Q1654 Using Allen-Bradley Interchange software (Ethernet Interface)

Summary:

How do I use Citect with Allen-Bradley Interchange software?

Solution:

Hardware requirements
Ethernet card and network connection to PLC with network interface.

Software requirements
Microsoft TCP/IP-32 3.11 with ODI/NDIS3 Drivers.

Allen-Bradley supplied Interchange software 5850-WES or Citect AB Interchange (Ethernet) setup disk.

Boards form
Board name:	User supplied unique name
Board type:	ABEI
Address:	0
I/O Port:	not used
Interrupt:	not used
Special Opt:	not used
Ports form
Port name:	User supplied unique name
Port number:	not used
Board name:	Use the "Board name" from the Boards form
Baud rate:	not used
Data bits:	not used
Stop bits:	not used
Parity:	not used
Special Opt:	The IP address in standard internet dot notation a.b.c.d For best performance configure a virtual port for each PLC. Up to 40 ports can be defnined. Maxpending number of ports must not be more than 40.*
I/O Devices form
Name:	User supplied unique name
Number:	Network wide I/O device number
Address:	PORT_ID,STATION_NUM When accessing a PLC station that is local to the Network Interface use "," as the Address. When accessing a remote PLC station via a local PLC-5/250 PORT_ID is the communication channel that the Network Interface will use to access a remote PLC station. e.g 2 for channel 2 of a resource manager 3 for channel 3 of a resource manager nKA:2 for channel 2 of a KA module with pushwheel n(n=1 - 4) nKA:3 for channel 3 of a KA module with pushwheel n(n=1 - 4) STATION_NUM is the DH or DH+ node number of the remote PLC station. It must be specified in octal notation and must be between 1 and 376 (octal) inclusive (for Data Highway channels) or 0 and 77 (octal) inclusive (for Data Highway Plus channel)
Protocol:	ABEI250 for PLC-5/250 ABEI5 for PLC-5 ABEI3 for PLC-3 ABEI2 for PLC-2
Port name:	Use the "Port name" from the Ports form

Unsolicited Messages

If the Address of an IO device in is blank then this device is for processing unsolicited messages from all PLCs. The protocol must be ABEI2 since only PLC-2 type messages are supported. Only one device should be used in this way to process unsolicited messages.

Citect.ini options

[ABEI] UnsolicitedBytes = 1024

The default size of the PLC-2 data table is 512 words (10 to 777 octal). Words 0 to 7 are not accessible.

Standard citect.ini options

[ABEI] MaxPending = 2 (set to 1 if using more than 20 ports) Block = 192 bytes Retry = 1 Delay = 0 TimeOut = 4000 milliseconds PollTime = 60 milliseconds WatchTime = 30 seconds

Files

ABEI.DLL EI Driver for windows using AB Interchange Software (Ethernet)
AB_2.DBF PLC-2 Variable Template
AB_3.DBF PLC-3 Variable Template
AB_5.DBF PLC-5 Variable Template
AB_5_250.DBF PLC-5/250 Variable Template
DTLEIW.DLL EI Interchange DLL licensed from Allen-Bradley

Error

37 Inconsistent Maxpending specified. You may get this error if you are using the driver with version 2.0 CITECT. The maxpending in [ABEI?] and [ABEI] in citect.ini (alternate citect.ini is not supported) must be the same.

Connection Timeout

When using Microsoft TCP/IP, an attempt to connect to an IP address that is not on the network will take 93 seconds, during that time requests and responses from other IP addresses cannot be processed even if they are working. This is because the interchange library supplied by Allen-Bradley is non re-entrant.

The connection timeout is controlled by a system.ini variable [MSTCP]MaxConnectRetries. Which should be set to 0. The default value is 3.

MaxConnectRetries	Connection timeout (in seconds)
0	9
1	21
2	45
3	93

PLC-2 Variables

O/o	Digital
O	Integer

Where

O	Element number 0 to 3777 octal
/o	Bit Number 0 to 17 octal

PLC-3 Variables

Digital
	OO/o	Output image
	IO/o	Input image
	TCTL:w.t	Timer Control bits
	TCTL:w/o	Timer Control bits
	TPRE:w/o	Timer Preset bits
	TACC:w/o	Timer Accumulator bits
	CCTL:w.c	Counter Control bits
	CCTL:w/o	Counter Control bits
	CPRE:w/o	Counter Preset bits
	CACC:w/o	Counter Accumulator bits
	Nf:w/o	Integer
	Bf:w/o	Binary
	Sf:w/o	Status words
	PFIL:w/o	Pointer Section and File
	PWRD:w/o	Pointer word
Integer
	OO	Output image
	IO	Input image
	TCTL:w	Timer Control
	TPRE:w	Timer Preset
	TACC:w	Timer Accumulator
	CCTL:w	Counter Control
	CPRE:w	Counter Preset
	CACC:w	Counter Accumulator
	Nf:w	Integer
	Df:w	BCD
	Bf:w	Binary
	Af:w	ASCII
	Sf:w	Status words
	PFIL:w	Pointer Section and File
	PWRD:w	Pointer word
Real
	Ff:w	Floating Point
Long
	Hf:w	Long

