'Devices' window (Bus Navigator)

 

This topic contains information on the following:

Purpose of the Bus Navigator

The Bus Navigator is visible in the 'Devices' window. Select 'Project > Devices' to show/hide the window.

The 'Devices' window contains the bus configuration which belongs to the safety-related project. The bus configuration has been created by the application engineer when designing the bus structure in EcoStruxure Machine Expert. Normally, this bus project contains safety-related and standard devices.

Transfer of device list and process data items

After starting EcoStruxure Machine Expert - Safety from EcoStruxure Machine Expert (by selecting 'EcoStruxure Machine Expert - Safety  > Start EcoStruxure Machine Expert - Safety' from the context menu of the Safety Logic Controller icon in the EcoStruxure Machine Expert Devices tree), the corresponding safety-related project is automatically loaded in EcoStruxure Machine Expert - Safety and the bus structure is automati­cally imported into the EcoStruxure Machine Expert - Safety 'Devices' window.

The safety-related devices involved are visible as device tree nodes in the 'Devices' window. Each device terminal can be dragged as process data item from the device tree into a EcoStruxure Machine Expert - Safety code worksheet thus creating a related global I/O variable.

NOTE:

Safety-related devices (bus nodes) that are connected to the bus but have not been inserted to the bus project in EcoStruxure Machine Expert are treated as follows:

  • The devices are considered as "not configured" and are therefore not imported to EcoStruxure Machine Expert - Safety. They cannot be used in the safety-related project.

  • The "unconfigured" safety-related devices always remain in the defined safe-state and cannot become active at the bus.

In the 'Devices' window (Bus Navigator) you can

What happens with the bus and device related data?

When compiling the project in EcoStruxure Machine Expert - Safety, a parameterization file is generated from the device/parameterization data. This file is part of the project downloaded to the Safety Logic Controller. The implementation of the Bus Navigator is illustrated below:

BusNavigator_Overview_SE.png

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Structure of the Bus Navigator

The Bus Navigator in the 'Devices' window is composed of two panes.

Sorting devices/terminals in the devices tree

The devices tree acts as a grid at the same time: on the left, device nodes can be expanded and collapsed as known from a tree while details on each item are provided in grid-form to the right of the tree.

The entries in the grid can be sorted by clicking into the column header to be used as sort criterion. Due to the "tree/grid mix", two ways of sorting are possible:

Device parameterization grids (tabs) in the 'Devices' window

The 'Device Parameterization Editor' on the right shows the parameters of the device selected in the tree on the left. Depending on the device type, one or several safety-related grids/tabs are visible. The parameters are read from the related device description file.

Possible settings (depending the selected device):

The following figure shows an example bus structure with expanded device node and contained process data items on the left and the param­eters of the selected safety-related I/O device on the right:

BusNavigatorWindow_SE.png

How to adjust the window

You can adjust the window by undocking it, modifying its size, moving it to another screen position, etc. Further information can be found in the topic "Adjusting windows".

Auto-hide function (floating windows): Use the auto-hide function to automatically hide (minimize) the window if it is unused. For that purpose switch on the auto-hide function by clicking the ico_AutoHideWindow_Off.gif icon on the window control bar. If the auto-hide function is switched on for that window, the ico_AutoHideWindow_On.gif icon is shown. In this case, position the mouse pointer over the mini­mized window to show it again.

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