Create a node status object

The node status object

To monitor the communication status of each individual node in an IGSS installation, we recommend that you create a node status object. 7T recommends that you create a separate diagram showing your PLC network . You will thus get a quick overview of the communication status for all PLCs.

If the node status alarm occurs, the corresponding PLC icon will blink with the alarm color and the communication alarm will occur as an error code in the Value field of the Alarm module.

Example: Node status object for the Generic TCP/IP driver (ID 34)

In the procedure below we define a node status object to monitor a PLC (node no. 0) which uses the Generic TCP/IP driver.

We use a rectangular field which is shown on top of the PLC icon. You can, however, freely choose any descriptor (graphical display) for a node status object.

Right-click at the position where you want the node status object to appear. In the pop-up menu, select New and then Rectangular Field.

In the Object Browser dialog box, click the + sign beside Global.

Select Analog as the object type.

In the Create new object section at the bottom of the dialog box, name the object as follows.
Separate elements with a period:

Node.[Station ID].[Driver ID].[Node number]

and click Create.

where:

Node must always be the first part of the object name.
[Station ID] is the ID for the IGSS station. A server or an ordinary operator station (without PLC connections) will always get ID 0. However, each operator station running a distributed driver will be allocated a unique number starting with ID 1.
You can view the station ID in the System Configuration program on the Station tab in the ID field.
This part of the name is only required, if you are using distributed drivers.
[Driver ID] is the unique ID of the PLC driver used. Find the driver ID here (Web link). or alternatively start the System Configuration program and find the ID in the dialog box where you add a new driver.
[Node number] is the node number you have assigned to the PLC in System Configuration

An object named Node.0.34.0 will monitor node number 0 defined for the Generic TCP/IP Driver (Driver ID = 34) on a server or ordinary operator station (Station ID = 0).

On the Edit Mapping tab, do the following:

In the Atom section, clear all atoms except High Alarm and Actual Value.

Select the High Alarm atom. Under I/O mode select local in the drop down box.

In the Alarm Details section, click the New button to create an alarm text, for instance "Communication error on node 0"; when finished click OK.

Select the Actual value atom. Under I/O mode select local in the drop down box.

Go to the Analog tab and do the following:

If the setting Validate input values against range is enabled in the System Configuration program (Data Collection tab), enter the highest possible value 65535 in the Max. field. Otherwise this setting is irrelevant.
Give High Alarm the limit of 1. If the communication with the node fails, an actual value higher than 0 is registered, thus triggering the alarm.
Enter 0 as the initial value in the Actual Value field.

Click OK.

Position the rectangular field and the texts, as required.

Install the configuration and run it from the IGSS Starter program.

If the communication fails, the alarm will appear and the error code will appear in the Value field of the Alarm List.