JP2007172128A - I/o simulator device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an I/O simulator device using personal computer, in which the man-hour for simulation preparation of a sequence program of PLC (programmable logic controller) can be reduced, and a simulation system can be easily established without any technical knowledge for personal computer. <P>SOLUTION: The I/O simulator device 1 for changing the input and output state of the PCL 11 for simulating the sequence program of the PLC 11 comprises a program automatic formation processing part 5 for automatically generating two programs for converting an I/O address to be changed in input and output state and an I/O address used for communication of the I/O simulator device 1 with the PLC 11 and for changing the input and output state of the I/O to be changed in output and input state, and downloading these programs to a program area 12 of the PLC 11. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an I / O simulator device using a personal computer that changes the input / output state of a PLC in order to simulate a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) sequence program.

A conventional I / O simulator device for PLC using a personal computer uses a commercially available HMI (Human Machine Interface) tool to perform input / output operations and communication of I / O whose input / output state is to be changed on the personal computer side. A program is created and the result of the input / output operation is sent to the PLC by communication. Also, in order to make the personal computer and the PLC communicate, communication software and communication parameter assignment are created in the PLC, and a program for changing the input / output state is created in the PLC or the personal computer. Also, since the I / O address whose input / output state is to be changed cannot normally be the same as the input / output address between the personal computer and the PLC, a PLC program for converting the input / output address is created and operated.
Some use a dedicated personal computer program instead of a commercially available HMI tool. (For example, see Patent Document 1)

FIG. 6 is a block diagram relating to data communication between a conventional I / O simulator device and a PLC to be tested. In FIG. 6, reference numeral 101 denotes an I / O simulator device, which uses a general-purpose personal computer as hardware. Reference numeral 102 denotes an I / O simulator unit which is configured by software for simulation. Here, a commercially available HMI tool is used to create an HMI program for operation and communication, and by operating this program, an input / output operation of an I / O whose input / output state is to be changed is displayed on the screen processing unit 103. And the result is transmitted from the communication control unit 104 to the PLC 105 to be tested. The test target PLC 105 includes a communication processing program 107 for communication processing with the I / O simulator apparatus 101 in the program area 106, an I / O address whose I / O state is to be changed, and the I / O simulator apparatus 101 communicated with the PLC 105. I / O address conversion, state change program 108, and simulation target program 109, which are composed of a PLC program that converts the I / O address at the time of input / output, and a program for changing the input / output state of the I / O have. The communication processing program 107, the I / O address conversion, and the state change program 108 are used for testing the simulation target program 109.
In this way, the conventional I / O simulator device using a personal computer has a personal computer program for I / O input / output operation and a communication, a PLC program for communication between a personal computer and a PLC, and an I / O input / output state. It functions by the designer creating a PLC program for changing, a program for converting input / output addresses between the personal computer and the PLC.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-258809

A conventional I / O simulator apparatus using a personal computer has a problem in that a plurality of simulation programs need to be created in the personal computer and the PLC, and a large number of work steps are required for preparing a PLC sequence program for simulation.
Further, when the I / O configuration to be tested changes, it is necessary to change the personal computer and PLC programs. In order to change this program, specialized knowledge of both the personal computer and the PLC is required, and after changing the program, it is necessary to start with a test of the simulator device.
The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and uses a personal computer that can reduce the number of steps required to prepare a PLC sequence program for simulation and can easily construct a simulation system without specialized knowledge of the personal computer. An object is to provide an I / O simulator device.

