secondar SUB SUB PUB SUB
y y
… …
16 Primary PLC16_Primary SUB SUB SUB PUB
16 Secondar PLC16_Secondar SUB SUB SUB PUB
y y
Figure 1 Publish/Subscribe planning

The above table can be extended to handle up to 64 PLC nodes.

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Hardware Configuration
The global data has to be configured on the network. Configure the primary and
secondary connections networks as shown below:

Figure 2 Global Data Primary Ethernet Card

Figure 3 Global Data Secondary Ethernet Card

6 · PLC Communication (Unity) Copyright © FLSmidth Automation. All rights reserved.

 Parameter Description
Health timeout After this time period has run out, the
data received becomes invalid. Set this
value to e.g. 10.000 ms. Supervision of
receiving of data is carried out by the
ACESYS receive block
Group address Class D Multicast IP address. All nodes
in the global data procedure use the same
Multicast address for distributing or
receiving data. The address range is:
224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255.
Distribution time Number of scan between publishing data.
Set the value to 1.

Group name Logical name. Defines the variable

allocation to different communication
configurations in the variable editor. Use
the names Primary and Secondary.
Status bit block Address for retrieving the status
information of the global data procedure.
Ensure that the variable is not used for
other purposes.
Multicast filtering Activates an Ethernet switch on
connection that supports Multicast
filtering.
Figure 4 Ethernet Card Parameters

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PLC Program

Main Program Structure

It is recommended to create one section for each PLC Communication object in the
Structural View:

PLC
Communication
Section

Figure 5 PLC Communication Object- Structural View

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 Variable Definitions
Create three tags for each PLC in the network of the type
“ACESYS_PLCtoPLC_DATA”:

Figure 6 PLC Communication Tags

In the above variable definition window tags for 10 nodes are shown. The PLC to
PLC implementation can handle up to 64 nodes.
Note that the above shown variable definitions are for PLC no. 1 (the variable
PLC01_Primary and PLC01_Secondary are defined as PUB.
As indicated above the data type “ACESYS_PLCtoPLC_DATA” contains of the
following variables:

Figure 7 Data Type ACESYS_PLCtoPLC_Data

The variable Watchdog is used to monitor communication timeout. Every time a

new message is broadcasted a new value is written to the Watchdog variable. The
receiving PLC will check that the value has changed before elapse of watchdog
time.
For data exchange arrays of 32 Boolean, 10 words, and 10 real are also transmitted
are defined.

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 PLC Program
Below is shown programming example for PLC Communication:

Figure 8 PLC Program Examples

Sending Data
The following snapshot shows the ACESYS_PLC_SEND:

1 2 3

Figure 9 PLC Program Send Data

The following connections have to be made to the send block:

1. Working variable structure to be broadcasted
2. Variable structure to be broadcasted via primary network
3. Variable structure to be broadcasted via secondary network

Create logic to move internal variable to the data structure to be broadcasted:

Figure 10 Moving data to be Send

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 Receiving Data
The following snapshot shows the ACESYS_PLC_RECEIVE:

1 5

2 6
3

Figure 11 PLC Program Receive Data

The following connections have to be made to the receive block:

1. Define action to be carried out when watchdog time has elapsed. If the
Clear_Bool is set to true all Boolean variables in the received data
structure will be reset. The same functionality is implemented for
Clear_Word and Clear_Real, where word and real variables will be set to
zero.
2. Watchdog time. When this time has elapsed without receiving new data
the data will reset in accordance to settings made
3. Variable structure received via primary network
4. Variable structure received via secondary network
5. The output status can be used to monitor the communication status, e.g. by
creating a digital alarm object to monitor the status.
6. Working variable

Create logic to move the received data to the internal variables:

Figure 12 Moving Received Data

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