Bryon Sol

How exactly does the mapping work on CC-Link or CC-Link IE Field for an RCON Gateway and actuators? First start by running the Gateway Parameter Configuration Tool to set up the RCON's Gateway Select RCON Go to File->New File, Then pick the network Depending on whether it's CC-Link or CC-Link IE Field you will have slightly different options for Network Number, Node Address, and Baud Rate. Set those as necessary. But on the right you'll have the following: Axis Type - this is the number of CON type axes in your system (RCP, RCS, etc) Number of Option Units - this is the number of EC type slices you have on your RCON Then there's the drop down for operation mode of the CON type axes. When you want the most control set this to "Direct Indication (Size 8W). That means 8 words out and 8 words in from each axis for control an monitoring. You can set each axis separately if needed, but typically we recommend 8W mode for all CON axes. At the bottom then (shown in red) will tell you the size of the CC-Link data black - this has to match your PLC's configuration for the CC-Link or CC-Link IE Field network for this device. Then we have to be able to map the data into the PLC's memory. From IAI's documentation, the Gateway itself has a data structure: For CC-Link networks you'll then see that the Gateway Control 2 words (32 bits) get mapped into RY bits And the Gateway Status bits get mapped into RX The details of each bit are here: Then filling out further RX and RY devices are more gateway status and control data. There's no more control bits used in RY, but there are full words for power supply status etc in further RX addresses Now assuming you chose 8W control for your CON axes each axis has this data structure of 8 words in and 8 words out These will map to RWr and RWw addresses. So if you have say 4 axes you will get: Then if we add EC axis to the end, each EC slice does 4 axes and takes up one word in and one word out for these 4 axis. This will be at the end of the other data in the RWr and RWw after the CON axes and looks like this Hopefully this helps you determine your addressing for RCON gateways.

Epson has announced the release of their new TP4 Teach Pendant. With this new pendant you can: Control, program and monitor your way! Teach points and monitor status Displays simulated 3D model of the robot Displays current robot operating conditions Edit programs and build functions on pendant Verify programs in speed-controlled, hold-to-run test mode Consistent environment on PC and pendant Equipped with the easy to use programming environment – Epson RC+ Program directly on the teach pedant in the text-based programming language SPEL+ Write, change and update robot settings and programs directly from the pendant Create custom HMI for your application Create a custom user panel with GUI builder Monitor the data you need customized for your application Develop interfaces specific to your operation Ergonomic design Large 10.1-inch capacitive multi-touch screen

One of the unique product lines that Gibson represents is Captron: https://www.captron.com/ The specialize in Capacity Touch buttons like those shown below, but they do a lot more as well. The CANEO series with IO-LInk is a personal favorite as you can get a 22mm switch that's very ergonomic and program it to do a multitude of things, from off delay touch to toggling it's output and various colors of light, all on a 5-pin M12 cable. But you can get a wide variety of labels on the switch as well as fully custom labels if you want. Last summer while I was on vacation on a cruise ship, I noticed Captrons buttons on all the large sliding doors. If you pay attention you will find their products all over the place. Using the same technology, Captron also produces Two-Hand anti-tie down switches. A unique product that is used in robotic work cells and other spaces is the Optical sensors. For determining tooling offsets in robotic work cells with repeatability of 0.01mm, the x/y axis through beam unit is a great solution for a common problem. I've been very impressed by the products and the company. Definitely a hidden gem.

If you're used to using small air cylinders in your automation cells, you know how often they leak air or need seals replaced, but now we have a solution for those small actuators that means you can have a pneumatic free workstation. IAI has released their new 20mm width Elecylinder actuators. And there are more small actuators coming soon! With an ultra-compact design and built-in controller the new EC-S2 or EC-RR2 cylinder can reach max speeds of 300mm/s and with the built-in linear guide it keeps the speed from decreasing. These actuators use simple grease lubrication. With lengths of 25mm stroke to 300mm stroke and slider or rod-type actuators, you'll find many uses for these small, easy to install and easy to operate actuators. EC-S2_RR2-20mm-Width-CE0410-1A.pdf

I'm a little late in announcing this but Sick has released a new line of Photoelectric Sensors. The W10 photoelectric proximity sensor’s ease of use, sturdy design and performance make it ideal for precise object detection in demanding environments. The touchscreen display is intuitive to use, allowing parameters to be set quickly. Situation-dependent teach-ins allow convenient sensor adaptation to individual applications. The fact that various MultiMode functions and configurations, such as foreground and background suppression, are combined in a single sensor allows success in a wide range of applications. The world’s first photoelectric sensor with touchscreen display-enabled sensor with refined user-interface allowing simple operation High performance thanks to a precise laser triangulation system with line scanning Buy one, manage one, inventory one, train one, troubleshoot one, replace one Sturdy design with 316L stainless steel housing and IP69k protection rating MultiMode functions such as speed, standard, and precision mode, foreground and background suppression, and teach options Standardized mounting, pre-configured settings and multiple teach-in options for simple sensor integration Button-free interface with lockout ability With only 4 variants in the family this becomes a very powerful, easy to select and stock option. See the product here: https://www.sick.com/us/en/catalog/products/detection-sensors/photoelectric-sensors/w10/c/g555761?tab=overview familyOverview_W10_g555761_en.pdf

