Hello everyone,

I am struggling to communicate with a flow sensor from Keyence. I can see the flow reading from it on my PLC's input but I need to read and write parameters to the sensor with the program. I am using the IO_LINK_DEVICE FB from this library: https://support.industry.siemens.com/cs/ww/en/view/82981502 

With the FB, I can read 12 bytes which correspond to the common parameters in the PCT. No matter what index I tell it to read, it only gives me values for those 12 parameters. Writing doesn't seem to work at all. I am not using PCT to configure the sensor. I have only used it to look at the device's parameters from its IODD file. I am not sure if I need to use PCT for my application or if I am doing something incorrectly in TIA Portal.

Here is a list of my hardware:

- Siemens S7-1500 (6ES7511-1AK02-0AB0)

- Siemens Scalance XB208 (6GK5 208-0BA00-2AB2)

- Siemens Simatic ET 200SP IM 155-6PN HF (6ES7155-6AU00-0CN0) with BA 2xRJ45 (6ES7193-6AR00-0CN0)

- CM 4xIO Link (6ES7137-6BD00-0BA0)

- Keyence FD-XA1 Flow Sensor

I am using TIA Portal V15.

I appreciate any help in solving my issue.

Thank you for your time,

Kevin

Hello Kevin;

Siemens has developed S7-PCT for exactly that purpose.

S7-PCT V3.5 SP1 for IO-Link Master (download)

https://support.industry.siemens.com/cs/ww/en/view/32469496

SIMATIC IO-Link system (manual)

https://support.industry.siemens.com/cs/ww/en/view/65949252

S7-PCT will also allow you to monitor IO-Link process data.

Hope this helps,

Daniel Chartier

I figured out what I was doing wrong. I'd like to explain it on here in case someone else has the same problem.

Keyence Support misled me by thinking that the Subindex value was the one that would write a value to the sensor's parameter. It turns out that I actually needed to put the value in a byte of the IO Link Device block's array. The Subindex needed the number of the byte which then sent the value to the Index. 

For example, if I want to write to Index 102 on the sensor with a value of 5 from the array's byte 0, I would give the following block parameters these values:

Index := 102;

Subindex := 0;

RECORD_IOL_DATA[0] := 5;

Reading from the sensor is even simpler since I don't have to specify anything in the array. I can just monitor it after the read to see the data.

I hope this helps someone since it wasn't very clear to me from the manual.

Hey Kevin,

could you maybe go into a bit more detail on how you were able to read data from the sensor. Funny enough, I am in the exact same situation (sensor and all). Could you maybe also explain how you converted the byte values to Real?

Thank you very much! Your help would be highly appreciated.

Best

Nico

sollichn

Hey Kevin,

could you maybe go into a bit more detail on how you were able to read data from the sensor. Funny enough, I am in the exact same situation (sensor and all). Could you maybe also explain how you converted the byte values to Real?

Thank you very much! Your help would be highly appreciated.

Best

Nico

Hi Nico,

The sensor's data is being read through an IO-Link card with assigned addresses. By looking at these addresses, I can directly observe the flow meter's readings.

You shouldn't need to convert any data types yourself. You simply provide the FB a value as a byte. This byte is part of the array that makes up the communication to and from the meter.

Let me know if I can help clarify anything else.