JPH10105215A - Sequencer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To eliminate an operation stop of a system by eliminating the long time and labor needed to modify programs and set conditions when the system is altered. SOLUTION: An I/O information acquisition part 11 acquires I/O information from a unit arranged in a base unit and stores it in a signal storage memory 13. An operation contact determination part 12 cuts and divides a general ladder program according to the I/O information obtained by the I/O information acquisition part 11. A transfer format generation part 14 generates a transfer format from the I/O information stored in the signal storage memory 13 and stores it in a transfer format storage memory 15. A communication part 16 once receiving a data logger start indication from a personal computer 2 transfers the transfer format from the transfer format storage memory 15 to the personal computer 2 in sequence.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a sequencer for controlling the operation of an external device based on a general-purpose ladder program.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A sequencer controls an external device such as a sensor or a relay. Further, based on operation information obtained from the external device, a sequencer controls a higher-level computer such as a personal computer for calculating a system operation result or the like. There are things to prepare.

In the sequencer having such a configuration, a ladder program must be changed when the system configuration is changed, and a host computer connected to the sequencer also obtains the system configuration change information from the sequencer and sets the setting conditions. Had to be reset.

Here, there are the following cases as a change of the system configuration. When changing the slot position of the base unit (where the unit is placed), when replacing the unit to change the number of input / output points or the type of input / output (when changing the 16-point input unit to a 32-point input unit) When changing the memory area information on the sequencer used by the unit, or when changing to a base unit with a different number of slots.

[0005]

However, in the above-described conventional sequencer, when the system is changed, it is necessary to re-create the ladder program and reset the conditions of the host computer connected to the sequencer. Therefore, there is a problem that not only a large amount of time and labor is required for changing the program and setting conditions, but also the operation of the system is stopped during that time.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above problems, the present invention provides a sequencer that eliminates a great deal of time and effort associated with program change and condition setting when a system is changed, and as a result, eliminates system stoppage. With the goal.

[0007]

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a sequencer for controlling the operation of an external device based on a general-purpose ladder program.
I / O information acquisition means for acquiring I / O information from a unit arranged in the base unit, and separation means for separating the general-purpose ladder program based on the I / O information acquired by the I / O information acquisition means And

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a sequencer to which an upper-level computer is connected and which controls the operation of an external device based on a general-purpose ladder program, and acquires I / O information from a unit arranged in a base unit. I
An I / O information acquiring unit, an isolating unit for isolating the general-purpose ladder program based on the I / O information acquired by the I / O information acquiring unit, and a unit for each unit acquired by the I / O information acquiring unit. Data storage means for storing I / O information corresponding to a channel, transfer format formation means for forming a transfer format from I / O information stored in the data storage means, and transfer format formation means. Transfer means for transmitting the transfer format to the computer.

The invention described in claim 3 is the first or second invention.
In the described invention, the sequencer I / O information includes a contact indicating a unit type name, a contact indicating a slot position, and a contact indicating a unit number.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the third aspect of the invention, the sequencer first determines, from the I / O information, a contact indicating a type of a unit in the general-purpose ladder program. Next, a contact indicating the slot position in the contact indicating the determined unit type is determined, and finally a contact indicating the machine number is determined.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect, the transfer format describes the I / O information and a data storage position.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the fifth aspect of the invention, there is provided a transfer format storing means for storing the transfer format formed by the transfer format forming means.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the sixth aspect of the invention, when the power supply is turned on and the system is not operating, the transfer format is stored in the transfer format storage means. You.

According to the present invention, I / O information is acquired from a unit arranged in the base unit, and the acquired I / O information is acquired.
The general purpose ladder program is separated based on the / O information.

When the sequencer is connected to a host computer, the sequencer acquires I / O information from a unit arranged in the base unit, and acquires the acquired I / O information.
Based on the / O information, a general-purpose ladder program is separated, a transfer format indicating I / O information and a data storage position is formed, and this is transferred to a host computer.

[0016]

Embodiments of a sequencer according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of a sequencer according to the present invention.

The sequencer 1 of this embodiment is connected to a personal computer (hereinafter, referred to as a personal computer) 2 as a host computer functioning as a data logger device, and connects external devices such as sensors and relays based on a general-purpose ladder program 17. A sequencer for controlling the operation of an external device to be controlled, comprising: an I / O information acquisition unit 11;
It is configured to include an operating contact determination unit 12, a signal storage memory 13, a transfer format forming unit 14, and a transfer format storage memory 15.

The I / O information acquisition unit 11 of the sequencer 1
When power is turned on, I / O information consisting of a contact indicating the type of unit, a contact indicating the slot position, and a contact indicating the unit number is automatically acquired from each unit arranged in the base unit. Have been.