In order to solve the above problem, the present invention is configured as follows.
The invention according to claim 1 includes a screen processing unit for processing a screen to be displayed and a communication control unit for communicating with the PLC, and the input / output state of the PLC for simulating the sequence program of the PLC In the I / O simulator device that changes the I / O address, the program that converts the I / O address whose I / O state is to be changed and the I / O address used when the I / O simulator device communicates with the PLC and the input An automatic program creation processing unit is provided for automatically creating two programs for changing the input / output state of an I / O whose output state is to be changed and downloading the program to the program area of the PLC. is there.
Further, in the invention described in claim 2, in the invention described in claim 1, when an I / O address to be operated / displayed is input, comment information of an I / O address registered in advance in the PLC. Is obtained, and a screen processing unit is provided for displaying on the screen of the I / O simulator device.
The invention according to claim 3 is the communication program download processing unit according to claim 1, which downloads a program required for communication between the I / O simulator device and the PLC to a program area of the PLC. It is characterized by providing.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the program for converting the I / O address to be changed in the input / output state and the I / O address used when the I / O simulator device communicates with the PLC and the input / output state are changed. Two programs, the program that changes the input / output status of the I / O you want to make, are automatically created and downloaded to the PLC program area, reducing the number of man-hours required for simulation of PLC sequence programs and specializing in personal computers A simulation system can be easily constructed without knowledge.
According to the second aspect of the present invention, when the I / O address to be operated / displayed is input, the comment information of the I / O address registered in advance in the PLC is acquired, and the I / O simulator device Simulation preparation time can be reduced.
According to the third aspect of the present invention, since a program required for communication between the I / O simulator device and the PLC is downloaded to the PLC program area, it is possible to easily construct a simulation system even without the expertise of a personal computer. It becomes possible.

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

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram relating to data communication between the I / O simulator apparatus of the present invention and a test target PLC. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes an I / O simulator device, which uses a general-purpose personal computer as hardware. Reference numeral 2 denotes an I / O simulator unit which is configured by software for simulation. Among them, a screen processing unit 3 that performs screen processing, an engine control unit 4 that performs automatic program creation and communication, and file control, a communication control unit 8 that communicates with the PLC 11 to be tested, and an I / O simulator There is a communication processing program 9 used for communication between the apparatus 1 and the PLC 11. The engine control unit 4 includes a program automatic creation processing unit 5 that automatically creates a program of the PLC 11, a communication program download processing unit 6 that downloads the communication processing program 9 to the program area 12 of the PLC 11, and data of setting values and simulation results There is a file management unit 7 that performs file management.

  11 is a PLC to be tested. In the program area 12, a communication processing program 13 for communication processing with the I / O simulator apparatus 1, an I / O address whose input / output state is to be changed, and the I / O simulator apparatus 1 are connected to the PLC 11. I / O address conversion consisting of two programs: a PLC program that converts I / O addresses used when communicating with I / O, and a program that changes the I / O input / output state, state change It has a program 14, a simulation target program 15, and a comment file 16. The communication processing program 13, the I / O address conversion, and the state change program 14 are used for testing the simulation target program 15.

  The present invention is different from the prior art in that an automatic program creation processing unit 5 and a communication program download processing unit 6 are provided in the I / O simulator unit 2, and an operator is processed by the screen processing unit 3. Set the I / O address and the pattern you want to change the status on, and click the save & download key of the registration information to automatically create the I / O address conversion and status change program 14 program. , Download to the program area 12 of the PLC 11. Further, the communication processing program 9 necessary for communication between the I / O simulation apparatus 1 and the PLC 11 is downloaded to the program area 12 of the PLC 11.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a screen for setting a pattern for changing the I / O address and input / output state of the I / O simulator apparatus 1. The procedure for creating the I / O address conversion and state change program 14 will be described below with reference to FIG.
First, when an operator inputs an I / O address to be operated / displayed in an I / O address input unit, comment information is displayed in a comment field. Details thereof will be described below.
A comment file 16 is provided in the program area 12 of the PLC 11, and comment information of an I / O address to be operated / displayed is stored in the comment file 16. When this comment information is transferred in advance to the file management section 7 of the I / O simulator apparatus 1 and the I / O address to be operated / displayed is input to the I / O address input section of FIG. 2, the I / O simulator apparatus A comment request is issued from the first screen processing unit 3 to the file management unit 4 of the engine processing unit 4 and the comment information of the file management unit 7 is searched. The search result is transmitted to the screen processing unit 3, and the screen processing unit 3 displays the comment information in the comment field shown in FIG.
Thereby, the input operation of comment information can be omitted, and the man-hour can be reduced.

  Next, the operator selects a pattern whose input / output state is to be changed from the screen and registers it in the type column of FIG. Specifically, when a type column is clicked with a mouse, a type pattern selection screen is displayed, from which a pattern is selected and registered.