Where

f	File Number 0 to 999 decimal
O	Element number 0 to 7777 octal
:w	Element number 0 to 9999 decimal
/o	Bit Number 0 to 17 octal
.t	Timer bits
		TE	Enable
		TT	Timing
		TD	Done
.c	Counter bits
		CU	Count Up
		CD	Count Down
		DN	Done
		OV	Overflow
		UF	Underflow

PLC-5 Variables

Digital
	O:O/o	Output image
	I:O/o	Input image
	S:w/b	Status words 0 to 127
	Tf:w.t	Timer
	Tf:w/b	Timer
	Cf:w.c	Counter
	Cf:w/b	Counter
	Rf:w.r	Control
	Rf:w/b	Control
	Bf:w/b	Binary
	Bf/b*	Binary
	Nf:w/b	Integer
	SCf:w.S	Sequential Function Chart
	BTf:w.B	Block Transfer
	Ff:w/b	Floating Point
	PDf:w.p	PID
Integer
	O:O	Output image
	I:O	Input image
	S:w	Status words 0 to 127
	Tf:w.T	Timer
	Cf:w.T	Counter
	Rf:w.C	Control
	Bf:w	Binary
	Nf:w	Integer
	SCf:w.s	Sequential Function chart
	BTf:w.b	Block Transfer
	Af:w	ASCII
	Df:w	BCD
Real
	Ff:w	Floating Point
	PDf:w.P	PID
String
	STf:w	String 82 bytes long

Where

f	File Number 0 to 999 decimal
:w	Element number 0 to 999 decimal
:O	Element number 0 to 277 octal
/b	Bit Number 0 to 15 decimal
/b*	Bit Number 0 to 32767 decimal
/o	Bit Number 0 to 17 octal
.T	Timer/Counter Sub Element
		PRE	Preset Value
		ACC	Accumulated Value
.t	Timer bits
		EN	Enable
		TT	Timing
		DN	Done
.C	Control Sub Element
		LEN	Length
		POS	Position
.c	Counter bits
		CU	Count Up
		CD	Count Down
		DN	Done
		OV	Overflow
		UN	Underflow
.r	Control bits
		EN	Enable
		EU	Enable Unloading
		DN	Done
		EM	Empty
		ER	Error
		UL	Unload
		IN	Inhibit Comparisons
		FD	Found
.S	SFC Sub Element
		PRE	Preset Value
		TIM	Elapsed step active time
.s	SFC bits
		SA	Scan Active
		FS	First Scan
		LS	Last Scan
		OV	Timer Overflow
		ER	Error
		DN	Done
.B	Block Transfer Sub Element
		RLEN	Received Length
		DLEN	Done Length
		FILE	File
		ELEM	Element
.b	Block Transfer bits
		EN	Enable
		ST	Start
		DN	Done
		ER	Error
		CO	Continuous
		EW	Enable Wait
		NR	No Response
		TO	Time Out
		RW	Read Write
.P	PID Sub Element
		SP	Set Point
		KP	Proportional Gain
		KI	Integral Gain
		KD	Derivative Gain
		BIAS	Output Bias %
		MAXS	Maximum Scaled Value
		MINS	Minimum Scaled Value
		DB	Dead Band
		SO	Set Output %
		MAXO	Maximum Output %
		MINO	Minimum Input %
		UPD	Update Time
		PVH	PV Alarm High
		PVL	PV Alarm Low
		PVDB	PV Alarm Dead Band
		PV	Process Variable
		ERR	Error
		OUT	Output
		DVP	Deviation Alarm +
		DVN	Deviation Alarm -
		DVDB	Deviation Alarm Dead Band
		MAXI	Maximum Input
		MINI	Minimum Input
		TIE	Tieback %
.p	PID bits
		EN	Enable
		CT	Cascaded Type
		CL	Cascaded Loop
		PVT	PV Tracking
		DO	Derivitive Of
		SWM	Software A/M Mode
		CA	Control Action
		MO	Mode
		PE	PID Equation
		INI	PID Initialized
		SPOR	SP Out of Range
		OLL	Output Limit Low
		OLH	Output Limit High
		EWD	Error Within Deadband
		DVPA	Deviation Low Alarm
		DVNA	Deviation High Alarm
		PVLA	PV Low Alarm
		PVHA	PV High Alarm

