Industrial Automation Tech Note 07 - TNIA07

Abstract

This document describes using the OPC Master driver to configure communications between two or more Crimson based devices easily.

Products

Red Lion Controls CR1000 Human Machine Interface (HMI), CR3000 HMI, Data Station Plus (DSP), G3 HMI, G3 Kadet HMI, Graphite® Controller (GC), Graphite HMI, Modular Controller (MC), and ProducTVity Station™ (PTV)

Use Case

Configuring communications between two or more Crimson based devices.

Required Software

Crimson 2.0 build 475 or later, Crimson 3.0, or Crimson 3.1

Introduction

It is common to want to share data between 2 Crimson 3 based products, but using a Modbus Master and Slave combination can take a fair amount of configuration time.

Data Source Configuration

1. Open the database for the unit(s) where the data will come from.
2. Once the database is complete, or at least all of the tags are configured, refer to figure 1 and enable the Ethernet port (if it has not already been enabled).

Figure 1.

3. Referring to figure 2, enable the OPC Proxy in the Service area Communications section.

Figure 2.

Setup the OPC Master Driver

1. Open or create the Crimson 3.0 file that will access the values from the first database.
2. Open the communications section.
3. Enable the Ethernet port

• Ensure you use a unique IP address if you are using a copy of the original file.

4. Referring to figure 3, assign the OPC Master driver to one of the available Ethernet protocols.

Figure 3.

5. Referring to figure 4, click on HMI1.
6. Configure the IP Address and TCP Port to match the ‘slave’ device.

Figure 4.

7. Click Browse… button next to the Filename field and browse to the ‘slave’ device’s Crimson file.
8. Click Open.

Map tags to the ‘Slave’ Device

1. Click on Data Tags in the Navigation Pane.
2. Click on an existing or create a new tag that will be associated with the other device.
3. Change the Source to HMI1 and choose the tag from the other device’s tag list.

Advanced – Export/Import Tag Creation/Mapping

NOTE: Before proceeding with the following, create a backup of your Crimson file to avoid any possible corruption.

1. Export Data Tags from the ‘slave’ device

a. Save the database.
b. Go to the Data Tags section.
c. Referring to figure 5, click on Data Tags at the top of the tag list.
d. Click the Export Tags link.

Figure 5.

e. Choose a location that you will remember to save the file.

2. Edit the Exported file

a. Open Windows Explorer.
b. Browse to the saved TXT file from the Export process.
c. Open this file with Excel.

- Column A is the Data Tag Name and Column B is the Mapping.
- The first part of the mapping before the dot is the source.

d. Change all of the mappings to the device name of your choice (default HMI1) under the OPC Master protocol, dot, Data Tag Name.

- This can be accomplished with the following formula: =CONCATENATE(“[HMI1.”,A5,”]”) then highlight and copy the formula to each data tag that you are going to be including for the OPC exchange.  Next, highlight the whole column, Copy, then Paste Values.

e. Save the file.

- Keep the file format the same, do not save as an Excel formatted document.

f. Close the Excel window.

NOTE: The import process will fail if Excel has the file open.

3. Create/map all of the tags.

a. Open the Master unit’s database
b. Go to the Data Tags section.
c. Referring to figure 6, click on Data Tags at the top of the tag list.
d. Click the Import Tags link.

Figure 6.

e. Browse to the modified CSV file you saved after exporting from the previous database.

- All of the tags from the previous database have now been imported into the new database.

Disclaimer

It is the customer's responsibility to review the advice provided herein and its applicability to the system. Red Lion makes no representation about specific knowledge of the customer's system or the specific performance of the system. Red Lion is not responsible for any damage to equipment or connected systems. The use of this document is at your own risk. Red Lion standard product warranty applies.

Red Lion Technical Support

If you have any questions or trouble contact Red Lion Technical Support by clicking here or calling 1-877-432-9908.

For more information: http://www.redlion.net/support/policies-statements/warranty-statement