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Industrial communication with PROFINET


MIL supports communication with the PROFINET industrial protocol. PROFINET is an industrial communication standard for connecting devices together, and it defines a communication protocol that allows interaction between devices used in industrial automation processes. Information is received or transmitted through the computer's (or smart camera's) Ethernet port that has access to a Matrox PROFINET Engine. When using this protocol with MIL, your Matrox PROFINET Engine is considered to be a slave in the network, while the PROFINET controller (for example, a PLC) is considered the master.

Note that industrial communication using PROFINET is only available when using a MIL system that has a hardware PROFINET engine; for example, a Matrox Indio system, a Matrox Iris GTR system, or a Host system running on a Matrox 4Sight GPm or EV6. Support for Matrox 4Sight EV6 requires driver update 93.

Setting up the environment

To use the PROFINET industrial communication protocol with your MIL application, you need to set up the environment on the PROFINET controller's side and on the local computer's side.

You must configure your PROFINET controller to recognize the local computer as a Matrox PROFINET automation device. To do so, use the Siemens Totally Integrated Automation Portal (TIA) and specify the local computer's IP address. The local computer's IP address should be static. In addition, use the provided GSD file, and specify the number and size of input and output modules (data tables) that the PROFINET controller should expect your computer to have. The GSD file can be found in Matrox Imaging\MIL\Config\Profinet of your installation directory. The PROFINET controller sends or receives data to/from the local computer through output and input modules in the computer's local memory, respectively. The default module size for the PROFINET implementation in MIL is 64 bytes. The required size is dependent on the information you intend to store in these modules. See the Memory modules and their data fields subsection of this section for more information.

The designation of input and output modules is from the perspective of the PROFINET controller. The PROFINET protocol states that data which the PROFINET controller receives is stored in an input module, and data sent by a PROFINET controller is stored in an output module.

Once the PROFINET controller has been configured to recognize the local computer as a Matrox PROFINET automation device, you must enable the PROFINET protocol service using the MILConfig utility's Communication item. Then, if the local computer has multiple network adapters with access to a Matrox PROFINET Engine, use the Interface item to specify which should be used.

Now, when you reboot your PROFINET controller, it will recognize your local computer as a Matrox PROFINET automation device with the modules specified.

Receiving and sending data to the controller

To communicate with the PROFINET controller, allocate an Industrial Communication context using McomAlloc() with M_COM_PROTOCOL_PROFINET. To send data to the PROFINET controller, use the McomWrite() function and specify the M_COM_PROTOCOL_PROFINET Industrial Communication context that you have just allocated. In this case, this function actually writes to the local computer's memory the data to send to the PROFINET controller during the controller's next read cycle. To read data received from the PROFINET controller, use the McomRead() function and specify the M_COM_PROTOCOL_PROFINET Industrial Communication context. In this case, this function actually reads the local computer's memory for data received from a PROFINET controller during the PROFINET controller's last write cycle. So when you call McomWrite() / McomRead(), you must specify the module in which to write, or from which to read.

PROFINET is a polling protocol and as such, it should be noted that whatever is written to an input module might not be read by the PROFINET controller if another McomWrite() operation occurs before the PROFINET controller's read cycle is completed.

You can, for example, use McomRead() to receive a request from a PROFINET controller to grab and analyze an image, and then return the analysis results, necessary for the automation process, back to the PROFINET controller using McomWrite().

Memory modules and their data fields

The MIL Industrial Communication module is very flexible, knowing that different applications need to send/receive different information to/from the PROFINET controller. As such, it allows you to establish the number of input/output modules to make available to the PROFINET controller, and how to divide these into different data fields (register fields). For example, you could specify in the Siemens TIA portal that there are 2 (PROFINET controller) input modules, and 2 (PROFINET controller) output modules, and organize your data in these modules as follows:

  • Controller status output module (PLC writes to this module):

    • PLC ready bit. The PLC should set this bit when it's ready for production.

    • PLC error bit. The PLC should set this bit when it is in an error state.

    • PLC reset bit. The PLC should set this bit when it is about to be reset.

  • Application control output module (PLC writes to this module):

    • Trigger bit. The PLC should set this bit when it wants the MIL application to initiate a grab and process operation.

    • Result acknowledge bit. The PLC should set this bit when it acknowledges that it has received a result from a grab and process operation.

  • Status input module (PLC reads from this module):

    • Success bit. The MIL application should set this bit when the grab and processing was successful.

    • Failure bit. The MIL application should set this bit when the grab and processing was not successful.

    • Error bit. The MIL application should set this bit when there was an error in the grab and processing operations.

    • Project running bit. The MIL application should set this bit while a grab and process operation is in progress.

    • Success number bits. The MIL application should set these bits to identify the number of successful operations.

    • Failure number bits. The MIL application should set these bits to identify the number of failed operations.

Note that this is only an example of how you can organize your data in the modules. In addition, the software running on the PROFINET controller (for example, a ladder logic software) must be aware of how the data is organized in the modules.