This driver serves for communication with
Mitsubishi PLC devices of the
FX series via the programming port. See also
Communication with Mitsubishi PLC devices.
For devices of the
FX series with Ethernet port another driver must be used:
PmMelsecQA. For example in following cases:
- For devices with integrated Ethernet port (e.g.
FX3GE)
the PmMelsecQA communication driver must be used. It must be set as
Protocol format = "A1E/BIN = A series Ethernet Binary (for A1SJ71E71 Ethernet interface module)".
- The PLC device can be equiped with another communication module, for example the
FX2N-232(485,422)-BD expansion board. This communication driver can also be used with these boards, but the boards also support higher network protocol, that is better to use with
the PmMelsecQA communication driver.
Before using this driver in the PROMOTIC application it is highly recommended to watch "
PROMOTIC video tutorial 4 - Communication drivers".
Basic properties of the driver:
- Usage of this driver requires purchase of the
PmMelsec licence. When developing the application in the freeware mode
PmFree, or with
development environment and while testing it in runtime, this component is always functional.
- The communication is done for Ethernet (PROMOTIC application is client) or for serial link (COM1, COM2 ...).
Communication via Ethernet: This option can be selected, for example, if the device is equipped with the serial link and it is connected to the Ethernet through the RS232/Ethernet converter. If the converter does no modifications to the transmitted data, then it is a very easy way how to communicate via Ethernet with the device not equipped with Ethernet interface.
- The driver uses ASCII encoding of the protocol (does not use Binary encoding).
- The driver is incorporated into the PROMOTIC system by means of the
PmaComm object.
The driver supports the usage of both
PmaCommMsg and
PmaCommGroup objects. For common case of the data transfer, it is better to use the
PmaCommGroup object.
The PROMOTIC application is the
Master (it means that it initiates the data transfer) from this communication point of view.
- This is a point-to-point communication type, it means that one
PmaComm object can communicate only with one device (the protocol does not support multiple device adressing).
Programming connector (
MINI-DIN) is equipped with the
RS422 interface connected as follows:
1 |
RXD- |
2 |
RXD+ |
3 |
GND (Not connected) |
4 |
TXD- |
5 |
+5V (Not connected) |
6 |
Not connected |
7 |
TXD+ |
8 |
Not connected |
The driver can transmit the following data areas (in the PLC documentation, these areas are called
devices):
Device |
Description |
X |
Physical Input. |
Y |
Physical Output, coil. |
S |
State Relay. |
M |
Auxiliary Relay. |
T |
Timer/contact. |
C |
Counter/contact. |
D |
Data register. |
- The data of the X,Y,S,M,T,C type are bit values, one address represents one bit value. During the transfer, it is also possible to transmit multiple values simultaneously - for example in one byte, 8 individual bit values can be transmitted.
- The data of the D type are 16-bitové values (range 0-65535).
The
addressing of this data is different when using the
PmaCommGroup or
PmaCommMsg object.
In the
PmaCommGroup object, the logical addressing is used - the address of the item is the value commonly used by the PLC programmer (e.g.
M20).
In the
PmaCommMsg object, the physical addressing is used - the address of the item is defined by the addres in the memory and therefore it is necessary to deduce it according to the following table.
Recommended values of the PmaComm object parameters:
Recommended values for the Serial link parameters (according to the documentation CPU version V1.21):
Baud rate | 9600 Bd |
Number data bits | 7 |
Parity | EVEN or NO |
Number of stop bits | 1 |
Timeout between receiving 2 characters | 60 |
---|
Description and recommended values for the Protocol parameters:
Response receipt timeout | Only for serial link. The recommended value is for example 2000 ms. The time (in milliseconds) the driver is waiting for the response on sending the message.
If no response comes during this time, then the transmission of the message is terminated (the onEndOfTransfer event is triggered with error 24 or 66). |
Protocol version |
General (all FX-series) - Protocol for all types of PLC devices
Extended (FX2N) - The PLC devices since the FX2N series has a bigger Device area than the previous series. The extended protocol can address this extended area. |
---|
The communication description by means of the PmaCommGroup object
The
PmaCommGroup objects can be used for this driver. For usual data transmissions it is more favourable than using the
PmaCommMsg object.
The variables in the
PmaCommGroup object (or even better the variables in the
PmaData object with
ExtComm data extension) can be of arbitrary number, type and order. The driver uses optimized internal communication messages for reading the data from the device.
