JP2012054686A - Slave device, and method of monitoring the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a slave device and a method of monitoring the same that allow a slave device side to know a communication state and a data transmission and reception state directly without requiring high expert knowledge about a communication protocol.SOLUTION: In a slave device 3, a general communication state independently of transmission and reception data and a protocol of the slave device 3 with a communication master device 1 is displayed on a data display 61, separately from communication state LEDs 41 and 42. Since a user can know the communication state and the data transmission and reception state on the slave device 3 side with ease, a specifying operation of fault location at a system start-up or at a communication trouble can be simplified and improved in efficiency.

Description

  The present invention relates to a slave device including a drive device that is network-connected to a master control device and is driven and controlled by an operation command signal from the master control device, and a monitoring method thereof.

  In FA (Factory Automation) system, in order to speed up and stabilize the network control, it is connected with a communication protocol with high synchronization speed and high reliability from the master controller at the control level to the end of the system equipment. The In many cases, a slave device incorporated in a control network system such as an FA system uses a mixture of a plurality of proprietary protocols and a general-purpose protocol based on IEEE802.3.

  In Patent Document 1, when combined with a signal transmission path that transmits predetermined control information, such as a multi-tasking machine that operates a plurality of motors in synchronization and cooperation, and operates a plurality of motors in synchronization and cooperation, An invention for operating each motor drive device at the same timing by a slave device connected to the master control device via a network is described.

  Generally, when such a control network system is started up or when a communication trouble occurs, it is necessary to confirm the communication status on the slave device side. However, the conventional slave device itself does not have a function for displaying the communication status and transmission / reception data in detail during communication with the master control device. For this reason, the present situation is that a plurality of status LEDs (light emitting diode elements) are provided as elements indicating the communication status in the slave device, the communication status is grasped by lighting them, and the fault location is specified. .

JP 2005-94933 A

  However, in order to grasp the communication status from the lighting status of the status LED as in the conventional slave device, the lighting pattern of the status LED is different for each communication protocol, so specialized knowledge about each communication protocol is required. It was. Furthermore, since the amount of information obtained from the blinking of the status LED is extremely small, not only is it difficult to accurately grasp the communication status, but there is a problem that it takes time to identify the fault location when a fault occurs.

  The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and a slave device capable of directly grasping a communication status and a data transmission / reception status on the slave device side without having high expertise about a communication protocol and It aims at providing the monitoring method.

  In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a slave device including a drive device that is network-connected to a master control device and that is driven and controlled by an operation command signal from the master control device. The slave device is used by the network control means for receiving the operation command signal and transmitting the operation status signal of the drive device to the master control device, and status information regarding the operation command signal by the network control means. Data display means for displaying together with a communication protocol, and communication status display means for flashing according to the transmission / reception status of the operation command signal and the operation status signal transmitted / received between the network control means and the master control device. It is characterized by that.

  Further, according to the slave device monitoring method of the present invention, the slave device that monitors the communication status of the slave device including the drive device that is driven and controlled by the operation command signal from the master control device and the communication data with the master control device. Monitoring method can be provided. In this monitoring method, a first screen displaying status information of communication data transmitted / received between the master control device and the slave device together with a communication protocol of the communication data, out of communication data received by the slave device A second screen for displaying the received content of the operation command signal from the master control device to the drive device, and an operation state signal in the drive device among the communication data transmitted from the slave device to the master control device. A menu display screen for selecting and displaying the third screen and any of the first to third screens is displayed on the data display unit of the slave device.

  According to the present invention, the slave device side can display the general communication status not depending on the transmission / reception data and protocol of the slave device separately from the communication state display device of the slave device. The communication status and data transmission / reception status can be ascertained, and it is possible to simplify and improve the efficiency of identifying the fault location at the time of system startup or communication trouble.

It is a block block diagram which shows the basic system structure containing the slave apparatus of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the display content of the data display part in the slave apparatus of this invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of a slave device and a monitoring method thereof according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a basic system configuration including a slave device of the present invention.

  In FIG. 1, a communication master device 1 constituting an industrial communication network is connected to a plurality of slave devices 3 via a communication cable 2. The slave device 3 includes a communication unit 4 having two communication status LEDs 41 and 42, a CPU 5 having a data buffer 51, and a setting / display unit 6 having a data display unit 61. The communication unit 4 and the CPU 5 constitute a network control unit that receives an operation command signal from the communication master device 1 and transmits an operation state signal of a drive device that is driven and controlled by the slave device 3 to the communication master device 1. Yes.

  The data buffer 51 stores general communication status in the communication unit 4 and data transmitted / received to / from the communication master device 1. The data display unit 61 of the slave device 3 has a general / common communication status and transmission / reception data display function using a communication protocol. Thereby, by switching the data display unit 61 of the slave device 3 and referring to the data stored in the data buffer 51, the user can easily grasp the communication status and the data transmission / reception status on the slave device 3 side.

Hereinafter, the function of displaying the communication status and transmission / reception data in the slave device 3 of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIG.
The communication master device 1 transmits command data such as an operation command and a speed command to the slave device 3 via the communication cable 2. The command data is received by the communication unit 4 in the slave device 3 and stored in the data buffer 51 as received data by the CPU 5. In the slave device 3, the data stored in the data buffer 51 is reflected as necessary to the actual operation of a drive mechanism (drive device) or the like (not shown).

