The view allows you to create connections to your controllers or higher level systems. By default, the view is empty. Right-click within the view to open the dialog box for selecting the communication protocol for your connection.
Select a communication protocol and an entry will be displayed in the view for this connection.
By default, the following communication protocols are supported:
Address-based communication protocols:
Tag-based communication protocols:
Messages-based communication protocols:
For a detailed description on how to configure an OPC UA connection, refer to the EcoStruxure Machine Expert Twin How to Use Device Catalogs User Guide.
In general, configure a connection in two steps:
Select the row in the list of the view and configure the corresponding settings in the view.
Right-click the row in the list of the view to open the contextual menu providing the following commands, depending on the connection type:
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Command |
Description |
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Connects / disconnects all controllers simultaneously providing you have entered an IP address for each connection. |
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Connects to / disconnects from the selected controller. |
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Only available when an OPC UA connection to a PacDrive LMC or a Modicon M262 Motion Controller(TM262M25MESS8T, TM262M35MESS8T) is established. |
Reads the settings made in the DigitalTwinCommunication library and displays a 3-D digital twin of your machine in the view. The connection from EcoStruxure Machine Expert Twin to the controller is using a handshake mechanism to acknowledge that event data was received and ensure consistent information is displayed in the view (single-instance mode). In the case of multiple connections from EcoStruxure Machine Expert Twin to the same controller, the primary connection is verifying the data exchange by the handshake mechanism. Further connections are working in multi-instance mode, and can process event data simultaneously, but the handshake mechanism is not used for multiple connections. In few cases, under high utilization of the communication bandwidth, full transmission of events may not be possible, and might result in events not being displayed in the instances using multi-instance mode. For further information, refer to the EcoStruxure Machine Expert DigitalTwinCommunication Library Guide. |
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Only available when an OPC UA connection to a PacDrive LMC or a Modicon M262 Motion Controller (TM262M25MESS8T, TM262M35MESS8T) is established. |
Removes all assemblies and loads generated from this connection from the view. For further information, refer to the EcoStruxure Machine Expert DigitalTwinCommunication Library Guide. |
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Listens to / disconnects from the selected server. The communication protocols and TCP/IP can act as server or client depending on the configuration in the view. |
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Logs the messages sent by the controller and displays them in the view. |
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If logging is enabled on the controller, text files (*.txt) are created in your local Windows user directory: %localappdata%\Schneider Electric\Machine Expert Twin\1\Work\Logs The log files are updated when the project is closed. With this option selected, the log files are cleared when the project is opened. |
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Imports the addresses from an Excel file to the controller. |
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Exports the addresses from the controller to an Excel file. |
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Opens the dialog box that allows you to set alarms and which error messages they will display. For further information, refer to the description of the Alarm Scheme Dialog Box. |
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Deletes the connection. |
In the section, right-click on a connection and select to display the dialog box.
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Column |
Description |
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Select whether or not the alarm is activated. |
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These parameters define the address of the alarm. |
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Enter the description for the alarm. |
If the data exchange to the controller is address-based, add alarms when the controller is not connected. If the data exchange is tag-based, add alarms when the controller is connected. Also refer to the description of the view.