All variables are read (if the "
Data refresh enabled" configurator is checked). On writing into the variable, only the single variable is sent into the device (if the "
Auto send on writing to item" configurator is checked).
Description of the "ItemId" configurator:
ItemId is the text identifier of the item that is used for addressing the item in the device. The "
ItemId" configurator tells the driver how to receive or send the item value.
The text can be either written manually, or it can be assembled in the window opened by the button to the right of the configurator.
Macro expression can be used for input (it is evaluated after the application is launched).
The
ItemId identifier may look like for example "
M20" or "
M20.W", where:
M20 = Data area (device) and a logical address. The device can be: X,Y,S,M,T,C,D.
For the X and Y devices, the address is a octal number, while all other use decadic number.
The D register is a 16-bit value, while other are 1-bit.
.W = optional part specifying the request:
.W = (
Word) 16-bitá value (for bit device it means 16 neighboring items). Number unsigned.
In the PROMOTIC application represented by the
Long data type.
For the
D register it is set as default and is not needed to enter.
.I = (
Integer) similar as
.W but the number is signed.
In the PROMOTIC application represented by the
Integer data type.
.L = (
Long) 32-bit value (for bit device it means 32 neighboring items). Number signed.
In the PROMOTIC application represented by the
Long data type.
If the optional part is used on the items
X,Y,S,M,T,C (i.e. all except
D), then the defined logical address must be
divisible by 8.
For the D register it can be only .I or blank (i.e. similar as .W).
Examples:
M25 = bit value M at address 25 (of the Boolean type)
M16.W = 16-bit value unsigned includes items M16-M31 (of the Long type)
D32.I = 16-bit value signed. The D register value at address 32 (of the Integer type)
X8.L = 32-bit value signed includes X8-X39 (of the Long type)
This configurator is not used for given driver.
The communication description by means of the PmaCommMsg object
For this protocol it is necessary to set the data manually on the
Data-sent and
Data-received pages because the "
Data setting" button is not functional for this protocol.
The protocol supports two message types:
1) Reading from FX (n bytes READ)
2) Writing to FX (n bytes WRITE)
At both types the address, from/to which the data have to be read/written, in the PLC device is set in the message parameters. For reading from
FX only the "
Data-received" tab is filled in and for writing to
FX only the "
Data-sent" tab is filled in. The number and the data types of these data can be arbitrary but they must correspond to the data that are in the PLC device.
The address set in the message parameters is called
"TOP address" in the PLC device. These address assignments for individual memory types must be found out from the PLC documentation.
Caution: In the message parameters the address is entered
in decimal whereas in the documentation the address is stated
in hexadecimal or in
octal form usually. Thus it is necessary to convert the address into the decimal form!
The address assignment depends on setting the "
Protocol version" configurator:
Protocol version =
General (all FX-series):
Device: |
Device area: |
TOP address: |
X |
X0-X177 (octal) |
0080-008F hexa, 128-143 decimal |
Y |
Y0-Y177 (octal) |
00A0-00AF hexa, 160-175 decimal |
S |
S0-S997 (decimal) |
0000-007C hexa, 000-124 decimal |
T (contacts) |
T0-T255 (decimal) |
00C0-00DF hexa, 192-223 decimal |
M |
M0-M1023 (decimal) |
0100-017F hexa, 256-383 decimal |
C (contacts) |
C0-C255 (decimal) |
01C0-01DF hexa, 448-479 decimal |
SPECIAL M |
M8000-M8255 (decimal) |
01E0-01FF hexa, 480-511 decimal |
D data registers |
D0-D999 (decimal) |
1000-17CF hexa, 4096-6095 decimal |
D special registers |
D8000-D8255 (decimal) |
0E00-0FFF hexa, 3584-4095 decimal |
Protocol version =
Extended (FX2N):
Device: |
Device area: |
TOP address: |
X |
X0-X377 (octal) |
0240-025F hexa, 576-607 decimal |
Y |
Y0-Y377 (octal) |
0180-019F hexa, 384-479 decimal |
S |
S0-S997 (decimal) |
0280-02FF hexa, 640-767 decimal |
T (contacts) |
T0-T255 (decimal) |
0200-021F hexa, 512-543 decimal |
C (contacts) |
C0-C255 (decimal) |
01E0-01FF hexa, 480-511 decimal |
M |
M0-M3071 (decimal) |
0000-017F hexa, 000-383 decimal |
D data registers |
D0-D7999 |
4000-7E7E hexa, 16384-32382 decimal |