  On the other hand, in the CPU 5 of the slave device 3, various response contents such as the operation state and the operation speed of the drive mechanism and the like are processed into communication data as necessary and stored in the data buffer 51 as transmission data to the communication master device 1. To do. The data transferred to the communication unit 4 is returned to the communication master device 1 via the communication cable 2. Here, the communication status LED 41 lights up in a predetermined pattern according to a rule based on the communication protocol, thereby displaying the communication status of the slave device 3.

  At this time, information regarding general communication status such as communication establishment, communication non-establishment and communication error in the communication unit 4 is acquired by the CPU 5 regardless of the lighting pattern of the communication status LED 41 and stored in the data buffer 51. Saved. The data display unit 61 of the setting / display unit 6 is configured to be switchable to either a display screen for the communication status between the slave device 3 and the communication master device 1 via the communication cable 2 or a display screen for the transmission / reception data itself. The data stored in the data buffer 51 can be referenced to display the data contents when the slave device 3 is activated or when the fault location is confirmed.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of display contents of the data display unit in the slave device of the present invention.
The menu items on the communication monitor menu display screen (Com. Monitor Menu) 10 in FIG. 2 include a status menu, a receive data menu, and a send data menu. Here, these menu items correspond to numbers 1 to 3. By selecting one of the item numbers, a communication status display screen (first screen) 11 and a received data display screen (second screen) shown in FIG. Screen) 12 and transmission data display screen (third screen) 13. Here, the data display part 61 of FIG. 1 shall comprise the input means provided with the touch-panel function.

On the communication status display screen 11 displayed when item number 1 is selected, the communication protocol (PROCOL) in use and the communication status (STATE) are displayed.
On the received data display screen 12 displayed when item number 2 is selected, the data length (□□ words) of the received data and the received data itself are displayed in units of words. Here, the data contents of four words (WORD1 to WORD4) can be displayed. However, when the received data length is long, it is possible to display the subsequent words by selecting page switching (Next Page).

  On the transmission data display screen 13 displayed when item number 3 is selected, the data length (ΔΔwords) of the transmission data and the transmission data itself are displayed in units of words. Again, four or more words can be displayed by selecting page switching (Next Page).

Hereinafter, the display content in the data display part 61 is demonstrated concretely.
By selecting an item to be monitored from the menu display screen 10 of the data display unit 61 by using the menu item, three monitoring screens are switched and displayed. When the item number “1” of the menu display screen 10, that is, “Status” is selected, the communication status display screen 11 is displayed on the data display unit 61. When the item number “2” of the menu is selected, the data display unit The received data display screen 12 is displayed on 61, and when the item number “3” on the menu display screen 10 is selected, the transmission data display screen 13 is displayed on the data display unit 61.

  In the communication status display screen 11, for example, “PROFINET” is used as a communication protocol display used by the communication master device 1 with the slave device 3, and “ONLINE”, “OFFLINE”, A general communication status that does not depend on a communication protocol such as “ERR” is displayed.

  On the received data display screen 12, the data length of the operation command data for the drive mechanism unit from the communication master device 1 and the received data received by the slave device 3 are displayed. The received data in FIG. 2 is displayed for only four words “WORD1” to “WORD4”, but the remaining received data is displayed by switching the display page by “Next Page”.

  On the transmission data display screen 13, the transmission data length of the operation state signal in the drive mechanism unit transmitted from the slave device 3 and the transmission data to the communication master device 1 are displayed. The transmission data in FIG. 2 is displayed for only four words “WORD1” to “WORD4”, but the remaining transmission data is displayed by switching the display page by “Next Page”.

1 Communication master device 2 Communication cable 3 Slave device 4 Communication unit 5 CPU
6 Setting / Display Unit 10 Menu Display Screen (Com. Monitor Menu)
11 Communication status display screen (first screen)
12 Received data display screen (second screen)
13 Transmission data display screen (third screen)
41, 42 Communication status LED
51 Data buffer 61 Data display section

Claims (4)

In a slave device including a drive device that is network-connected to a master control device and is driven and controlled by an operation command signal from the master control device,
Network control means for receiving the operation command signal and transmitting an operation state signal of the drive device to the master control device;
Data display means for displaying status information regarding the operation command signal together with a communication protocol used in the network control means;
Communication state display means that blinks according to the transmission / reception status of the operation command signal and the operation state signal transmitted and received between the network control means and the master control device,
A slave device characterized by comprising: The network control means includes a data processing unit that performs data processing according to the communication protocol,
2. The slave device according to claim 1, wherein the data display means switches and displays data contents of the operation command signal and the operation state signal.   The slave device according to claim 1, wherein the communication state display means includes a plurality of light emitting diode elements. In the monitoring method of the slave device that monitors the communication status of the slave device including the drive device that is driven and controlled by the operation command signal from the master control device and the communication data with the master control device,
A first screen displaying status information of communication data transmitted and received between the master control device and the slave device together with a communication protocol of the communication data;
A second screen for displaying the received content of the operation command signal from the master control device to the drive device among the communication data received by the slave device;
A third screen for displaying an operation state signal in the drive device among communication data transmitted from the slave device to the master control device;
And a menu display screen for switching and displaying the monitoring screen by selecting any of the first to third screens,
A slave device monitoring method, wherein the data is displayed by a data display unit of the slave device.

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