Devices On Device Net

[BobB]

After Eddie's little pieces about extracting data from an AB Powermonitor 3000, and my reply about explicit messaging in a Omron PLC to get data into the right order, I made a comment about trying Pepperl & Fuchs absolute rotary encoders on Device Net. Very easy to use, but there is not a lot of data in these things. Direct reads into a channel. Omron CS1 PLC again, and, thankfully, Omrons latest Device Net configurator software. The first one was a bit of a dog. Only problem I had is I used some old C200H Alpha Device Net cards. Had them in stock and was not going to waste them. This meant using a PCMCIA card interface to the Device Net network. Guess what? Just bought a new laptop and it came with XP. The PCMCIA card does not work with XP or 2000. Had to go back to square one and install 98 for it to work. Hewlett Packard supply great laptops but their own operating system disks and they will only restore the laptop to factory original. Not going out to buy XP, so, redo laptop with 98 and 2000 dual boot system. PCMCIA card works first time in 98 (lucky). Found you can change resolution per rev and total resolution in the encoder. Now reading a total of 60 per rev - easy to convert to 600 mm of wire cable gone down the chute. The setup works a treat but not really useful for fast moving machinery - it is too slow for that. Would suggest high speed counter interface if speed is an issue when positioning machine heads etc. Now looking forward to next time when I can use the Omron CS1 or CJ1 Device Net card. No interface cards or anything - just use the standard programming port to program the scanner module through the CPU. Does not get much better than that.

[Jay Anthony]

Yeah it does. Try it across ethernet!