Next, when the registration information storage & download key is clicked, the program automatic creation processing unit 5 creates and downloads the program of the I / O address conversion / state change program 14 of FIG. In addition, the screen processing unit 3 downloads a program necessary for communication between the I / O simulation apparatus 1 and the PLC 11 to the PLC 11.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the automatic program creation processing unit 5. When the operator inputs the I / O address and type in FIG. 2 and clicks “Save & Download” with the mouse, the screen input information is stored in the hard disk (not shown) of the I / O simulator device 1 in step S1 in FIG. To do.
Next, in step S2, a program as shown in FIG. 4 corresponding to the type setting is created for the registered I / O addresses. If there are a large number of registered I / O addresses, the capacity of the program entering one drawing will be exceeded, so in step S3 it is checked whether the program amount enters one screen. Create by dividing into drawings.
In step S5, the coil and contact I / O addresses of the created program are assigned, and in step S6, the I / O simulator apparatus 1 transmits and downloads them to the PLC 11.

The operation of each type shown in FIG. 2 will be described below.
The type PBM registered in the first line of FIG. 2 is an abbreviation of Push Button Memory. When the operation / display unit is clicked once with the mouse, the registered I / O address IB0000 is turned on and the operation / display unit is also displayed. Displays that the operating state is ON. In this case, ON is represented by a black circle. When the operation / display unit is clicked again, the I / O address IB0000 is turned off, and the operation / display unit displays that the operation state is OFF. In this case, OFF is represented by a white circle.
The type PL registered in the third line is an abbreviation for Pilot Lamp, and displays on the operation / display section whether the registered I / O address OB0002 is ON or OFF. When OB0002 is ON, it becomes a black circle, and when it is OFF, it becomes a white circle.
The type PBA registered in the fourth line is an abbreviation for Push Button A contact, and the registered I / O address IB000F is turned on while the operation / display unit is clicked with the mouse. When the click is stopped, the I / O address IB000F is turned off.

Next, an example of automatically created I / O address conversion and state change program will be described.
FIG. 4 shows an example of an I / O address conversion and state change program automatically created when the type PBM is designated. This program is created by the program automatic creation processing unit 5 and downloaded to the PLC 11 by clicking the registration information save & download key to save and download data.

A is a relay contact of an input register having an I / O address of operation information transmitted from the I / O simulator apparatus 1 to the PLC 11, and B is an I / O address of an operation target registered in the I / O simulator apparatus 1. C is an output register relay coil having an I / O address transmitted from the PLC 11 to the I / O simulator device 1 for displaying an operation state on the operation / display unit of the I / O simulator device 1. It is a relay coil.
D and E are contacts and coils of the PLC internal register. ONPs 1 and 2 are abbreviations of On Pulses 1 and 2, which catch the rising edge of the I / O address and turn on the contact for one scan.

  Here, when the contact A is turned on, the coil E is turned on for one scan, and the coils B and C are turned on and stored in memory. If the contact A is turned on while the coils B and C are turned on, the coil D is turned on for one scan, the coils B and C are turned off, and the memory is released. That is, when the operation / display unit is clicked once with the mouse, the registered output I / O address B is turned ON, and the operation answer output register to the I / O simulator device 1 is displayed to display the operation state on the operation / display unit. Turn C ON. When the operation / display unit is clicked again, the output I / O address B is turned off, and the output register C of the operation answer to the I / O simulator device 1 is turned off in order to cause the operation / display unit to display OFF.

Here, the actual I / O address registered in the I / O simulator apparatus 1 and desired to be operated is B. However, the transmission system between the normal I / O simulator apparatus 1 and the PLC 11 and the transmission system actually operated are different. In simulation, the I / O address cannot be B.
Therefore, a PLC program for I / O address conversion is required, and the I / O address to be operated is changed in accordance with the ON / OFF state of the I / O address A transmitted from the I / O simulator apparatus 1 to the PLC 11. To.
This portion is a PLC program for I / O address conversion, and the program shown in FIG. 4 is an example in which an I / O address conversion program and a state change program are provided in the I / O address conversion and state change program 14.
As described above, the program for converting the I / O address whose I / O state is to be changed, the I / O address for communication between the I / O simulator device and the PLC, and the I / O whose I / O state is to be changed are Since the program for changing the input / output state is automatically created by the automatic program creation processing unit 5, the number of steps required for the simulation of the PLC sequence program is reduced, and the simulation system can be easily installed even without the expertise of a personal computer. It can be constructed.

