JP2978260B2 - Programming method and apparatus for programmable controller - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for programming a programmable controller and, more particularly, to a method and an apparatus suitable for correcting and debugging a ladder circuit created.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When a new ladder circuit diagram is programmed by modifying a previous ladder circuit diagram, or when a bug occurs in a ladder circuit diagram during programming, a coil that should operate does not operate or operates. A situation in which the coil that should not be operated may occur. In such a case, it is necessary to grind the contacts affecting the coil. Conventionally, this debugging work has been performed by an operator examining a ladder circuit printed out on paper. However, in recent years, programming of a programmable controller has been performed on a display screen of a programming device, and there has been a strong demand that the above-described debugging work be performed easily and quickly on the screen. Therefore, when an operator inputs the number of a coil to be monitored, a user command using the input number is searched, and the user commands are displayed on the monitor in ascending order of address.

[0003] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 58-19910, for example, relates to the prior art.

[0004]

However, in the above-mentioned prior art, only user commands are displayed in the order of addresses. Therefore, when searching for the condition of one abnormal signal retroactively, the ladder circuit to be monitored is checked in advance. It is not possible to perform debugging work quickly and easily. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a programming method and a programming device capable of easily and quickly performing system debugging of a ladder circuit of a programmable controller and the like.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to modify a ladder circuit diagram of a programmable controller.
A search start position when a circuit related to a search target coil is searched in the work memory when a search target coil is specified in a state where ladder circuit data is transferred and stored in the work memory from the user program memory. The search start pointer indicates the position of the circuit containing the contact currently being searched, the target circuit pointer indicates the location of the circuit in the result storage memory, and the contact being searched indicates the target circuit pointer. The target contact pointer indicating what position the circuit is in, and the count value of each result circuit number counter that counts the number of circuits stored on the result storage memory, while the count value of each of the result circuit number counters is updated in a predetermined manner with the progress of the process. The data of the circuit in which the contact in the circuit to which the specified coil belongs is the coil, and the contact that affects the operation of the coil is the coil The data of all the circuits are retrieved from the ladder circuit data on the work memory and stored on the result storage memory, and are stored on the result storage memory when the target circuit pointer ≧ result circuit number counter. This is achieved by visually outputting circuit data. Further, the device configuration includes a user program memory in which ladder circuit data as a user program is stored, a work memory in which the ladder circuit data is transferred and stored from the user program memory, and a ladder circuit in the ladder circuit on the work memory. When the verification target coil is specified, the search start pointer indicating the search start position when the circuit related to the search target coil is searched in the work memory, and the circuit including the contact currently being searched are A target circuit pointer indicating the position on the result storage memory, a target contact pointer indicating the position of the search target contact in the circuit indicated by the target circuit pointer, and As a result of counting the number of stored circuits, the count value of each circuit number counter is determined as the process proceeds. The ladder circuit data on the work memory includes data of a circuit having a coil as a contact in the circuit to which the designated coil belongs and data of all circuits having a coil as a contact affecting the operation of the coil. , A result storage memory in which data of the circuit searched by the processing unit is stored, and a circuit stored in the result storage memory when the target circuit pointer ≧ the result circuit number counter. This is achieved by including at least an output unit that outputs data visually.

[0006]

When a coil to be verified having an incorrect operation is designated by an operator, all the circuit portions that affect the operation of the coil are searched, and the searched circuit portion is displayed on a screen or printed on paper. It is intended to be out. Conventionally, this search has been performed manually, and even if the search itself has been performed by the apparatus side, the configuration of the corresponding circuit portion has been manually searched for, so that much time has been required. However, in the present invention, such a work is configured to be automatically performed by the apparatus side, so that the operator can directly see a circuit portion necessary for the debug work, and therefore, the debug work can be easily performed.

[0007]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of a programmable controller including a programming device according to an embodiment of the present invention. The programmable controller includes a display device 1 for controlling a display or a screen display, a processing device 2 for performing various operations, an input circuit 3 and an output circuit 4 provided between the programmable controller and an object to be controlled. A keyboard 5, a memory 6 storing a system program of the programmable controller,
It comprises a memory 7 storing a user program, a work memory 8 of the processing device 2, a memory 9 storing processing results of the processing device 2, and a bus 10 interconnecting these. A case where such a programmable controller has a bug in a user program and corrects it will be described below.

FIG. 7 is a part of a sequence diagram to be originally designed. The coil Y is designed to operate when the external input contact X1 is on and the internal circuit contact R is on. Here, the internal circuit contact R is a contact that is turned on when the coil R operates, and the coil R
It is assumed that the operation is performed when at least one of the external input contacts X2 and X4 is on and the external input contact X3 is on.

