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Simatic S7/MPI
 

Simatic S7/MPI

required Siemens SW PRODAVE 5.5 (PRODAVE 5.5 MINI); with cards CP5511, CP5611 PROFIBUS protocol too

Code:CW-S7MPI
Price for system integrators (excl. VAT): 420 EUR
List price (excl. VAT): 467 EUR
Manufacturer:Moravian Instruments
 
TOTAL
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*) Estimated availability varies depending on product options. Estimated availability does not include time of shipping and it is not obligatory.

The S_MPI driver provides communication of Control Web application with SIMATIC S7 PLCs over the MPI or PROFIBUS protocol.

Driver features

  • The driver enables connection of one or multiple SIMATIC S7 PLC(s) to Control Web application.

  • Supports communication with S7-200 and S7-300/400/M7/C7 series PLCs.

  • Reads and writes data from/to D, V, M, A, E, T, Z, Sareas.

  • Enables manipulation with individual bits of the M area.

Warning:

The driver requires the Simens PRODAVE S7 product installed on the computer.

List of sections:

Driver features
The PRODAVE S7 software support
How the driver works
Driver parameters
Driver channels
Driver procedures
Driver map file and data types
Driver exceptions and their handling
Error codes
Example of driver usage

The PRODAVE S7 software support

Control Web MPI driver requires the Siemens PRODAVE S7 (v.5.5 and higher) product is installed on the computer. The PRODAVE is supplied in two versions. The cheaper PRODAVE S7 mini enables data transfer to/from S7-300/400/M7/C7 datablocks only. Only the Varea is supported in the case of S7-200 PLC. The full version of PRODAVE S7 supports also data transfer to/from M, A, E, T, Zand Sareas. Appropriate hardware is also required to communicate over the MPI interface. It is possible to use the PCI plug-in board CP5611 or the PCMCIA adapter CP5511. It is also possible to use external PC Adapter (MPI), which is connected to the standard PC serial interface RS-232C. It is of course necessary to install appropriate drivers for the used hardware..

Remark:

It is not possible to use S7-200 with the PC Adapter (MPI).

The Siemens PG/PC interface configuration

It is necessary to configure the PC/PC interface for the driver to work properly. Configuration tools can be found in the Windows Control Panel under the icon:

It is necessary to choose so-called Access Point first. Choose the S7ONLINE from the combo-box:

Then it is necessary to define other parameters. Select communication hardware and MPI interface. The CP5611 card is chosen as an example here:

Another possibility is the PC Adapter (MPI):

Clicking the Properties button opens dialog pox for particular hardware. It is important to define communication speed properly. Take care to define if the PC (PG/PC) is the only master in the MPI network. If you use S7-200, this option must be checked.

The S_MPI driver creates the 'ERROR.DAT' file in the Control Web directory with error messages. The PRODAVE S7 software creates another two files 'ERROR.ENG' and 'ERROR.GER' with error messages in English and German languages. The 'ERROR.DAT' file can be replaced by one of these files, but it is necessary to keep the '.DAT' extension.

How the driver works

It is possible to read and/or write data from/to data areas D, V, M, A, E, T, Zand S. It is also possible to manipulate with individual bits of the M area.

The driver automatically detects the version of PRODAVE S7 installed on the particular computer and uses only the functionality provided by the installed version. If the driver is configured to use unsupported data areas, it will generate an error during the application startup.

The driver interprets PLC'sdata elements as boolean or numeric channels. Data element is usually a byte (in the D, V, M, A, E and Sareas) or word (in the T and Zareas). Numerical values can be of different types (int8, uint8, int16, uint16, int32, uint32, float32, float32s), depending on the number of data elements occupied. Also logical channels can be of different types (bits, sbit, bool8) depending on the interpretation (one bit or whole byte). If the whole byte is interpreted as one logical value then zero value means false, non-zero value means true. Driver data channels (number of channels and their types) are configured in the driver parameter file according to the user needs.

Driver parameters

The driver parameter file defines various communication parameters and also individual channels. The whole parameter file is divided into individual sections. Section name is delimited by square brackets. Individual parameters within the section follows the parameter_name = parameter_value convention. Every parameter occupies exactly one line.

Remark:

Both section and parameter names are case-sensitive.

Connections definition — section [Connection]

All devices (PLCs), with which the driver has to communicate, are defined in this section. Every device has assigned name, which identifies it in the [Channels] section, and also device address and possibly another parameters identifying the device are defined here. Number of connections is limited to 32. Every connection is defined on the separate line according to the following syntax:

[Connection]
  <Id> = station:<N>, segment:<N>, rack:<N>, slot:<N>, cpu:<N>
  <Id> = ...
  ...
  • Id - connection identifier, which will be used in the [Channels] section. Id is a character string of maximal length 32 character.

