JPS59216202A - Programmable controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To monitor easily the execution state of user instructions by detecting the number of times of execution of a user instruction and displaying execution states of user instructions before and after this detection point. CONSTITUTION:A set output number A is stored in a register R9 of an RAM 6, and a set number N of an output instruction is stored in a register R10 of the RAM 6. It is discriminated whether a loaded instruction is an output instruction or not; and if it is detected that this loaded instruction is an output instruction, the number of times of execution is counted, and the time when this counted number coincides with said number N is the start point of tracing. When tracing is started, the instruction one step before the start point of tracing, the instruction at the start point of tracing, the instruction one step after the start point of tracing, and their addresses which are stored in registers R0-R8 of the RAM 6 are displayed on a display device 7A. The user watches this display to grasp exactly how the control of a user program branches and changes before and after the set start point.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to programmable controllers, and more particularly to programmable controllers capable of monitoring instruction execution processes.

(Background of the Invention) In conventional programmable controllers, when an arbitrary program address is manually set as information for specifying a monitoring target, when a user program is executed, the command at the input address and the input/output state due to the execution of the command are displayed. Many of them have a so-called trace function that displays the information on the monitor.

However, if an instruction (including processing that specifies an output number as information that identifies the trace target and updates the data of the output number that uses the output number as an output in the actual flow of control) is executed a predetermined number of times. There has been no monitor or trace function that extracts and displays instructions executed before and after that time, in that order, starting from when the command was executed.

For users of programmable controllers, when instructions are executed sequentially from address O during program execution, the conventional trace function can sufficiently confirm the flow of control. However, if the user program contains branch instructions (jump instructions or conditional jump instructions) that change the flow of control, the conventional trace function uses the execution results of instructions that include a specific output number in the user program to control It was not easy to see how the flow branched and changed.

For example, as shown in FIG. 1, if a user program is configured to branch from control 1 to either control 2 or control 3 using a branch instruction, the conventional trace function cannot Depending on the contents of the condition settings of the command, it is not possible to easily monitor to which step the control is being transferred to and changing the state of the turnout number j, which is very inconvenient.

(Objective of the Invention) The object of the present invention is to detect when an instruction including the process of updating data at a specified output number has been executed a specified number of times, and to use that detection point as a starting point to update the previous and subsequent user instructions. It is an object of the present invention to provide a programmable controller having a trace function that allows easy monitoring of the execution state, that is, the state of the flow of control.

(Structure and Effects of the Invention) In order to achieve the above object, the programmable controller of the present invention includes means for arbitrarily setting and inputting an output number Δ for specifying a trace starting point and the number of executions N, and means for counting the number of times a user command including a process of updating data of A is executed, and issuing a race start command when the number of times reaches the set number N;
In response to the i-race start command, a means for temporarily storing the contents of the knee-to-wheel command and/or the address of the user command for a predetermined number of steps executed immediately before and after the i-race start command, and the temporary storage means The present invention is characterized in that it is provided with means for displaying the stored contents.

According to the trace function configured in this way, an instruction that includes processing to update data of a certain output number is used as the starting point of a trace to monitor how the control state changes with a certain branch instruction. It is possible to set a condition that the program has been executed a predetermined number of times, and it is easy to monitor the actual flow of control of a user program including branch instructions.

(Description of Embodiments) FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a programmable =I controller to which the present invention is applied. This programmable controller includes a memory 1 that stores a user program, an input/output circuit 2 that is interfaced with a controlled system, a memory 3 that stores input/output data, a ROM 4 that stores a system program, and a ROM 4 that stores a system program.
A CPU that executes control and arithmetic processing according to the system program stored in the memory 1 and the user program stored in the memory 1.
5, a RAM 6 used for temporary storage of various data during system operation, and a program console section (hereinafter referred to as a program console) 7 operated by the user.

The professional computer 7 includes a display 7A and a keyboard 7B on an operation surface outside the case, and a control circuit 7C inside the case. A specific example of the operation surface of the processor 7 is shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an overview of a system program including trace processing according to the present invention. Also, the fifth
The figure is a map of registers set in the RAM 6 for performing the trace processing of the present invention.

