BRX Do-more EtherNet/IP Implicit Scanner Setup with EDS from AutomationDirect

Ethernet-equipped BRX PLCs from AutomationDirect can have their onboard Ethernet port or Ethernet POM configured to operate as an EtherNet/IP Scanner, processing I/O Messages, also known as Implicit Messaging, with up to 32 EtherNet/IP Adapters. I/O Messaging connections to Adapters can be created using EDS files as the source of the required parameters or by manually entering these parameters. Another video we released covers the manual setup of Implicit messaging and provides a comprehensive overview of its features and functionality. Find a link to that video in the description below. If you need to brush up on EtherNet/IP generally, check out AutomationDirect’s informative video, which is also linked in the description below. Let’s take a look at setting up a BRX PLC as an EtherNet/IP Scanner using an adapter device’s EDS file. An EDS, or Electronic Data Sheet, is a plain ASCII text file that contains configuration information for the scanner specific to the adapter device. In the Do-More Designer programming environment, open the system Dashboard and configure an EtherNet/IP scanner. Add Adapter with EDS opens a new window. Create EtherNet/IP Adapter from EDS. In the table on the left, you’ll see all the EDS files to which Do-More Designer has access. Notice that, even if you’ve never been to this setup window before, there are already quite a few EDS files available. In fact, Data Sheets for most AutomationDirect products capable of acting as EtherNet/IP adapters are already included, built into the Do-More Designer software. Let’s say we’re setting up a scanner for a DURApulse GS4 series variable frequency drive. Expand the GS Drives entry and select the GS4_CM_ENETIP entry. Click Create Adapter. The Adapter Settings window opens. If you’re unfamiliar with this window or any of the fields you see here, the manual setup video mentioned earlier contains a detailed exploration of this whole window. After setting up the basics – the adapter name and IP address- add a message. You can completely configure the messages with the User Defined option, but let’s make it a Drive Control and Status default message. Click OK. Note that the Input type, Connection Point, and Count parameters have been populated as defined by the EDS. We just need to add Local Addresses and finish the setup. Click the plus to specify an address. In the Create Connection Point Data window that opens, select an organizational scheme for the exchanged data. Single Struct is great when you’re dealing with a single adapter of its type, and the assembly does not exceed 256 bytes. Click the plus box and you’ll find a ready-to-use User Data Type built from information the EDS provided. We’ll call our GS4 simply “Drive” in this example and click Generate Field Names to make the UDT’s field names match the Drive’s parameter names. We can see our field count and UDT size here. Take a look at the on-board Help files for details on the Handle Misaligned Fields and Handle Multi-bit Bitfields options. Click OK. Now, we can access all the Assembly Data as a UDT. Drive.Fault Code, for example, gets us to the first parameter, the Drive’s fault code. Returning to the Create Connection Point Data window, the Block of Structs option can be used if you have multiple adapters of the same type and wish to index them in a loop and/or pass the index into a subroutine for efficient data handling. Simple Data Block may be used when a data structure isn’t needed or when it isn’t possible to create an assembly-specific UDT – if, for example, the Assembly in question exceeds 256 bytes, the maximum size Do-More allows. In the case of the Simple Data Block, some programming will be required to parse that block and rearrange the data into a more user-friendly format. If your adapter device is one for which the Do-More programming software does not include a built-in EDS, you’ll need to pull the EDS into Do-More. Refer to the device’s documentation to find how to access the Data Sheet and store it on your computer. Let’s go back to the Create Ethernet/IP Adapter from EDS window. Click Import EDS. In the File Explorer window that opens, navigate to the file location containing the desired EDS file. Select the Data Sheet and then designate a folder in which to store the file. Now, the file will appear in the EDS Files field in the Create Adapter window. Select the file, click Create Adapter, and proceed as before. That’s all there is to setting up an EtherNet/IP scanner in Do-More Designer using an Electronic Data Sheet. To learn more about BRX PLCs and their capabilities or any of the thousands of other automation products AutomationDirect carries and supports, visit www.automationdirect.com. Click here for more BRX PLC videos. Click here for more EtherNet/IP videos. Click here to subscribe to AutomationDirect’s YouTube channel to stay notified of new content.