Next, download of a program necessary for communication between the I / O simulator apparatus 1 and the PLC 11 to the PLC 11 will be described.
In this apparatus, communication for downloading and writing a program from the I / O simulator apparatus 1 to the program area 12 of the PLC 11 and transmission of operation information on the screen from the I / O simulator apparatus 1 to the PLC 11 are displayed for displaying an operation answer. Two types of communication, i.e., communication between the I / O simulator 1 and the PLC 11, for transmitting the above information from the PLC 11 to the I / O simulator device 1 is necessary.
Communication for downloading from the I / O simulator device 1 to the program area 12 of the PLC 11 uses an Ethernet (registered trademark) line, and software for program creation / monitoring prepared for the I / O simulator device 1 in advance. The communication function of the dedicated tool consisting of Further, the mutual communication between the I / O simulator 1 and the PLC 11 uses the same Ethernet (registered trademark) line as that of the dedicated tool, and is transmitted using a UDP (User Datagram Protocol) protocol.
In order to perform the operation by UDP, the communication processing program 9 necessary for the operation by UDP is communicated with the Ethernet (registered trademark) transmission line connecting the I / O simulator apparatus 1 and the PLC 11 using the communication function of the dedicated tool. The program download processing unit 6 downloads to the program area 12 of the PLC 11. Specifically, the download is performed when the operator clicks the save & download key for registration information.
Using the downloaded communication processing program 13, the I / O simulator apparatus 1 and the PLC 11 communicate with each other.

FIG. 5 is a communication flow diagram between the I / O simulator apparatus 1 and the PLC 11 using UDP. The master side programs in steps S11 to S16 are built in the I / O simulator apparatus 1, but the slave side programs in steps S21 to S26 are not built in the PLC 11. This program is in the communication processing program 9 in the I / O simulator device 1 and is downloaded by the communication program download processing unit 6.
For this reason, creation of a communication program on the PLC 11 side and creation and setting of a communication program on the I / O simulator apparatus 1 side can be omitted, and a simulation system can be easily constructed without the expertise of a personal computer.

  The I / O simulator device operates on the same communication line as the dedicated tool for program creation and monitoring, and can easily build a test system, so I / O signal monitoring and forced ON / OFF during trial operation in the field Therefore, it can be applied to a test drive support tool.

The block diagram regarding the data communication of the I / O simulator apparatus of this invention and test object PLC Example of a screen for setting a pattern to change the I / O address and input / output state of the I / O simulator device Flowchart diagram of the automatic program creation processing unit Example of I / O address conversion and state change program automatically created when type PBM is specified Communication flow diagram between I / O simulator device 1 and PLC 11 using UDP Block diagram related to data communication between conventional I / O simulator device and test subject PLC

Explanation of symbols

1, 101 I / O simulator device 2, 102 I / O simulator
3, 103 Screen processing unit 4 Engine processing unit
5 Automatic program creation process
6 Communication program download processing part
7 File management unit 8, 104 Communication control unit 9, 13, 107 Communication processing program 11, 105 PLC
12, 106 Program area 14, 108 I / O address conversion, state hold / change program 15, 109 Simulation target program 16 Comment file

Claims (3)

A screen processing unit for processing a screen to be displayed;
A communication control unit for communicating with the PLC;
In an I / O simulator device that changes the input / output state of the PLC in order to simulate the PLC sequence program,
A program for converting an I / O address whose I / O state is to be changed and an I / O address used when the I / O simulator device communicates with the PLC and an I / O whose I / O state is to be changed An I / O simulator device comprising an automatic program creation processing unit that automatically creates two programs for changing an input / output state and downloads them to a program area of the PLC.   When an I / O address to be operated / displayed is input, a comment processing unit having an I / O address registered in advance in the PLC is acquired and displayed on the screen of the I / O simulator device. The I / O simulator apparatus according to claim 1.   2. The I / O simulator apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a communication program download processing unit that downloads a program required for communication between the I / O simulator apparatus and the PLC to a program area of the PLC.

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