Whether you have an FX5 (iQ-F) series PLC or an iQ-R series PLC, both of these can be easily set up as a Modbus/TCP Server with just a few clicks. On the iQ-R you will either need an RxxENCPU which provides an add-on ethernet port (and set it up as Ethernet) or an RJ71EN71 card to add more ethernet ports as the function is not available via the built-in Ethernet port. However on the FX5 it works through the built in port. There are basically two steps: 1. Add the connection to External Device Configuration 2. Set up the register sharing map (if you don't want the default) Step 1: Enabling Modbus/TCP Server via adding a connection in External Device Configuration. Go to the Ethernet Module Parameters and go into External Device Configuration: On this screen simply drag and drop a Modbus/TCP Connection Module onto your network. Finally, take note of the port number that the Client will use, you can change it if you desire. Then click "Close with Reflecting the Setting" at the top. Step 2: Set up the register Map Go to Device Assignement -> Detailed Settings By default, almost every register and bit is available through Modbus/TCP. You can change and adjust as desired. Here's the default setup and as you can see Register D0 is mapped to Holding Register 0. And all 12288 D registers in the PLC are exposed. Here's an example of a change where I have set up D1000 through D1499 as Holding Registers 0 through 499, and D1500 through D1999 as Input Registers 0 through 499. You can read input registers, but not write to them. And you can both read and write Holding Registers. I also set the allocation points to 0 for Y devices, otherwise you could try to turn on outputs directly from Modbus. After setting your map up, click OKAY on the bottom of the window and then click APPLY at the bottom of the parameter widow. Then write your parameters to your PLC and do a power cycle (power off and back on) to activate the new parameters and now your PLC is working as a Modbus/TCP Server.

Something that Mitsubishi programmers need to do on a regular basis is communicate with a device on a CC-Link network. This can be CC-Link classic, CC-Link IE Field, CC-Link IE Field Basic or CC-Link IE TSN. No matter which flavor of CC-Link is used the process is similar and consists of a few steps. This article is not intended to be a step-by-step how-to but instead to give an overview of the process. Step 1: Configure the network with the devices and their required data size(s). Step 2: Configure a set of Refresh Data to transfer the information from the CC-Link module (whether that's the built-in Ethernet port for CC-Link IE Field Basic, or an actual add-on module like RJ61BT11 or FX5-CCL-MS etc). Step 3: Understand the data and use it! I like to diagram this out as follows: STEP 1: - Configure the network For Step 1 - configuring the network, all of the configuration screens look similar, you drag and drop the devices onto your network and set station numbers. For Ethernet devices you need to set IP addresses as well. On the devices themselves you need to either parameterize them or configure their station information to match. Here's an example screenshot showing a VFD on a CC-Link network You simply drag the device onto the network and then in the upper portion of the window you configure the details for the station. For instance this is set for Version 1 of CC-Link and a single occupied station. STEP 2: Configure the Refresh Data This moves the data into the PLCs usable device memory. This will look something like the following: RX Devices are Remote Input bits and in the above picture we are transferring them into B bits in the PLC RY Devices are Remote Output bits and in the above picture we are transferring them into B bits in the PLC RWr Devices are Remote Input Words (Remote Word Read) and in the above picture we are transferring them into W words in the PLC RWw Devices are Remote Output Words (Remote Word Write) and in the above picture we are transferring them into W words in the PLC What this step does is make the devices on our CC-Link network accessible via PLC internal devices, in this case B bits and W words. B bits and W words were chosen because they are addressed in Hexadecimal just like RX, RY, RWr and RWw devices. You can see here RX0 through RX1F is getting mapped to B0 through B1F. Similarly RY0 through RY1F are being mapped to B100 through B11F. The RWr and RWw follow a similar pattern. The B bits and W words chosen are set by the programmer. STEP 3: Use the Data. In order to use the data we need to go to the manual for the device we are controlling and see what the manufacturer tells us. For example with a Mitsubishi VFD on CC-Link IE Field basic we get these two maps: The RX and RY devices look like this: The RWr and RWw can change but the most simple option is this: It's now up to you as a programmer. We can hard code devices for use. For instance since RY0 = B100 we can simply turn on B100 to turn on the Start Forward signal of the VFD, or we can create labels. For example here's a data structure for the RY devices showing the device that we've mapped. With data structures in place, labels created for our CC-Link devices and then our mapping complete we can have code that looks like this to turn on/off the VFD Hopefully this helps you conceptualize device mapping in Mitsubishi PLCs.

