JP2006190150A - Field bus protocol testing equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To automatically test a field bus protocol of an apparatus adaptable to a network. <P>SOLUTION: This equipment stores a series of pieces of transmission data required for testing whether the apparatus adaptable to a network meets a field bus protocol, reception data corresponding to it, a message code quickening a desired message, and a weight code for inputting a waiting time at a desired place as a communication script 18. When a test application 22 is started, the communication script 18 is opened, and a transmission data generation part 20 analyzes the script according to a communication data format 19 and generates transmission data. The transmission data are transmitted to the apparatus adaptable to the network, and reception data transmitted in response are analyzed by a reception data analysis part 21. The communication script 18 is compared with the reception data and a compared result is stored as a text file. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a fieldbus protocol inspection device that automatically inspects a fieldbus protocol of a network-compatible device connected to a fieldbus.

Conventionally, when inspecting whether a network-compatible device connected to a fieldbus satisfies the fieldbus communication protocol, the inspection device configured with a PC or the like and the device to be inspected are connected with a communication cable, and then the inspection device is connected. It is automatically inspected by the installed inspection application. When the inspection application operates, first, communication data stored in the storage device in the inspection order is sequentially referred to by a transmission / reception command. Then, the designated transmission command is transmitted to the network compatible device, and the command responded by the network compatible device is compared with the designated reception command for inspection.
As described above, when communication commands are transmitted and received in a predetermined inspection order, it is determined whether or not a correct response has been received by comparing the commands, and the communication state is automatically inspected. As one of such conventional techniques, a field bus using an IEEE1394 high-speed serial bus is disclosed (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-308797

However, according to the prior art, it is necessary to completely describe all transmission / reception data using the transmission / reception commands stored in the created inspection order. Also needed to be written as a send / receive command. In addition, since all the transmission / reception data must be described, the transmission / reception data for the reception command having indefinite data such as a watchdog timer and the reception command having a variable value area that changes depending on the state of the network compatible device It was very difficult to describe.
The present invention has been made in view of such problems of the prior art, and it is possible to automatically check whether or not the fieldbus communication protocol is satisfied while greatly reducing the input effort. Objective.

  Accordingly, the present invention provides a fieldbus protocol inspection device for connecting to a network compatible device and inspecting the fieldbus protocol of the network compatible device, comprising a communication script of the network compatible device and a communication data format corresponding to the communication script. A transmission data generation unit that generates transmission data by matching, and a reception data analysis unit that analyzes reception data returned when the transmission data is transmitted to the network-compatible device. In addition, a communication data format definition unit for defining a communication data format is further provided.

  According to the present invention, not only automatically transmitting / receiving data, but also performing a correctness / incorrectness check as a fieldbus protocol, so that the operation for inspection is simplified and the inspection time can be greatly shortened. is there. Also, a user with little knowledge of the fieldbus protocol can inspect the protocol with a simple operation. Moreover, since the inspection result is saved as a text file, the history remains and can be used for debugging. In addition, by simply changing the communication data format referred to by the transmission data generation unit, it is possible to send and receive arbitrary communication data without rewriting the communication script. Therefore, there is an effect that various protocols can be inspected.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the connection status of the fieldbus protocol inspection device of the present invention. The fieldbus protocol inspection apparatus 1 is composed of a monitor 2 and a PC main body 3, and the PC main body 3 and network compatible devices 5 and 6 are connected by fieldbuses 7 and 8 as shown in the figure. A PCI bus-compatible fieldbus I / F board 4 is inserted in the PCI slot of the PC main body 3, and the network compatible device 5 is installed by installing an inspection application on the PC main body 3 and executing communication data transmission / reception processing. , 6 fieldbus communication protocols can be inspected.

