2. CX Programmer Introduction to CX Programmer

Transcription

1 2. CX Programmer 2.1. Introduction to CX Programmer To program PLC controllers and other programmable devices made by Omron, a company pack of software called CX-One is used. One of its elements is a program called CX-Programmer shown in Figure 2.1, which currently is a standard PLC programmer for the Omron company. Figure 2.1. Main elements of CX-Programmer application 6

2 An undervalued advantage of the package is access to a simulator. In the simulator all instructions of a given PLC have been implemented. Together with the simulation of the touch screen panel included in the package (created in CX-Designer) it enables creating a fully equipped simulator mode: the interface (panel simulator) connected with the controller simulator runs in real time. In companies engaged in industrial automatics, due to economical reasons, older version of this type of software can be found. They are called SysWin, but new PLC versions cannot be programmed with SysWin. CX-One in an educational version (without any activation key) which can be downloaded for free from the publisher's website (permission granted by the Omron representative in Poland). CX-One can be used to program all kinds of Omron controllers, e.g.: CJ, CS series. The main restriction in the educational version is lack of possibility to make the code bigger than 2k steps. This version cannot be used to conduct commercial activity Creating a new project To create a new project choose File New, which is also available on the toolbar (Figure 2.2). A dialogue window that appears allows you to name the project, choose the correct type of the PLC controller and adjust the parameters of PC PLC communication. In this case we choose the CJ1M controller. Communication options are not significant as long as we use a built-in simulator. As an example, we will create a program which turns on the lamp when the Start button is pressed, and turns off the lamp after pressing the Stop button. Figure 2.2. Creating a new project 7

3 First of all, we put New contact from the diagram toolbar (or press C on the keyboard). We name it Start and attach an address to it: Figure 2.3. CX-Programmer window Then we choose a New PLC Instruction (press I). First we need to choose the instruction by entering its abbreviation, in our case SET (it turns on the specific bit) and then we enter the name of the bit which should be turned on: Add1. We press OK, and in the newly opened dialogue window, we write the address of the bit, e.g.: Figure 2.4. CX-Programmer window 8

4 To go to the next line we press arrow down key. Now we put Stop with the address e.g.:1.03, and the RSET instruction which turns off our bit Add1. In the last line we finally put the contact Add1, with the same address we chose using the SET and RSET functions: In the last step we address the output by using the New Coil button (or press O). In order to perform a simulation we use the Work On-line Simulator button (or press Ctrl + Shift + W). Our program is transferred automatically to the virtual PLC and we can enjoy programming without hardware. To turn on the Start contact we must double click the left contact and enter value 1. It turns on the SET instruction and our lamp is on. To turn off the lamp we need to 'press' the stop button, so we double click the left stop contact and enter value 1 (Fig ). To finish the simulation we simply press the Work On-line Simulator button again Software configuration The way of changing the most useful options is shown in Figure 2.5. Figure 2.5. Options window - Ladder Information 9

5 When a new project is created, configuration of the programming environment can be performed. Standard options allow to program controllers easily but it is also possible to adjust the user environment to one's preferences. The configuration option available in menu Tools Options allows to change appearance, the number of projected components, fonts, type of a default PLC controller and many more. Some elements of the configuration, except for the bookmark Diagrams in the Options window, are also available on toolbars. Figure 2.6. Options window - diagrams Settings available in the Ladder Information bookmark in the Options window (Fig ) should be chosen in the way which enables us to document the work and make it easier to work. Options which are available there allow us to determine the number of projected information and its position on the ladder scheme. The Appearance bookmark in the Options window affects the way of appearance of the ladder scheme elements. While changing these elements attention should be paid to the On/Off line mode. It is important to note the differences between them it may make turning on programs (finding mistakes) more difficult. Meanings of particular parameters of Diagrams are shown in Figure 2.6. An easy method of getting to know their way of functioning is to create a short ladder scheme with lines and program comments and to define identity (variables names) and eventually one by one turning on particular options. 10