The unit arranged in the base unit holds information indicating the contact of the unit type name in a storage element such as a ROM incorporated therein.

The contact indicating the machine number is a value set by the user using a switch such as a rotary switch attached to the unit before the unit is arranged in the slot of the base unit.

When receiving the I / O information from the I / O information acquisition unit 11, the operating contact determination unit 12 forms relay information.
By determining a contact to be operated on the basis of the formed relay information, a general ladder program described later is configured to be divided into an effective part that actually operates and an invalid part that does not operate.

As shown in FIG. 2, the signal storage memory 13 has an area 41 for storing I / O information, an area 42 for storing the number of channels, and an area 43 for storing data obtained from each channel. doing. Then, the signal storage memory 1
In No. 3, the head position (address) is uniquely determined.

When the I / O information is acquired by inserting the power supply, the I / O information is not acquired and the transmission data is not stored in the area 43 because the system has not been operated yet.

Incidentally, in the I / O information of the unit described by "AD, 1, 2", the contact indicating the unit type name is "AD" (analog unit) and the contact indicating the slot position is "1". Indicates that the contact indicating the machine number is "2".

The I / O information of this unit is "1
It has four channels, which will be described later, including 11 "," 112 "," 113 ", and" 114 ".

The transfer format forming section 14 is configured to receive the I / O information and the channel at the location having the same I / O information from the signal storage memory 13 and form a transfer format 50 as shown in FIG. Have been.

The transfer format 50 has a portion for describing I / O information and a portion for describing a data storage position. The portion for describing I / O information has a contact indicating the type name of the unit. There are an area 51 for describing, an area 52 for describing a contact indicating a slot position, and an area 53 for describing a contact indicating a unit number. In a part for describing a data storage position, a storage position of head data of each unit is provided. And an area 55 that describes the storage position of the end data.

The storage position of the first data and the storage position of the last data are described by a channel.

The transfer format storage memory 15 is formed by the transfer format forming unit 14 and is stored in the transfer format 5
0 is stored.

The communication unit 16 transfers the transfer format 50 stored in the transfer format storage memory 15 to the personal computer 2 in the order in which the transfer format 50 is formed. And reads out the data based on this instruction from the PC 2 and transmits it to the personal computer 2.

Here, the general-purpose ladder program 17 will be described.

As shown in FIG. 4, the general-purpose ladder program 17 uses a contact 61 indicating a unit type, a contact 62 indicating a slot number, a contact 63 indicating a machine number, and an XFER command 64 for data transfer. , All possible combinations of the system are described.

Here, an XFER instruction 64 for data transfer is used.
Is an instruction to continuously transfer data (I / O data) obtained by the sequencer 1 operating the system to the transmission data area 43 indicated by the corresponding channel in the signal storage memory 13.

By the way, the XFER instruction 64 to which the reference symbol B is attached stores four channels of data continuously from the channel 111 in the corresponding channel (11
1 to 114) are written in the transmission area 43. Each channel has an I / O unit.
It shows a path for receiving data (specifically, a signal line), and the number has an upper limit for each unit, and the upper limit is used as the number of channels.

As described above, when the power of the sequencer is turned on, the general-purpose ladder program 17 specifies the combination of contacts necessary for the actual operation of the system based on the relay information from the operating contact determining unit 12 (effective unit). And invalid part).

Incidentally, in the operation of the system as shown in FIG. 4, a set of contacts (AD,
0, 2) and the XFER instruction 64, but the instruction is not executed at the set of contacts other than the hatched portion A.

Here, the personal computer 2 as a data logger device will be described.

The personal computer 2 acquires data from the sequencer 1 and runs data logger software capable of displaying the actual system operation status.

The data logger software has an I / O information receiving means 21, an I / O information comparing means 22, a communication command issuing means 23, a response receiving means 24, and a received data display means 25. .

The I / O information receiving means 21 includes the sequencer 1
The I / O information and the data storage position in the signal storage memory 13 obtained from the I / O information are read from the transfer format 50 sent from the I / O information and output to the I / O information comparison means 22. ing.

The I / O information comparing means 22 stores the I / O information from the I / O information receiving means 21 and the power supply of the sequencer 1 stored in a storage means (not shown) such as a ROM before power-on. The I / O information is compared with the I / O information.
The middle data storage position, that is, the data start position and the data end position indicated by the number of channels is output to the communication command issuing means 23.

When receiving the data storage position in the transfer format 50 from the I / O information comparison unit 22, the communication command issuing unit 23 stores the data in the data storage position indicated by the transfer format 50 in the signal storage memory 13. In order to read the stored data, a data acquisition instruction is output to the sequencer.

