Hi all,

I have to establish a PROFINET connection between a Beckhoff PLC as master and S7 1200 as slave. 

What I am interested in:

1. to be able to reach S7 1200 from my Beckhoff PLC, I need to generate a gsd file for the Siemens controller defined as I-device and with all the transfer areas defined. But I cannot download this type of configuration to my Siemens PLC because it will fault since I don't have a master defined. So I shouldn't download this config to my Siemens PLC? Just generate the gsd with a config like this and import it in Bekchoff? How will my Siemens PLC then now that it's supposed to be a slave and which areas it should share?

2. Assuming we get number 1 solved, I would like to transfer data. Since it's S7 1200 I believe we can only transfer I and O, data exchange is not possible since we don't have the functions PRVREC and RCVREC available for S7 1200? Or?

Thank you very much for your help!

Thank you for your answer.

1) I have attached the fault. It says module exists faulty. 

2) You are able to communicate with exchanging inputs and outputs (let's call them physical signals). But not data blocks, such as statuses or variable values. Or do I have something figured out wrong?

1) I have attached it. It says we have IO device failure

2) Thank you! 

ChristophD, thank you for your help.

The fault is normal. I don't have anything connected to the slave yet, meaning my master PLC...This will cause the fault to pop up right? And once all the HW is physically connected as it is supposed to be the fault will clear

I got it working, communicating in both ways. I'll write a short description here of the steps I did so if someone bumps into this they can find help here on one place:

As stated earlier, I was supposed to communicate via ProfiNET with Beckhoff PLC as master and Siemens S7 1200 as slave.

On Siemens side:
- under Properties of Device -> ProfiNET interface -> operating mode -> define device as IO and define the transfer areas (these addresses are virtual, basically just define as many areas as you need to transfer all the data you need)
- generate gsd file
- download this config to PLC
- you will have a red error light flashing until you have the whole communication set up properly (everything on the master side needs to be configured as well)

On Beckhoff side:
- import the gsd file (that you generated in Siemens) in folder TwinCAT/IO/Profinet
- in TwinCAT System Manager -> IO device -> Append -> add ProfiNET and scan the boxes. A device will be added. Make sure that the stationname and the IP config correspond to the ones in Siemens! If not, you won't be able to communicate
- assign the inputs and outputs and activate the configuration. After this everything should be green :) And the red error LED on Siemens should go out as well