  • N - numeric value. It can be written in the decimal or hexadecimal notation (hexadecimal number must begin with number and end with the character H, e.g. 0A1H).

The cpu parameter defines PLC series. The S7-200 is identified by the number 200, Higher models (S7-300/400/M7/C7) are identified by the number 300. It is also possible to use short notation, where on the right side of the equal sign are only numbers in the following orders: station, segment, rack, slot, cpu.

Example of the [Connection] section parameters:

[Connection]
  CPU314 = station:3, segment:0, rack:0, slot:2, cpu:300

or

CPU314 = 3, 0, 0, 2, 300

Driver parameter definition — section [Settings]

This section contains parameters, which configures the driver. Individual parameters and their possible values are:

[Settings]
  DeviceName = <Device>
  ErrorFile = <File>
  SwapBytes = true | false
  MaxExceptions = <N>
  FinalizeAfterEachBlock = false | true
  Trace = none | log | xtrace | windows
Device

string (S7ONLINE).

File

string ('ERROR.DAT').

N

numeric value. It can be written in the decimal or hexadecimal notation (hexadecimal number must begin with number and end with the character H, e.g. 0A1H).

Individual parameters description:

DeviceName

Name of hardware driver (Access Point) — typically S7ONLINE.

ErrorFile

Error messages file name — e.g. 'ERROR.DAT'. This file must be in the Control Web root directory.

SwapBytes

flag which states whether swap byte order is altered in the word. This flag is global for all blocks. If it is set to false or is not stated, it is possible to set swap byte order individually within the channels blocks.

MaxExceptions

size of the queue for unprocessed exceptions from the driver. The default setting is 4096.

FinalizeAfterEachBlock

using this parameter it is stated whether data will be transferred to the application after each communication (the value of the parameter = true) or after completion of the transfer of all blocks which are resolved within the respective time step. The default value is false.

Trace

switching of communication trace outputs. If it is necessary to monitor the communication of the driver with the device, it is possible to select by this parameter the target of trace outputs.

Possible values of the parameter are:

none

no trace outputs

log

outputs are directed into Log window of the tab Debug of the Control Websystem

xtrace

outputs are directed into the file '\XTRACE.TXT'

windows

outputs are directed into the debug window of the Windows system

Warning:

Trace outputs slow down the activity of the application or they may lead to decreasing the space in the memory or on the disk. Therefore, it is not recommended to use trace outputs in the final application.

Example of the [Settings] section:

[Settings]
  DeviceName = S7ONLINE
  ErrorFile = ERROR.DAT
  SwapBytes = false
  MaxExceptions = 1000
  FinalizeAfterEachBlock = false
  Trace = none

Channels definition — section [Channels]

This section defines individual channels or group of channels and their representation in the PLC'smemory. Groups are defined in individual blocks. One block is defined by the range of channel numbers, connection identifier, PLC data area, data type and start and end addresses in the PLC data area. It is possible to define parameter bidirect, which eliminates collisions of bi-directional channels during overlapping read and write operations — there are two independent channel blocks for read and write created in the driver. Another optional parameter defines byte swapping for types longer than 1 byte. It is also possible to add a comment. Comments must be on separate lines and must begin with semicolon.

One block represent maximal continuous data area transferred during one communication transaction from the communication point of view. However, the maximal size transferred also depends on the used protocol and on the lower layers. They can split the block to even smaller packets.

Every channel group (block) is described on one line. Syntax for one block description is as follows. Optional parameters are in square brackets.

[Channels]
  Block = <From>,<To>,<Con>,<Area>,<Type>,<Adr>[,Bidirect] [,SwapBytes] [,Id:<Name>]
  Block = ...
  ...
From

Number of the first channel in block.

To

Number of the last channel in block.

Con

Connection identifier (see section [Connection]).

Area

PLC data area code.

Available codes are:

V

Memory ares V (variable memory). Available only inS7-200.

M

Memory area M (flag bytes).

A

Binary outputs area. Also Oor Q symbols can be used.

E

Binary inputs area. Also I symbol can be used.

T

Timers area.

Z

Counters area. Also C symbol can be used.

S

Special memory area S. Available only inS7-200.

Type

Area data type.