The response receiving means 24 receives the data stored in the corresponding portion of the signal storage memory 13 output by the sequencer 1 according to the data acquisition instruction issued by the communication command issuing means 23, and displays the received data in the received data display section. 2
5 is output.

When the data received by the response receiving means 24 is received, the received data display means 25 displays the data on a CRT (not shown) or prints the data on a printer (not shown).

Next, the operation of the sequencer of this embodiment will be described.

In describing the operation of the sequencer of this embodiment, the operation of a personal computer as a data logger connected to the sequencer will also be described.

(1) Regarding the operation on the sequencer side, FIG.
This will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

When the power of the sequencer 1 is turned on (step 110), the I / O acquisition unit 11 of the sequencer 1 sets the I / O of all the units arranged in the base unit.
The O information is sequentially acquired, output to the operating contact determination unit 12, and written in order from the top channel in the signal storage memory 13 (step 120).

The transfer format section 14 reads out the I / O information and the leading and trailing channels of the I / O information from the signal storage memory 13 and forms the above-described transfer format 50 (step 130). Is stored in the transfer format storage memory 15 (step 140).

On the other hand, the operating contact determining unit 12 which has received the I / O information from the I / O information acquiring unit 11 forms relay information including a set of operating contacts from the received I / O information (step 150). Then, based on this relay information, a later-described separation process is performed (step 160).

In this way, the transfer format 50 is formed for all the I / O information, and this is stored in the transfer format storage memory 15, and the separation process of the general-purpose ladder program 17 is completed.

Subsequently, the communication section 16 determines whether or not a data logger start command has been input from the personal computer 2 (step 170).

When the communication unit 16 determines that the data logger start instruction has been input from the personal computer 2 (step 170; Y), the transfer format storage memory storage 1
5 are transmitted to the personal computer 2 in order from the beginning (step 180).

Thereafter, when the communication unit 16 receives the above-described data acquisition instruction from the personal computer 2 assuming that the I / O information in the transfer format 50 is different from the data transferred from the personal computer 2, the signal storage memory 13 indicated by the instruction is received. The data in the memory is read and transmitted to the personal computer 2 (step 1).
90).

Subsequently, the communication unit 16 transmits the transfer format 50 stored in the transfer format storage memory 15.
It is determined whether or not all have been transferred to the personal computer 2 (step 195).

If the communication unit 16 determines that all of the transfer format 50 has been transferred to the personal computer 2 (step 195; Y), the data logger process on the sequencer side is terminated, while the transfer format to be transferred to the personal computer 2 is terminated. Is determined to still exist (step 195;
N), the process returns to step 180, and the same processing as described above is performed.

Here, the dividing process in step 160 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

When receiving the I / O information from the I / O information acquisition unit 11, the operating contact determination unit 12 forms relay information (step 161).

Thereafter, the operating contact determination unit 12 determines whether or not there is a unit for which an effective part has not been determined (step 16).
2) If it is determined that there is no unit with an undetermined valid part (step 162; N), the process is terminated, while if it is determined that there is a unit with an undetermined valid part (step 1).
62; Y), based on the formed relay information, determine an effective part as follows.

First, the operating contact determination unit 12 extracts a contact instruction indicating the type of unit in the relay information (step 163), and determines a block in the ladder program that is connected to the contact instruction (step 164). .

Next, the operating contact determining unit 12 extracts a contact command indicating the slot position (one of the contact commands in the previous block) from the relay information (step 16).
5) It is determined from the relay information whether there is a contact command indicating the number of the machine to be connected to the extracted contact command (step 166).

If there is a contact command indicating the number of the machine to be connected to the contact command indicating the slot position (step 166; Y), the operating contact determination unit 12 determines the machine number from the relay information and sets the channel to be used. The valid part in the used block of the general-purpose ladder program is determined (step 167).

On the other hand, if there is no contact instruction indicating the machine number to be connected to the contact instruction indicating the slot position (step 166; Y), the operating contact determination unit 12 determines the channel to be used based on the slot position, and Determine the valid part in the used block of the ladder program (step 16
8).

As described above, when the active contact determining unit 12 determines the valid portion of one block, the process returns to step 162, and the same process as described above is performed for all blocks.

(2) The operation of the personal computer will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

When receiving the transfer format 50 from the sequencer 1, the I / O information receiving means 21 passes the obtained transfer format 50 to the I / O information comparing means 22 (step 210).

