FRICK QUANTUM CONTROL PANEL S90-500 CS
ACUair COMMUNICATIONS SETUP Page 9
Allen-Bradley Communication
To provide for the reading and writing of data to Quantum
panels using Allen-Bradley communication, the Quantum
has an Allen-Bradley DF1 communication driver that
recognizes both half-duplex and full duplex SLC 500
protected typed logical read and write commands. This is
a Leader / Follower multi-drop communication method.
The Quantum talks Allen-Bradley SLC protocol and is
setup to be an Allen-Bradley SLC500 follower station. The
customer’s PLC or DCS must be setup to initiate the
reading and writing of data to a Quantum. The Quantum’s
ID number is used as it’s station address and the target
node. With the AB PLC, the MSG (Message) instruction
is used to send read and write requests. A DCS
(Distributed Control System) will use a SLC 500 DF1
protocol driver to send protected typed logical read and
protected typed logical write requests to a Quantum.
Fifty (50) data elements can be read with one read.
Setpoints are changed by sending a write command to
one element. Be careful not to continuously request
a setpoint change. Keeping the Quantum busy
writing to an individual GCU board will interfere with
the Quantum's polling of all the GCU boards. Control
commands are also sent with a write command. For
more detail and a list of the data, reference the
“Quantum Data Table” section. For details about the
actual protocol, reference the AB publication 1770-6.5.16
“DF1 Protocol and Command Set Reference Manual”.
The Quantum can be connected to the Data Highway (DH)
by wiring the Quantum’s serial port (Com-2) to a serial
device on the DH such as an internal port of a PLC that
supports the Data Highway protocol like the SLC 5/04.
Quantum's can be on a multi-drop link (wired to other
Quantum's). If RS-422 or RS-485 is used as in a multi-
drop link, an adapter card can be used to convert an
RS-232 to an RS-422 or RS-485 serial port.
Because overrun can occur and result in the Quantum
periodically missing characters, the baud rate and
commands should be setup to produce the most desired
throughput. The leader station should have the Stop Bit
set to 1, Parity set to none, Duplicate Detect disabled, and
Error Detect set for BCC.
When communication is between either your programming
software and a Quantum or an Allen-Bradley PLC and a
Quantum on a multi-drop link, the devices depend on a
DF1 Leader to give each of them polling permission to
transmit in a timely manner. As the number of Quantum
followers increase on the link, the time between when
the Quantum is polled also increases. This increase, in
time, may become larger if you are using low baud
rates. As these time periods grow, the timeouts,
such as the message timeout, poll timeout, and
reply timeout may need to be changed to avoid loss of
communication.
ACK Timeout - The amount of time in 20 milliseconds
increments that you want the processor to wait for an
acknowledgment to the message it has sent before the
processor retries the message or the message errors out.
Reply Message Wait Time - Define the amount of time in
20 millisecond increments that the leader station will wait
after receiving an ACK (to a leader-initiate message)
before polling the remote station for a reply. Choose a
time that is, at minimum, equal to the longest time that a
remote station needs to format a reply packet. Some
remote stations can format reply packets faster than
others.
Message Timeout - Defines the amount of time in
seconds that the message will wait for a reply. If this time
elapses without a reply, the error bit is set, indicating that
the instruction timed out. A timeout of 0 seconds means
that there is no timer and the message will wait indefinitely
for a reply. Valid range 0-255 seconds.
Note: Make sure the Allen-Bradley PLC and the
programming software is the most recent software
revision. Some revisions have been made that affect
doing the SLC Typed Logical Read/Write Message
Command.
SLC-500 - Suggested Setup
Channel Configuration
Configure the communication channel – Channel 0:
Current Communication Mode: System
Communication Driver: DF1 Half-Duplex Leader or DF1
Full-Duplex
Baud Rate: 4800 (suggested)
Stop Bits: 1
Duplicate Detect: Disabled
ACK Timeout (x20ms): 30
Message Retries: 3
Parity: None
Station Address (Source ID): 5 (Leader's DF1 selected
ID#)
Error Detect: BCC
RTS off Delay (x20ms): 0
RTS Send Delay (x20ms): 0
Pre-Send Time Delay (x1 ms): 0
Control Line: No Handshaking
Polling Mode: Message Based (do not allow follower to
initiate messages)
Priority Polling Range - Low: 255, High: 0
Normal Polling Range - Low: 255, High: 0
Normal Poll Group Size: 0
Reply Message Wait Time (x20ms): 20
System Mode Driver: DF1 Half-Duplex Leader or DF1 Full-
Duplex
User Mode Driver: Generic ASCII
Write Protect: DISABLED
Mode Changes: DISABLED
Mode Attention Character: \0x1b (default)
System Mode Character: S (default)
User Mode Character: U (default)
Edit Resource/File Owner Timeout (Sec): 60
Passthru Link ID (decimal): 1
Read Message Setup Example
Read/Write Message
Type: Peer-To-Peer
Read/Write: Read
Target Device: 500 CPU
Local/Remote: Local
Control Block: N11:0
Control Block Length: 14
Channel: 0
Target Node: 2 (002) (this is Quantum’s Panel ID)
Local File Address: N12:0
Target File Address/Offset: N10:0
Message Length in Elements: 50