Available types are:

bits

8 boolean channels in one byte. bits type always works with the whole byte in PLC memory. The smallest amount of transferred data is 1 byte.

sbit

This type enables writing of individual bits in the M area. It is more efficient to use bits type it the case more than 8 bits are written. But the whole byte is transferred during read operation (similarly to bits type).

bool8

One boolean in one memory byte. Zero means false, non-zero means true.

uint8

Unsigned 8-bit integer.

int8

Signed 8-bit integer.

uint16

Unsigned 16-bit integer.

int16

Signed 16-bit integer.

uint32

Unsigned 32-bit integer.

int32

Signed 32-bit integer.

float32

32-bit IEEE-754 floating point number.

float32s

32-bit PLC SIMATIC S5 (format KG) floating point number.

Adr

Start address in the data area. Address are expressed in bytes. Only T and Ztypes are expressed in words (2 bytes).

Bidirect

This block will be both read and written. This parameter is optional.

SwapBytes

Bytes will be swapped in words. This parameter is optional.

Id

Name is block identifier. This name can be used to dynamically change the block start address during application runtime. The start address can be performed using driver procedures SetBlockId and SetBlockOffset. Identifier maximal length is 32 characters. This parameter is optional.

Remark:

The sbit type can be applied only for M data area. The type is not defined for data areas T and Z — it is always uint16.

Example of the [Channels] section:

[Channels]
  Block = 200,  299,  CPU315, M,    sbit,      50
  Block = 300,  347,  CPU314, A,    bits,      124  
  Block = 500,  547,  CPU314, A,    bits,      124  
  Block = 1100, 1999, CPU315, D100, uint16,    50,  Id:InD100
  Block = 2100, 2999, CPU315, D100, uint16,    50,  Id:OutD100
  Block = 3000, 3009, CPU315, Z,               0
  Block = 4000, 4009, CPU315, T,               0

Driver channels

The driver interprets various parts of PLC data areas as numeric of boolean channels. Channels are defined in the section [Channels] of the parameter file. However, some channels with fixed numbers are predefined and cannot be used for data transfer.

Driver reserved channels

The driver reserves channels with numbers from 1 to 99 for diagnostic and maintenance purposes. Never use channels with numbers lower than 100 in the data channels definition (in section [Channels]).

  • channel No.1 - real input - driver exception state

  • channel No.2 - boolean output - enables driver exception

  • channel No.3 - real input - number of handled exceptions

  • channel No.4 - real input - number of unhandled exceptions in the driver queue

  • channel No.5 - real input - address of device which caused exception

  • channel No.6 - real input - error code

  • channel No.7 - string input - error description

  • channel No.8 - real input - number of the first channel of block, which transfer caused error

  • channel No.9 - real input - number of the last channel of block, which transfer caused error

  • channel No.10 - real input - code of the area, which transfer caused error:

    68 - area D

    86 - area V

    77 - area M

    65 - area A

    69 - area E

    84 - area T

    90 - area Z

    83 - area S

    This is the ordinal number of particular character. It is possible to use the function char in the Control Web application to convert the number to the character.

  • channel No.11 - real input - number of read error

  • channel No.12 - boolean output - zeros the read error counter

  • channel No.13 - real input - number of write error

  • channel No.14 - boolean output - zeros the write error counter

  • channel No.15 - not used

  • channel No.16 - real input - device error code (see PRODAVE S7 documentation)

  • channel No.17 - boolean output - reinitializes the PRODAVE S7 software layer

  • channel No.18 - string input - device error description (according to the 'ERROR.DAT' file).

Automatic type conversion

It is necessary to create also the '*.DMF' file together with the parameter file to properly define channels for the Control Web application. The DMF file contains list od channels and their types — this definition enables syntax (proper channel numbers) and semantic (proper channel types and directions) checks during application compilation.

The driver does not require strict type matching between parameter and DMF files. It is only recommended to assign boolean type to the bits, sbit or bool8 types. Another numeric types can be combined. For instance it is possible to define all numeric channels as real in the '*.DMF' file, while they are of type int16 in the PLC.

Example of the automatic type conversion between real and int16 types

Driver procedures

Driver procedures

The application may call for the driver certain procedures using which it is possible to control the behavior of the driver or to gain important information. This is done by means of the system procedure:

system.DriverQueryProc( DriverName : string; Param1 : any; &Param2 : any )

Parameters of the procedure have the following meaning:

ParameterMeaning
DriverName

symbolic name of the driver defined in the application,

Param1

serves for typing of the command (name of the driver procedure).

Param2

is used as a parameter of the procedure or the return value of the procedure.

DriverName and Param1 are typed as text strings. Param2 is of various type according to the meaning of the procedure. Some procedures serving for setting of parameters may finish in error.

Overview and meaning of driver procedures (Param1 parameter)

GetResult

Returns the result of the last called driver procedure. The result is some of the error codes described in the Chapter Error codes. This procedure should be called after the calling of those procedures for which an error occurred.

GetVersion

Returns in Param2 the string describing the driver name and its version.