  Here, the internal configuration of the PC main body 3 will be described with reference to FIG. The PC body 3 includes a field bus I / F board 4, a monitor I / F 13, a CPU 14, a RAM 15, a file memory 16, an application memory (not shown), a keyboard interface, and a ROM, which are connected to each other via a bus. . A communication control IC 11 is mounted on the fieldbus I / F board 4 and is connected to the fieldbus 7. The fieldbus I / F board 4 performs various communication controls in addition to initializing the fieldbus and arbitrating the right to use the bus. And it transmits / receives with the network corresponding | compatible apparatuses 5 and 6 via the fieldbus 7 using the signal for communication control, and a communication command.

  The monitor I / F 13 is an interface for connecting the monitor 2 and the PC main body 3, and transmits a video signal to the monitor 2 and transmits / receives a control signal to / from the monitor 2. The CPU 14 controls the entire PC body 3. The RAM 15 includes an inspection application 22 including a transmission data generation unit 20 and a reception data analysis unit 21, and a communication data format definition unit 23, and also serves as a work area for the CPU 14. The file memory 16 is configured as a part of the storage area of the hard disk device, and stores a communication script 18, a communication data format 19, and an inspection result 26 necessary for fieldbus protocol inspection. The communication script 18 includes a series of data necessary for inspecting whether or not the network-compatible devices 5 and 6 to be inspected satisfy the conditions for the fieldbus protocol, and when the conditions are satisfied Data corresponding to the received data, a message code for prompting a desired message, and a wait code for putting a waiting time at a desired place are included.

  The inspection application 22 can control the communication control IC 11 or create transmission data from the communication script 18 and writes the created transmission data to a predetermined address of a register provided in the communication control IC 11. The transmission data transmitted by the network-compatible devices 5 and 6 is written at a predetermined address in the register and read by the inspection application 22.

  Here, the communication data format 19 stored in the file memory 16 will be described with reference to FIG. The communication data format 19 is information defining commands used in the communication script 18, and is composed of a plurality of command definitions. Each command definition consists of a comment, a command name, an arbitrary number of fixed transmission data information, an arbitrary number of transmission parameter information, an arbitrary number of fixed reception data information, and an arbitrary number of reception parameter information. The breakdown is as shown in the figure. A specific setting example of the communication data format 19 is shown in FIG.

  Next, the communication script 18 stored in the file memory 16 will be described with reference to FIG. The communication script 18 includes a plurality of script lines, and each script line includes a command name, a transmission parameter, and a reception parameter. Transmission parameters are set by the number of transmission parameter information set in the command definition of the communication data format 19. Similarly, the reception parameters are set by the number of reception parameter information set in the command definition of the communication data format 19. The breakdown of reception parameters and transmission parameters is as shown in the figure. A specific setting example of the communication script 18 is shown in FIG.

Next, the operation will be described. When the inspection application 22 is activated, the communication script 18 is opened, and the transmission data generation unit 20 generates transmission data and transmits the transmission data to the network compatible devices 5 and 6 and receives the reception data transmitted from the network compatible devices 5 and 6. The data analysis unit 21 analyzes and automatically detects an error.
A little more detailed explanation is as follows. First, when the inspection application 22 is activated, it is checked whether or not the same command name described in the communication script 18 exists in the communication data format 19. If there is the same data, transmission fixed data information and transmission parameter information are acquired according to the command definition. Then, transmission data is generated using the transmission fixed data information and the transmission parameters described in the communication script 18, and the transmission data value is set at the transmission data position designated by the transmission fixed data information. Further, the transmission parameter described in the communication script 18 by the transmission parameter information is set at the transmission data position. For transmission data positions that are not set, 0 is set and transmission data creation is completed.
The reception data analysis unit 21 compares the reception data with the reception data value at the data position specified by the reception fixed data information in the communication data format 19, and further according to the reception parameter data information described in the communication data format 19. Is compared with the value of the specified data position.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of the inspection application 22, and will be described below in order.
(S1) When the inspection application 22 is activated, the communication script 18 is opened.
(S2) At that time, if execution is selected on the toolbar of the screen,
(S3) It is determined whether or not the file is finished. If the file is not finished, the process proceeds to (S4), and if finished, the process proceeds to (S10).
(S4) One line of the communication script 18 is read to check whether or not there is a grammatical error, and the transmission data generation unit 20 generates transmission data using the reception parameter and the communication data format of the communication script.
(S5) The generated transmission data is transmitted to the network compatible devices 5 and 6.
(S6) Receiving the transmission data, the reception data transmitted by the network compatible devices 5 and 6 is received.

