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3 Sinamics G120 drives with OPC Server using Profibus/DP/FML

Created by: 0_Einstein at: 10/28/2011 5:52 PM (7 Replies)

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10/28/2011 5:52 PM	Rate (0)
0_Einstein Diamond Member Joined: 7/7/2010 Last visit: 12/4/2023 Posts: 13964 Rating: (2278)	Searched the FAQs, and forums and came up empty. I have 3 Sinamics G120 drives with CU240S-DP-F control units connected to a PC with CP-5611. Need OPC Server to be able to control speeds/ramp rates and read current speed, faults, and other status variables. I know if I purchase an S7 license that I can access them via DB variables. How do I configure the OPC server on the PC to communicate via DP/FML (Fieldbus/Profibus) to perform those same functions? The OPC Scout sees the drives and when I configured everything with S7, the drives showed up, and so did the nag screen about the need for a license. 1. The requirement for an S7 license to talk to Siemens drives with Siemens PCIe card using Siemens OPC Server seems ridiculous to me. 2. The documentation for configuring the OPC Server seems lacking, though once you get an error, it will tell you very precisely what you have done wrong. Seems to be thousands of ways you can do it wrong! As an FYI, a Siemens rep stated quite emphatically that no license was required to communicate via the DP protocol and the DP protocol would communicate via OPC server and meet the needs. What they failed to say was "how". Thanks in advance for any help or pointers.
	science guy
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11/1/2011 1:50 PM	Rate (0)
0_Einstein Diamond Member Joined: 7/7/2010 Last visit: 12/4/2023 Posts: 13964 Rating: (2278)	My local Siemens Applications Engineer forwarded the attached. I did the configurations as much as made sense for my specific application and data seems to be available, but what data is where and how to access it via OPC server is still kind of unknown. Suggestions are still welcome. Attachment PDF_MM4_G120_Zykl_Azykl_en_V2.pdf (279 Downloads)
	science guy
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11/11/2011 7:05 AM	Rate (0)
0_Einstein Diamond Member Joined: 7/7/2010 Last visit: 12/4/2023 Posts: 13964 Rating: (2278)	Bumping thread as I still have no functional OPC Server. Abandoned DP and switched to S7 protocol but that doesn't communicate at all. DP at least gives me some data. It just does not give me many options for the data I can capture, or at least it seems to be the case. Anyone have a FAQ that works for S7 protocol and G120 drives with the SIMATIC NET OPC server?
	science guy
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11/15/2011 2:54 PM	Rate (0)
0_Einstein Diamond Member Joined: 7/7/2010 Last visit: 12/4/2023 Posts: 13964 Rating: (2278)	With 178 views, and still no solution, perhaps others also want to know how to do this. Is there no resource for something so normal for an OPC server?
	science guy
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11/16/2011 11:26 PM	Rate (0)
0_Einstein Diamond Member Joined: 7/7/2010 Last visit: 12/4/2023 Posts: 13964 Rating: (2278)	Ok, made some progress while working with G120 Drive specialists AND OPC Server specialists via telephone and webex remote computer control services. DP protocol allows for automatically updated (cyclic) data using preconfigured "telegrams" for receive and transmit. It is a fast protocol with little overhead, but if the parameters you need to read/write are not in the 'approved' list, you cannot use this - as is the case for my applications. S7 protocol allows for acyclic (on demand) data read/write directly to/from parameters. Getting this stuff configured is not simple and nobody knows the answer (yet). The support group is hooking up a G120 to an OPC server and will figure out the connectivity and show me how it works. Maybe they will generate a how-to-do-it document and post it for everyone.......... If not, I will put something together that can help with the sticky points. Right now, I only know what solution I need (S7), and what data I need. The missing pieces are seemingly undocumented at this time.
	science guy
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11/21/2011 2:01 PM	Rate (0)
0_Einstein Diamond Member Joined: 7/7/2010 Last visit: 12/4/2023 Posts: 13964 Rating: (2278)	While waiting for an answer, I get this from US Siemens Tech Support - theyattempted to get G120 and OPC server working using S7 protocol. Failed. Turned the problem over to Germany Siemens Engineers to figure out. Still waiting.
	science guy
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11/29/2011 8:23 PM	Rate (0)
0_Einstein Diamond Member Joined: 7/7/2010 Last visit: 12/4/2023 Posts: 13964 Rating: (2278)	Siemens USA Tech Support is still waiting on corporate Siemens support for an answer. I am working around the problem using standard Telegrams with cyclic data and OPC. It is still not simple to figure out but at least data does flow both to/from drive. At least the USA Tech Support could get me that far :)
	science guy
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2/3/2012 3:24 PM	Rate (1)
0_Einstein Diamond Member Joined: 7/7/2010 Last visit: 12/4/2023 Posts: 13964 Rating: (2278)	To close out this topic, as of the current release of OPC and FW for the G120 CUs, OPC does not work for S7 communications, only cyclic updates. The G120/CU I used can communicate via S7, just not via OPC. We are currently developing a PC application DLL or control interface that will communicate via S7 to G120/S120 drives via profinet. That will save us the trouble of 1) purchasing a profibus adapter, 2) purchasing an OPC license for SIMATIC DP, 3)limitations of cyclic telegram data. For this project, a variable ramp rate was not required, and we were able to fine tune OPC to 10 ms cyclic update rates. That combination made it "ok". Going forward, we hope to move towards profinet CUs and communicate directly to the drives using S7 communications using acylic data exchange (on-demand).
	science guy
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