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Safety M580 offline configuration in OFS

Domenico

Hello guys, I successfully configured a connection from Citect to a M580 Safety PLC by using the OFS. I imported the *.xvm file in the OFS and while the PLC is on line everything seems to work. The question now is: how I can manage citect configuration update  (eg. tag addition, deletion,...) if the PLC is not phisically available? The M580 soon or late will be shipped on final site so it will not longer available in my lab, so I wonder how I can modify the citect tag database if  the M580 is not phisically in my hands. I know that it is possible to load the PLC application to the Control Expert simulator, but this means that I need an instance of such software installed on the SCADA development station so, at the end, it is possible to develop a citect application WITHOUT the M580 PLC and WITHOUT the Control Expert software?

In addition, since the M580 configuration I developed is a safety application, it has 2 application programs inside: 1 for the standard PROCESS and 1 for the SAFE copro; this means that I have two *.xvm files (standard+safe) while in the OFS configuration I can load 1 file for each alias. There is a way to merge the process and safe xvm in one single file? If not I need to configure 2 alias for each safety M580 in order to load two separated xvm files or it is possible to "force" two xvm in one alias?

Thank you

  • Hi Domenico,

    For the tag database you can keep using the same method as you do now. When using XVM files with OFS I believe there is no need for a PLC connection to import the tags in Citect.

    If you want to test the applications, you can use the PLC simulator on the SCADA machine or on any PC on the same network and configure OFS to connect to that PC as you would do with the real PLC. I usually configure the PLC address in OFS as a host name instead of a IP address, and modify my Windows hosts file to point that host name to the correct IP address.

    You also don't have to install the complete Control Expert suite to run the simulator, just copy the PLC simulator folder to your SCADA PC or any PC you want and run Sim.exe. You can transfer your PLC application as you normally would do using your Control Expert development machine.

    I'm working at a client site with a large development environment set up like this using virtual machines. They have about 25 development machines for creating and testing PLC and/or SCADA apps and they have about 50 small VMs just running PLC simulators to do dry testing and FATs.

    For the safety application I must admit that I'm not too familiar with those setups. I would have thought that it was only possible to interface to the PROCESS application anyway. And I'm not sure if the PLC simulator supports safety applications at all.

    Hope this helps a bit.

    Best regards,
    Patrick

  • Hi Patrick and thank you for your help!

    Knowing that the simulator is portable among different PC is very handy and give a big help during the development and test phase; thanks to your suggestion I just tested it on 3 sistems without any perticoular problems.

    I better investigated the xvm file usage in the OFS and essentially I can use it in off line mode just clearing the "Using Data Dictionary" option in the Alias configuration:

    By selecting "Using Data Dictionary" option the OFS reads the tag configuration directly from the PLC instead, so we need the phisical CPU (or simulator) in order to complete the citect configuration.

    In addition I discovered that a complete xvm file both with the process and safe tags is automatically created by the Control Expert once the software is compiled and downloaded to the PLC. You have to tick the option "save XVM" in the project settings:

    the auto created xvm file is saved in the directory C:\Users\Public\Documents\Schneider Electric\Control Expert 14.1\  (depending on the Control Expert version)

    At last, I can confirm you that even the SAFE application runs on the simulator.

    Thank you again for your help.

    D

  • Hi Domenico,

    You're welcome, and thank you for letting me know about the simulator running safety apps. Now I have also learned something from this.

    BTW, I assumed you already used the XVM files offline in OFS by unchecking the data dictionary tick box. I'm glad you figured it out by yourself.

    Regards,
    Patrick
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