First, the trace processing of the present invention will be comprehensively explained. An output number is set as information for specifying the trace starting point, and the set output number A is stored in register R9 as shown in FIG. Additionally, the number of executions of an instruction (hereinafter referred to as an output instruction) that includes the process of updating the data of output number A is also set as information for specifying this starting point, but the set number of times N is stored in register R10. Ru. These numbers and the number of times are set in step 1 following the initial processing of step 100 in FIG.
01 will be accepted through ProConservation processing. At the same time, after setting the above number and number of times,
When a trace command input is given at , a trace command flag FO is set.

The above processing is performed in the professional maintenance processing. Thereafter, the process advances to step 102 and subsequent steps, and 1-race processing is performed as described below, whereby monitor data to be temporarily stored is sequentially stored in registers RO to R8. That is, in this example, steps -
Monitor data can be stored in areas 1 to 7, respectively, and monitor data for a total of 9 instructions is temporarily stored here and displayed on the display 7A of the processor 7. J3 displays the monitor data stored in register RO-R8 on display 7.
The process displayed at A is performed in the previous step 1.1 of the professional controller service process.

In step 102, the instruction at the execution address is loaded from the knee 11 program memory 1. Next step 10
In step 3, it is checked whether the trace command flag FO is set. If no trace command has been given, the process jumps to step 106, where the instruction is executed, the execution address is updated in the following step 107, and the process returns to the first step 101.

If a trace command has been given, the process proceeds to step 104, where it is checked whether the trigger flag F1 is set. This trigger flag "1" is set to 1 when the output command including the output number A is executed N times, as will be explained next.

First, if the trigger flag F1 is not set, the process proceeds to step 108.

In step 108, it is determined whether the instruction loaded in step 102 is an outgoing instruction, that is, an instruction to update output data. If it is not an output instruction, the process jumps to step 114, stores the instruction and address in the register RO, and then proceeds to step 106 described above.

If it is detected in step 108 that it is an output command, the process proceeds to step 109, where it is determined whether the output number of the output data to be updated by the output command matches the number A set in register R9. If it doesn't match,
The process proceeds from step 104 to step 106 described above.

Output number for the output number set in step 109
If it is detected that it is a command, the process proceeds to step 110, where the counter n, which has been reset (for the first time), is incremented. In the following step 111, it is determined whether the count value of the counter 11 matches the number N set in the register R10. 51 If the numerical value n has not reached the set number N, this will be explained first and the process proceeds from step 114 to step 106.

When the t1 value n of the number of executions matches the specified number N, this is the starting point of the trace, and the process proceeds from step 111 to step 112, where the trigger flag F1 is set.

In the following step 113, the execution address and the contents of the instruction at this time are stored in the register R1. Thereafter, the process proceeds to steps 106→107→101→102→103→104, and since the rigged flag F1 has been set to 1, the process then proceeds to step 105.

In step 105, the instructions loaded in step 102 and their addresses are sequentially stored in registers R2 to R8. In the following step 200, it is checked whether the instruction and address have been stored up to register R8.
Once the instructions and addresses have been stored up to register R8, the process proceeds to step 201, where the flag [:0 and Fl are reset, and the process proceeds to step 106.

When step 201 is executed, registers RO~
In R8, the instruction one step before the trace start point mentioned above,
The instructions from 1 to the start point of the first step, the instructions for the next 7 steps, and their respective addresses are stored. This register RO
The data stored in ~R8 is displayed on the display 7A by executing the program controller 1 service process in step 101.
will be displayed. By looking at this display, the operator can accurately grasp how the control of the user program branches and changes before and after the set starting point.

Note that in the above embodiment, both the instruction address and the instruction content are displayed as monitor data, but the present invention is not limited to this, and even if only one of the instruction address and the instruction content is displayed and hidden, The effects of this invention can almost be achieved.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is an explanatory diagram of a causer program including branch instructions.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a programmable controller to which the present invention is applied, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a schematic appearance of the programmable controller 7 in FIG. 2, and FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a system program including the trace processing of the present invention executed by the CPU 5 shown in FIG. ...User program memory 2...Input/output circuit 3...Input/output memory 4...ROM 5...CPU 6...RAM 7...Program console

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) Specify the trace starting point, arbitrarily set the output number A and the number of executions N, and count the number of executions of the user command including the process of updating the data of the input number Δ. When the number of times reaches the set number N, a trace start command is issued. means for temporarily storing the content and/or the address of the user command for a predetermined step immediately and directly executed in response to the trace start command; A programmable controller comprising means for displaying the contents stored by the means.