Recently we had a situation where we needed to change a job file on a Cognex In-Sight camera from a UR Robot. At first we attempted to do it via Modbus/TCP, but were unable to do so. So we switched gears and used UR Script. In the UR Script we use Socket commands to connect to the Cognex camera and use Native Mode commands to perform the job change. To change a job in Cognex you need to: Connect on port 23 (Telnet) Provide username and password Take the camera offline Send the job change command Put the camera back online Disconnect from the camera There's more than can be done in terms of fool-proofing and error handling, but this script provides the needed functions to change your job. Here's the UR Script we created in order to make this work: # This script uses Sockets in the UR and Native Mode Commands # to change the job in a Cognex In-Sight Camera # First thing to do is open a Socket - this is a connection to the Cognex Camera # The default port for a Native Mode socket is port 23 - TELNET # Specify the IP address of the camera and port 23 # Name the Socket "CogCam" so that we can refer to the specific socket connection socket_open("192.168.3.94",23,"CogCam") #Open Camera UR connection , Port: 23 # The camera should respond with a welcome message and then ask for username # We do a read from the socket to clear this data # You could evaluate this response to ensure the port opened correctly # You could also add a timeout # socket_read_line(socket_name=’socket_0’, timeout=2) strOpenResponse=socket_read_line("CogCam") #get connection response # Now we need to log into the camera. The default username is "admin" # we also need to send Carriage Return and Line Feed characters, so we'll add those # using bytes with integer value of 13 and 10 respectively socket_send_string("admin","CogCam") #Login to Camera socket_send_byte(13,"CogCam") socket_send_byte(10,"CogCam") # Now we can read the response to the user name - it should now ask for password # you could evaluate the response, but here we're just clearing the socket # of incoming data # then we'll send an empty string - the default password for admin EmptySocketData=socket_read_line("CogCam") #Empties Queue socket_send_string("","CogCam") #Password To Camera socket_send_byte(13,"CogCam") socket_send_byte(10,"CogCam") # Now that we should be logged in, again empty the Socket # then take the camera offline with SO0 command EmptySocketData=socket_read_line("CogCam") #Empties Queue socket_send_string("SO0","CogCam") #Takes Camera Offline socket_send_byte(13,"CogCam") socket_send_byte(10,"CogCam") # We could parse the response, 0 = fail, 1=pass but we are # assuming it worked. # The advantage of a read is that the script won't send the next # command until we get a response to the previous command # Now we send LFJOBNAME.job to the camera to load the job we want # in this example, our job is 02.job Status1=socket_read_line("CogCam") socket_send_string("LF02.job","CogCam") #Loads New Job File socket_send_byte(13,"CogCam") socket_send_byte(10,"CogCam") # It may take several seconds for the job file to load # using the socket_read_line without a timeout means we wait for the camera # to respond to the request Status2=socket_read_line("CogCam") # Now that we have a response, we put the camera back online with SO1 command socket_send_string("SO1","CogCam") #Puts Camera Back Online socket_send_byte(13,"CogCam") socket_send_byte(10,"CogCam") # This isn't necessary, but we could check for a 0 or 1 response to see # if we are back online or not Status3=socket_read_line("CogCam") # Lastly we should close the socket socket_close("CogCam") JobChangeScript2.script

I'm very excited to announce that with the update the GX Works3 version 1.095Z and firmware 1.290, Online Program Changes are now possible in SFC programming on the FX5U and FX5UC PLCs. We have had the ability to program SFC on the FX5U/FX5UC PLCs for a while now, however if you needed to do a program change it required you to stop the PLC and rewrite the entire program. With this new update you can use the standard Online Change capability to update your SFC code without having to stop the processor. This is a huge advancement and helps to dramatically reduce program development times.

Using the built-in Modbus/TCP capabilities of the Epson robots we can connect a Mitsubishi GOT Quick program attached which works with the Epson robots. Notes: 1. This was created for an OLD GOT Simple so if you try to put it in a new one, change your Settings to GS21xx-WTBD-N in the project 2. This uses the default config for slave IO on the Epson side starting at Bit 512. 3. You then have to understand how Epson Maps internal bits 512 (512 is duplicated for inputs and outputs as you see above) to Modbus registers. We can then address higher Words if we want to send/receive data from Epson as values other than just bits. The GOT Project only has two screens, one that's looking at some RAW data as bits and words The other screen is only looking at the first couple of words in/out as they map to default functions so that you can quickly use buttons to start/stop programs, reset the robot, turn motors on/off etc. GS21_To_Epson_Modbus_Ex01.GTX

Some updates to this post. Since the original post, Mitsubishi has updated the firmware on the FX5UJ and now you can do User Web Pages on the FX5UJ as well as the FX5U. Also Mitsubishi has now released the FX5S series. With the FX5S series you have reduced expandability in order to bring costs down. The base unit has Ethernet and mini-USB but no SD card and can be purchased in I/O from 30 to 60 points. It is non-expandable for IO but does offer some expansion via front connection and left side. If you add an FX5-SDCD module to the front of the FX5S, you can then use the User Web Page functionality to provide a simple web based user interface to interact with your PLC.