The I / O information comparison means 22 compares the I / O information in the received transfer format with the I / O information stored in advance.
Information (step 220), and if they are the same as each other (step 220; N),
The process returns to step 210, and the next transfer format 5
On the other hand, if they are different from each other (step 220; Y), the I / O information in the transfer format is stored as new I / O information, and Is output, that is, the data start position and the data end position (step 230).

When receiving the data storage position in the transfer format 50, the communication command issuing means 23 reads the data stored in the data storage position in the signal storage memory 13 indicated by the transfer format. Is output to the sequencer 1.

In response to the data acquisition instruction issued by the communication command issuing means 23, the response receiving means 24 receives the data stored in the corresponding location of the signal storage memory 13 output by the sequencer 1, and displays this in the received data display section. 2
15 (step 250).

When receiving the data received by the response receiving means 24, the received data display means 25 displays the data on the CRT or prints out the data by the printer (step 26).
0).

Thereafter, the personal computer 1 determines whether or not there is a transfer format from the sequencer 1 (step 27).
0), if there is no transfer format (step 27)
0; N), the process ends, and if there is a transfer format (step 270; Y), the process is terminated at step 2
Returning to 10, the same processing as described above is performed.

In the sequencer of this embodiment, the I / O information obtaining unit 11 obtains I / O information from the unit arranged in the base unit, and, based on the obtained I / O information, the operating contact determining unit 12 Separates the general-purpose ladder program, so that when the system is changed, the enormous amount of time and effort involved in changing the program can be eliminated, thereby eliminating the suspension of system operation.

Further, the transfer format forming unit 14
Since the I / O information acquired by the I / O information acquisition unit 11 is formed into a transfer format 50, and the communication unit 16 transfers the transfer format 50 to the personal computer 2 as a host computer, a condition associated with a system change is required. I / O information as a setting can be transmitted. For this reason, the personal computer 2 as a data logger device can reset the conditions for data logger, and can display necessary data.

[0075]

As described above, according to the present invention, I / O information is acquired from a unit arranged in a base unit, and a general-purpose ladder program is separated based on the acquired I / O information. By eliminating a great deal of time and effort associated with program changes, it is possible to eliminate system suspension.

When the sequencer is connected to a host computer, the sequencer acquires I / O information from a unit arranged in the base unit, and acquires the acquired I / O information.
On the basis of the / O information, a general-purpose ladder program is separated, and a transfer format indicating I / O information and a data storage position is formed. The transfer format is transferred to a host computer. Can be obtained, and the setting conditions can be reset.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of a sequencer according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a signal storage memory in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a transfer format.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a general-purpose ladder program.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the sequencer according to the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a separation process.

FIG. 7 is an exemplary flowchart showing the operation of the personal computer in FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Sequencer 2 Personal computer 11 I / O information acquisition part 12 Signal storage memory 13 Active contact determination part 14 Transfer format formation part 15 Transfer format storage memory 16 Communication part 21 I / O information receiving means 22 I / O information comparison means 23 Communication command Issuing unit 24 Response receiving unit 25 Received data display unit 41 (I / O information) area 42 (Channel) area 43 (Transmission data storage) area 50 Transfer format

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A sequencer for controlling the operation of an external device based on a general-purpose ladder program, comprising: I / O information acquisition means for acquiring I / O information of a unit arranged in a base unit; A sequencer for dividing the general-purpose ladder program based on the I / O information acquired by the acquisition unit. 2. A sequencer to which a host computer is connected and which controls the operation of an external device based on a general-purpose ladder program, wherein I / O information acquisition for acquiring I / O information from a unit arranged in a base unit Means for separating the general-purpose ladder program based on the I / O information obtained by the I / O information obtaining means; and I / O information for each unit obtained by the I / O information obtaining means.
Data storage means for storing I / O information corresponding to a channel, transfer format formation means for forming a transfer format from I / O information stored by the data storage means, and transfer format formation means. A sequencer comprising: transfer means for transmitting a transfer format to the computer. 3. The sequencer according to claim 1, wherein the I / O information includes a contact indicating a type name of the unit, a contact indicating a slot position, and a contact indicating a machine number. 4. The separation means first determines a contact indicating the type of unit in the general-purpose ladder program from the I / O information, and then determines a slot position in the contact indicating the determined type of unit. 4. The sequencer according to claim 3, wherein a contact indicating a number is determined, and finally a contact indicating a machine number is determined. 5. The sequencer according to claim 2, wherein the transfer format describes the I / O information and a data storage position. 6. The sequencer according to claim 5, further comprising transfer format storing means for storing the transfer format formed by said transfer format forming means. 7. The sequencer according to claim 6, wherein said transfer format is stored in said transfer format storage means when a power supply is turned on and said system is not operating. A control device characterized by the above-mentioned.