(S7) The reception data analysis unit 21 generates reception comparison data using the reception parameter of the communication script and the communication data format, and further compares it with the reception data.
(S8) The presence / absence of inconsistent data is checked by the comparison.
(S9) If there is inconsistent data, an error is displayed and the inspection is temporarily stopped. At this time, the user can select either execution cancellation or execution continuation. Similarly, transmission / reception is repeated until all the data of the communication script 18 is read and processed, and the fieldbus protocol is checked.
(S10) When the inspection of all data is completed, the inspection data and the number of errors are displayed on the screen of the monitor 2 via the monitor I / F 13, and a dialog prompting saving is displayed.
(S11) When a save command is input on the toolbar of the screen, it is saved in the file memory 16 as a text file.

  FIG. 8 shows the inspection result data when the communication commands PRM_WR and PRM_RD are inspected, and the inspection result is OK. “000000” following SD is an index number, which represents a transmission / reception group. The next “42 02 35 00 00 00...” Is the transmission data 24 generated by the transmission data generation unit 20, and “42 02 35 E2 97 C9. The received data 25 is returned in response to the transmission data 24.

  FIG. 9 shows the case where the inspection result is NG. “Xx 01 xx xx xx xx 00 00 00 00 xx xx xx 00 61 10 02 19” following NG is expected data as received data, but the data position not subject to inspection is displayed as “xx”. . After the inspection result data is confirmed on the monitor 2, it is stored in the file memory 16 as a text file.

  As described above, according to the present invention, even if the user does not know the protocol, the fieldbus protocol can be automatically inspected in a short time by a simple operation. Further, since the inspection result is saved as a text file, the history remains and debugging can be made effective. In addition, since the transmission / reception data for inspection is saved as a communication script and the syntax data can be easily checked by checking the communication data format referred to by the inspection application, the protocol can be correctly inspected. In addition, since any communication data can be transmitted and received without rewriting the communication script simply by changing the communication data format referred to by the inspection application, it is possible to flexibly cope with changes in protocol and set specifications.

The block diagram which shows the connection condition of the fieldbus protocol test | inspection apparatus of this invention Block diagram showing the internal configuration of the PC body Configuration of communication data format Communication data format setting example Communication script configuration Communication script setting example Flowchart explaining processing procedure of inspection application Inspection result data when the result is OK Test result data when the result is NG

Explanation of symbols

1 Fieldbus protocol inspection device,
2 monitor, 3 PC body,
4 Fieldbus I / F board, 5, 6 Network compatible devices,
7, 8 Fieldbus, 11 communication control IC,
13 Monitor I / F, 14 CPU,
15 RAM, 16 file memory,
18 communication script, 19 communication data format,
20 transmission data generation unit, 21 reception data analysis unit,
22 application for inspection, 23 communication data format definition part,
26 test results

Claims (2)

A fieldbus protocol inspection device that connects to a network compatible device and inspects the fieldbus protocol of the network compatible device,
A transmission data generation unit that generates transmission data by matching a communication script of the network-compatible device and a communication data format corresponding to the communication script;
A reception data analysis unit that analyzes reception data that is returned when the transmission data is transmitted to the network-compatible device;
A fieldbus protocol inspection device comprising:   The fieldbus protocol inspection device according to claim 1, further comprising a communication data format definition unit that defines the communication data format.

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