PLC-5/250 Variables

Digital
	O:O/o	Output image
	I:O/o	Input image
	S:w/b	Status words 0 to 350
	IS:w/b	Internal storage
	nS:w/b	Status words 0 to 31
	nTf:w.t	Timer
	nTf:w/b	Timer
	nCf:w.c	Counter
	nCf:w/b	Counter
	nRf:w.r	Control
	nRf:w/b	Control
	nBf:w/b	Binary
	nBf/b*	Binary
	nNf:w/b	Integer
	nFf:w/b	Floating Point
	nLf:w/b	Long
	nPDf:w.p	PID
	nBTDf:w/b	Block transfer data
Integer
	O:O	Output image
	I:O	Input image
	S:w	Status words 0 to 350
	IS:w	Internal storage
	nS:w	Status words 0 to 31
	nCf:w.T	Counter
	nRf:w.C	Control
	nBf:w	Binary
	nNf:w	Integer
	nBTDf:w	Block transfer data
	nSDf:w	Shared data words 0 to 1023
Long
	nTf:w.T	Timer
	nLf:w	Long
Real
	nFf:w	Floating Point
	nPDf:w.P	PID
String
	nSTf:w	String 82 bytes long

Where

n	Optional Module Number 0 to 8 decimal
f	File Number 0 to 9999 decimal
:w	Element number 0 to 9999 decimal
:O	Element number 0 to 777 octal
/b	Bit Number 0 to 15 decimal
/b*	Bit Number 0 to 32767 decimal
/o	Bit Number 0 to 17 octal
.T	Timer/Counter Sub Element
		PRE	Preset Value
		ACC	Accumulated Value
.t	Timer bits
		EN	Enable
		TT	Timing
		DN	Done
.C	Control Sub Element
		LEN	Length
		POS	Position
.c	Counter bits
		CU	Count Up
		CD	Count Down
		DN	Done
		OV	Overflow
		UN	Underflow
.r	Control bits
		EN	Enable
		EU	Enable Unloading
		DN	Done
		EM	Empty
		ER	Error
		UL	Unload
		IN	Inhibit Comparisons
		FD	Found
.P	PID Sub Element
		SP	Set Point
		KP	Proportional Gain
		KI	Integral Gain
		KD	Derivative Gain
		BIAS	Output Bias %
		MAXS	Maximum Scaled Value
		MINS	Minimum Scaled Value
		DB	Dead Band
		SO	Set Output %
		MAXO	Maximum Output %
		MINO	Minimum Input %
		UPD	Update Time
		PVH	PV Alarm High
		PVL	PV Alarm Low
		PVDB	PV Alarm Dead Band
		PV	Process Variable
		ERR	Error
		OUT	Output
		DVP	Deviation Alarm +
		DVN	Deviation Alarm -
		DVDB	Deviation Alarm Dead Band
		MAXI	Maximum Input
		MINI	Minimum Input
		TIE	Tieback %
.p	PID bits
		EN	Enable
		CT	Cascaded Type
		CL	Cascaded Loop
		PVT	PV Tracking
		DO	Derivitive Of
		SWM	Software A/M Mode
		CA	Control Action
		MO	Mode
		PE	PID Equation
		INI	PID Initialized
		SPOR	SP Out of Range
		OLL	Output Limit Low
		OLH	Output Limit High
		EWD	Error Within Deadband
		DVPA	Deviation Low Alarm
		DVNA	Deviation High Alarm
		PVLA	PV Low Alarm
		PVHA	PV High Alarm

Performance on 486/100 Mhz machine to PLC-5/40E
12 requests of at least 111 words each and
2 requests of 71 words each

[Page]Delay=0 [ABEI]PollTime=25

MaxPending	Packets/Sec	Bytes/Sec
1	16	3412
2	32	6753
3	42	8883
4	43	9130
5+	63	13418

[Page]Delay=0 [ABEI]PollTime=25 [Kernel]MsClock=1 [Kernel]TimerResolution=25

MaxPending	Packets/Sec	Bytes/Sec
1	35	7370
2/3/4	70	14740
5	128	27121
6+	140	29480

Keywords:

Q1654 Using Allen-Bradley Interchange software (Ethernet Interface)

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