PLC Connect

Since the PLC Connect is a option to the 800xA system, the comprehensive set of tools available for the system are also available for PLC Connect. Besides that, PLC Connect extends the overall 800xA system with tools providing following functionality:

PLC Connect handles all dynamic process data collected by a communication server from connected controllers/PLCS/RTUs and keeps them in a Real Time Data Base (RTDB). Also internally calculated SoftPoint values are stored in RTDB.

Automatic upload of OPC server contents to the Control Structure. All objects and signals are created and connected automatically according to the OPC server structure. The uploaded objects can be mapped to PLC Connect composite object types to maintain type inheritance.

Communication Server with traditional PLC/RTU protocol drivers, including Modbus RTU (Serial and TCP/IP), Comli and SattBus-TCP/IP. Timestamp from the connected device is supported for certain protocols.

The Communication Server has, besides protocol drivers for traditional communication protocols, also a built in OPC DA client driver, which makes it possible to communicate with any OPC DA server following the guidelines of OPC Foundation. Timestamp from the connected device is supported.

Remote communication via dialed lines using Modbus Serial or Comli is available as an option to PLC Connect. The function supports use of a modem pool and scheduled and manual dialing, possibility for event controlled dial in from controllers, local storing of history and update of central history logs.

A configuration aspect for configuring the PLC connectivity with configuration data for mapping and structuring of process signals onto PLC objects in the Aspect Directory. Object orientation is supported with PLC object types and PLC object instances. Signal properties are inherited from the object type or set individually on an object instance. Complex structures can be created due to the composite object types (a type can consist of one to several sub-types).

A PLC object dialog is available automatically on each PLC object in the Plant Explorer. The dialog can be used to inspect and change value and status of any PLC signal or SoftPoint signal within the object.

Alarm and event detection on process values and SoftPoint values. You can choose to trigger an event or an alarm whenever a boolean signal changes its state. This works for both positive and negative edges. For numerical process values limiter supervision can be configured. That means you can choose to trigger an alarm if an integer or real value exceeds or falls below a preset value. You can also set a hysteresis for the limiter. Limiter values are treated as real time data. Alarms can be acknowledged from the alarm list, via process graphics or via the PLC object dialog.

COM interfaces are provided to give possibility to access (read and write) process values and SoftPoint values from, for example, a VB program. A program can run in any node and access multiple PLC Connect Connectivity Servers. Application specific pre-treatment calculations can be added for process values and alarms and events.

Event logging can be conducted for operations that are performed on PLC objects in general, such as changing a set point, acknowledgement of an alarm, the occurrence of an alarm and so on. The event log keeps the following information: date and time for the operation, node from which the operation was performed, user identity of the individual performing the operation, type of operation, object, property and aspect affected by the operation.

PLC Connect supports 1oo2 Connectivity Server redundancy. The redundant stand-by node is executing in parallel to the master and fail-over occurs instantly. It is possible to configure a redundant connectivity server pair to failover in the event of a communication failure to a connected PLC.