Working with an Anybus Communication 7072

kyle_HMS · May 13, 2019, 6:19pm

From customer:

Hi,

I am working with an Anybus Communication 7072. I am trying to connect an industrial robot to a tig welder. my robot has ethernet/ip scanner/adapter and the welder has modbus rtu (RS 485). I have spent about 3 days trying have any sort of communication between the AB7072 and the welder. Robot to AB7072 via Ethernet/IP was quick and easy but modbus portion not so much. I have tried multiple things with no luck. if there is a way to get even a ping across to make sure i am communicating, then i can use that to start mapping my data. While doing some research, i came across a document that said that resistors were to be placed on the master side and the slave side. if this is true, what value of resistor should i use? (60, 120, 470 ohm are the common ones i have seen) Any help is much appreciated.

Best Regards

Josey

kyle_HMS · May 13, 2019, 7:08pm

Hi Josey,

No, you do not need resistors in this case and you won’t be able to send a ping from the robot to the welder because this is not a transparent gateway. It allows the ethernet master to read data from a modbus device.

The product page is here and there is a good diagram and description of how the data exchange works here. There are a lot of resources on the product page that can help you build a configuration, but first you will want to make sure you have the correct device for your application.

What exactly are you trying to configure the devices to do? What are the LED lights on the Anybus doing at the moment?

Kyle

josey.varughese · May 13, 2019, 6:45pm

Hi Kyle,

Are you handling this ticket or should I wait for that person to contact me? I am in a bind. I have till EOB tomorrow to resolve this issue before I head out to the customer.

Sincerely,

Josey

system · May 13, 2019, 7:09pm

kyle_HMS · May 13, 2019, 7:10pm

I can help. Can you provide some more info about the issue? Are you replacing the Anybus? Is this a new build?

josey.varughese · May 13, 2019, 8:11pm

Hey,

I am attached the configuration file as well as the Modbus datasheet for the welder. I have setup the AB gateway with the right info for the slave device. Added a command to write a single coil to the device.

Status lights on AB7072-B

RTT_Mbus_test3.cfg (16 KB)

MillerModbus.pdf (147 KB)

kyle_HMS · May 13, 2019, 9:17pm

Hi Josey,

I see you wrote “Status lights on AB7072-B” but there was nothing after that, so I’m guessing you tried to sent a picture and it didn’t go through? Please try again and keep in mind it’s important to know if the lights are solid or flashing as well.

Are you using the serial RJ11 to DB9 cable that comes with the device, to connect to it with the ABCM (Anybus Configuration Manager) software?

In the manual on page 3, where it says 5. Modbus Slave Configuration, it looks like there is a dial where you configure the serial settings. Have you gone through and confirmed that everything matches in the ABCM, including the node address? It also mentions that there are different modbus slave configurations, what’s it currently on?

Do you need to both read and write to the welder, change the values in it’s memory? Like, are you trying to send commands to it or just get information from it?

If you can answer those questions, we can probably get this figured out in the morning. We may need to call you though so if you can let us know a phone number and good time to call, that will help. We are open 8 am to 5 pm EST.

Thanks,

Kyle

josey.varughese · May 13, 2019, 9:36pm

Hey Kyle,

See my response below in red.

Sincerely,

Josey

kyle_HMS · May 14, 2019, 12:35pm

There is no response in red, all I got was this:

josey.varughese · May 14, 2019, 1:16pm

Hey I am hoping this comes thru.

kyle_HMS · May 14, 2019, 1:40pm

This is all I got:

What are you trying to send? Try going directly to our support message board here where you can post directly and avoid whatever is stripping info from your emails. You can attach files, pictures, etc.

Kyle

josey.varughese · May 14, 2019, 2:43pm

I see you wrote “Status lights on AB7072-B” but there was nothing after that, so I’m guessing you tried to sent a picture and it didn’t go through? Please try again and keep in mind it’s important to know if the lights are solid or flashing as well.

Status lights on AB7072-B

Solid Green

Solid Green

Flashing Green

Off

Red

Flashing Green

Are you using the serial RJ11 to DB9 cable that comes with the device, to connect to it with the ABCM (Anybus Configuration Manager) software?

Yes

In the manual on page 3, where it says 5. Modbus Slave Configuration, it looks like there is a dial where you configure the serial settings. Have you gone through and confirmed that everything matches in the ABCM, including the node address?

Yes. All settings match ABCM.

It also mentions that there are different modbus slave configurations, what’s it currently on?

Slave Address – 1
Baud Rate – 19200
Parity - Even

Do you need to both read and write to the welder, change the values in it’s memory? Like, are you trying to send commands to it or just get information from it?

Both I need to read and write. So basically, I need to turn the gas on, weld on and then control the amperage at different places during the weld and then turn them all off at the end of the weld. Gas, weld, etc, I should be able to send a bit over and turn on.

kyle_HMS · May 14, 2019, 4:13pm

It looks like your configuration is right, except there is a problem with the transaction. It looks like you are trying to write to the bit to turn the gas on. If the write single bit command isn’t working you may have to try write multiple bits command, but only give it the one bit. Like in the attached cfg file. hms_Mbus_test3.cfg (16.0 KB)

josey.varughese · May 15, 2019, 12:31pm

Cool. that worked like a charm. Could you help me out with the analog output. Specifically, PDU 6304. i am able to read that register but i am unable to write to it.hms_Mbus_test4.cfg (16.0 KB)

kyle_HMS · May 15, 2019, 1:29pm

I believe the problem is that you are trying to write to a read only register.

josey.varughese · May 15, 2019, 3:29pm

I thought holding registers are supposed to be both read and write?

kyle_HMS · May 15, 2019, 3:39pm

Sorry, you’re right. This is for Weld Amperage?

Have you tried changing the Data Length here to 1?

kyle_HMS · May 15, 2019, 3:53pm

Sorry that’s not right either. Are you getting a response or exception code?

kyle_HMS · May 15, 2019, 6:35pm

So looking in the Welder doc, 6304 shows:

*,***Weld Amperage(DC or AC), Preset Amps Min - PS Amps Max, Res: 1A

If we go way back to page 4, we can find out what those asterisks mean:

So you may have been doing it right, but it’s more complicated than just writing to the register as certain registers are related and affect each others values.

josey.varughese · May 15, 2019, 6:38pm

I figured it out. for some reason it had to have 2 bytes and the data had to be swapped. do you know why the write single coil takes 2 bytes to trigger it on when it is a single bit coil? also is there a way to export the data map into a file (ie csv, excel, etc)? hopefully there is a way to do that

Thank you