[0009] Here, the circuit portion including the coil R is erroneously written as shown in the circuit diagram of FIG.
Assume that the connection position of the output of No. 4 is wrong. In this incorrect circuit, the coil R operates when both the external input contacts X2 and X3 are on or when the external input contact X4 is on. Therefore, the operation of the coil Y does not become as designed. If only the circuit shown in FIG. 8 is displayed on one screen, the circuit designer can find an error immediately by looking at the circuit. However, it is usually difficult to find out where the coil R related to the coil Y is located in the ladder circuit, and furthermore, when the contact that determines the operation of the coil R depends on another internal circuit, It will be hard to find it again. When correcting a ladder circuit, it takes more time to search for a related part than to correct the circuit. In the present embodiment, all the circuit portions related to the correction are automatically searched and output. For example, when the search result is only the circuit shown in FIG. 8, only this portion is displayed on the screen.

FIGS. 1 to 3 are flowcharts showing a procedure for correcting a ladder circuit.
Then, the contents of the user program memory storing the program (ladder circuit) to be corrected are copied to the work memory, and in step 2, the target circuit pointer, the target contact pointer, and the result circuit number counter are cleared and initialized. In the next step 3, if the search condition of the target coil to be verified and the circuit related to the operation of the target coil is to be limited, the operator inputs the specified condition from the keyboard. Then, in step 4, the processing device clears and initializes the search start pointer, and starts searching for a circuit including the target coil in step 5.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of each of the above-mentioned pointers and counters. The search start pointer indicates a search start position when searching for a circuit related to the target coil in the work memory. If the search is interrupted during the search, the start position at the time of the next search, that is, the circuit position at the time of the interruption is stored. The target circuit pointer indicates the position in the result storage memory of the circuit including the contact currently being searched, and the processing is completed for all the contacts in the circuit. Then, the next circuit is specified. The target contact pointer indicates the position of the search target contact in the circuit pointed to by the target circuit pointer, and when the processing for the contact at that position ends, the next contact position is determined. Show. When the pointer specifies the coil position, no processing is performed, and the pointer indicates the next contact position. Therefore, the target contact pointer always indicates the contact position.

The result circuit number counter counts the number of circuits stored in the result storage memory. By comparing the value indicated by the counter with the value indicated by the target circuit pointer, all search circuits are searched. Can be determined whether or not has been completed. The target circuit pointer and the target contact pointer have no particular meaning when processing is performed on the coil directly specified by the operator.

As a result of the search processing in step 5 shown in FIG.
If it is determined in step 6 that there is a circuit, the process proceeds to step 7 where the data of the searched circuit is stored in the result storage memory, and the result circuit number counter is incremented. In step 8, the data of the circuit on the work memory corresponding to the circuit stored in the result storage memory is replaced with "NOP" so that the same circuit is not searched again. The value is retrieved and moved to the next position of the circuit stored in the result storage memory, and the process returns to step 5. That is, steps 5, 6, 7,
By repeating steps 8 and 9, the search is performed up to the end of the user program, and even if the same coil number is used in a plurality of locations on the sequence circuit, the circuits in all locations are searched.

If there is no circuit to be searched until the end of the user program, the result of the determination in step 6 is "no circuit", and the process proceeds to step 10 in FIG. In this step 10, the data of the contact point indicated by the target contact pointer in the circuit indicated by the target circuit pointer on the result storage memory is read. In step 11, it is determined whether or not there is a contact, that is, whether or not all the processes in the circuit indicated by the target pointer have been completed.
Proceed to 2. In step 12, the necessity of searching for a circuit whose contact is a coil is determined. This judgment is based on internal output or
This is performed based on a criterion such as whether the search range is within the search range specified by the user. If the user has not specified a search range, it is determined whether the contact is an internal circuit contact or an external input contact. If it is an external input contact, go to step 13
The value of the target contact pointer is incremented, and the process returns to step 10 in FIG. That is, the contact is skipped and the next contact is read.

In the case of a contact formed by an internal circuit, accurate verification of the target coil cannot be performed unless the state of the contact of the circuit portion including the coil corresponding to the contact is known. Therefore,
Proceeding to step 14, the coil assigned the same number as the contact is newly set as the target coil, the contact target pointer is incremented (step 15), and the process returns to step 4 in FIG. Since the processing after step 12 is provided, the target coil is set to Y0010 as shown in FIG.
When the value of the coil R001 is set to 1 and the coil R001 is searched, the internal circuit R011 affecting the coil can also be searched.

