Hello everyone.

I have been making a programme on trial version of Twincat and now it is almost ready. (It is a translation of an old programme of mine running well on some machines with an Omron CJ1m PLC).

Now I have to chose what CPU system will I go to use.
I make "Rebuild all" on Twincat with the following configurations:
- Target system type: BCxx50 or BX;
- Work space: Controler settings: BX5100.

When I make "rebuild all" it says:
- POU indices: 187 (73 %);
- Size of used data: 3449 bytes (21,05 %);
- Size of used retain data: 886 bytes(43,26 %);
- Code size: 91 624 bytes;
- 0 errors / 65 warnings; (warnings are not a problem in my application).

It seems the BX 5100 is enough to run my programme. In my application, I need to use a CANopen slave connection and an HMI connection. My question is: How can I connect an HMI to the BX 5100?

On beckhoff web page, it is written on BX 5100 section the following lines:
"Further peripheral devices, e.g. displays, can be connected via the integrated Beckhoff Smart System Bus (SSB)."
Can I use the SSB port to connect an HMI? What Kind of HMI?

When I run this programme on Omron PLC, I use the Omron NS HMI with the exclusive NT-link protocol of Omron. Using the same mark in PLC and HMI, I can easily make the HMI programme, since The HMI programme uses the same adresses used on the PLC.

On twincat, I have my programme developed not with addresses, but with declared variables.

What I would like to find was a touch panel display, where I could make my HMI programme using the same variables used on my twincat Programme. Is the SSB port the solution? And what kind on HMI shall I use?
Or is there a better solution than this one?

Thank you very much.

Marco Nunes

Hi Marco,

The SSB port is a simple CANopen Master. The details about this port are shown in the Beckhoff Information System, here...
http://infosys.beckhoff.com/content/1033/b...onfig%20ssb.htm

Are you using the Serial port for programmimng the device, or programming over the CANopen Slave interface? If the serial port is not in use, then you could connect to the HMI using Modbus RTU. There is sample code for that here...
http://infosys.beckhoff.com/content/1033/b...odbusmaster.htm



TwinCAT's Visualization also shares the variable names with the PLC Code, but it requires at least one processor level up, a CX9000, to run. The Visualization supplement is documented here...
http://infosys.beckhoff.com/content/1033/t...mi_ce_intro.htm

You can try out the visualizations in PLC Control for free, just set them up in the Visualization tab of the POU navigation tree (Third tab on the bottom). If you like these screeens, they can be deployed on a CX9001 or higher processor by purchasing the software supplement described above. This CX processor would have to be connected to a simple display, not a full blown HMI, just the display and touschreen, something like this...
http://www.beckhoffautomation.com/english/...d=1985944102777



I think the CX9001 would be a more elegant solution, but by way of "full disclosure" I do work for Beckhoff.