GetMajorVersion

Returns version higher word of the product Control Web.

GetMinorVersion

Returns version lower word of the product Control Web.

GetAPIMajorVersion

Returns version higher word of the API product Control Web.

GetAPIMinorVersion

Returns version lower word of the API product Control Web.

EnableException

By calling this procedure the further driver exception is permitted.

GetErrorCode

Returns the error number of the just processed driver exception.

See chapter Error codes for details.

GetErrorString

Returns the error description of the just processed driver exception.

GetExcStatus

Returns the just processed driver exception code.

See chapter Driver exceptions and their handling for details.

SetTraceOutput

Sets the target of trace outputs of the communication. The parameter states the output target.

ValueMeaning
0

no trace outputs

1

outputs are directed into the debug window of the Windows system

2

listings are directed into Log Windows of the tab Debug outputs of the Control Websystem

3

outputs are directed into the file '\XTRACE.TXT'

SetBlockId

Sets the identifier of the current block of channels for change of the address (offset) in the PLC memory. The parameter is of the type string and the block identifier is transferred in it (maximally 32 characters). This identifier must be identical with the identifier in the definition of blocks in the parameter file.

SetBlockOffset

Sets the address (offset) of the beginning of the block in the PLC memory. The block is determined by its identifier in the parameter file and is selected by calling of the procedure SetBlockId. The parameter can be of any numeric type.

Warning:

The range of the parameter is not monitored.

Driver map file and data types

DMF file contains types and directions for individual channels. because the driver has a fixed set of maintenance channels and also a variable set of data channels, the DMF file should always contain part describing fixed set of channels and part describing actually defined data channels corresponding to channels defined in the [Channels] section in the parameter file.

Data type Channel type Description
uint32 number 32-bit unsigned value - 4 bytes
int32 number 32-bit signed value - 4 bytes
float32 number 32-bit real value - 4 bytes
float32s number 32-bit real value - 4 bytes
 
uint16 number 16bit unsigned value - 2 bytes
int16 number 16bit signed value - 2 bytes
 
uint8 number 8bit unsigned value - 1 byte
int8 number 8bit signed value - 1 byte
bool8 boolean 1 boolean value - 1 byte
bits boolean 1-bit value - 8 in 1 byte
 
sbit boolean 1-bit value accessible for write

Driver data types

Driver exceptions and their handling

The exception is raised when communication error appears. This exception can be handled by any virtual instrument within the application. The particular virtual instrument must define the driver_exception parameter with the driver symbolic name. In this case the instrument is activated when the exception appears. It is necessary to write the true value to the channel No. 2 or to invoke EnableException driver procedure. This enables generation of next exception (if any). It is possible to read channel No. 1 to obtain the exception state. Keep on mind the send_same_data parameter must be set to true if the instrument writes channel No. 2 (else the next write of the same value will be discarded). If the application does not handle exceptions, they are added to the queue. Maximal queue length is defined by the parameter MaxExceptions in the [Settings] section.

Exception status codes

  • 0 - No exception.

  • 1 - Exception signals data read error. Error code and description can be obtained by GetErrorCode driver procedure call or from the channel No. 6.

  • 2 - Exception signals data write error. Error code and description can be obtained by GetErrorCode driver procedure call or from the channel No. 6.

  • 3 - Data in device changed. This is the way to signal data changed in the case of asynchronous communication or if the driver works in the slave mode.

  • 4 - Driver procedure error. Because some procedures can take rather long time to execute, they are executed in the parallel thread not to block the application. If the procedure ends with error, this exception signals it.

Error codes

The driver generates several error codes. The code of actual error can be read from the channel No. 6. Error code, together with the error description, can be also obtained by calling GetErrorCode and GetErrorString driver procedures. It the error condition occurs then an error message is also written to Log Window of the Control Web.

  • 0 - success

  • 1 - timeout error

  • 2 - invalid value

  • 3 - non-existing channel

  • 1000 - internal error

  • 1001 - checksum error

  • 1002 - input communication buffer full

  • 1003 - invalid device address

  • 1004 - invalid function code

  • 1005 - received data has invalid length

  • 1006 - acknowledge error

  • 1007 - invalid response

  • 1020 - invalid procedure parameter

  • 1021 - no data available

  • 1022 - unknown driver procedure

  • 1023 - unknown block identifier

  • 1024 - invalid address (offset) within block

  • 1025 - device unplugged

  • 1026 - data element read-only

Example of driver usage

There are several examples of the driver usage in the package installation. These examples can be found in the 'EXAMPLES\S_MPI' directory. Examples also contain '*.DMF' and '*.PAR' files. It is necessary to modify these files according to actual device configuration.