Before returning to step 4 in FIG. 1, that is, before step 5, the target contact pointer 15 is incremented in step 15, so that the contact reading performed after the search for the circuit including the target coil is completed. , Can be automatically read from the next contact. The above processing is repeated until it is determined in step 11 that the contact point is “absent”. In other words, the process is performed until the processing of all the contacts in the circuit indicated by the target circuit pointer is completed.

If it is determined in step 11 that the contact point is "absent", the flow advances to step 16 to determine whether or not "target circuit pointer ≧ result circuit number counter" is satisfied. If not, all the searches have not been completed, so the process proceeds to step 17, the target circuit pointer is incremented, the target contact pointer is cleared in step 18, and the process proceeds to step 10. If all the searches have been completed, the determination at step 16 is satisfied, and the routine proceeds to step 19, where the contents of the result storage memory are displayed, and this processing ends. As described above, it is possible to retrieve only the circuit related to the coil to be verified and display it on the screen. In the above-described embodiment, all the contacts related to the internal circuit (coil) are searched. However, only the contacts in the ON state are searched, or only the contacts in the OFF state are searched. It is also possible to adopt a configuration in which the operator designates the state of the search target contacts to reduce the number of search target contacts and improve the search processing speed.

[0018]

As described above, according to the first to fourth aspects, by specifying a verification target in the ladder circuit of the sequence control circuit, a related circuit portion is automatically searched for and a related circuit part is automatically searched. Since only the portion is visually output, the phenomenon of the circuit can be immediately grasped from the content of the visible output.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing a search procedure of a programming method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart following FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart following FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of a programmable controller.

FIG. 5 shows a work memory, a pointer on a result storage memory,
Illustration of counter

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a display example of a search result when a contact point of another internal circuit is included in the searched circuit portion;

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of an intended circuit;

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of incorrect connection when designing the circuit of FIG. 7;

[Explanation of symbols]

1 display device, 2 processing device, 7 user program memory, 8 work memory, 9 result storage memory.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued from the front page (72) Inventor Hiroyuki Kimura 7-1-1, Higashi Narashino, Narashino City, Chiba Prefecture Inside the Narashino Plant of Hitachi, Ltd. (56) References ) Surveyed field (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G05D 19/04-19/05

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A programming method for modifying a ladder circuit diagram of a programmable controller, comprising:
Ladder circuit data from program memory on work memory
The search target coil is specified while the
Related to the target coil in the work memory
Search start port indicating the search start position when the circuit is searched
Inter, the times that include the point of contact currently being searched
Pair indicating the location of the path in the result storage memory.
The elephant circuit pointer, the contact to be searched is the target circuit
Indicates the position of the circuit pointed to by the pointer.
Target contact pointer and the result stored in the result storage memory.
The result of counting the number of circuits
While the count value is updated as predetermined as the process progresses,
A circuit in which a contact in the circuit to which the designated coil belongs is a coil.
And the contacts that affect the operation of the coil.
Ladder on the work memory
-Search from circuit data and store in result storage memory
Above, when target circuit pointer ≧ result circuit number counter
In terms of the circuit data stored on the result storage memory
A method for programming a programmable controller, comprising: 2. The contact according to claim 1, wherein the contact is an on-state.
State only contact, or off state only contact, or
Affects the on / off state of the search target coil
A programming method for a programmable controller, comprising a contact . 3. A ladder circuit of a programmable controller.
In a programming device for modifying a road map, a user
User who stores ladder circuit data as a program
From the program memory and from the user program memory
A work memory in which the ladder circuit data is transferred and stored;
The verification target coil in the ladder circuit is
When set, it is related to the coil to be searched in the work memory.
Search start position indicating the search start position when the circuit to be searched is searched.
Start pointer, including the contact currently being searched
Indicates where the circuit is located in the result storage memory.
Target circuit pointer, search target contacts
The position of the circuit pointed to by the circuit pointer
Target contact pointer indicating the
Count the number of remembered circuits
Each count value is updated as required as the process proceeds.
The contact in the circuit to which the specified coil belongs
Circuit data and contacts that affect the operation of the coil
On the work memory with the data of all circuits with
Processing unit for searching from the ladder circuit data of
Result storage memo that stores the circuit data searched
And target circuit pointer ≥ result circuit number counter
At this point, the circuit data stored in the result storage memory
And at least an output unit that outputs visible light.
The programming of the programmable controller
Equipment . 4. The contact according to claim 3, wherein the contact is an on-state.
State only contact, or off state only contact, or
Affects the on / off state of the search target coil
A programming device for a programmable controller, wherein the programming device is a contact.