Acquire Data From SIMOTION Motion Controllers and SINAMICS Control Units

Acquisition with the bus monitor on SIMOTION motion controllers

If data needs to be acquired quickly and precisely with each scan cycle, the drive controllers can be connected with the bus monitor ibaBM-PN via PROFINET or ibaBM-DP via PROFIBUS. ibaBM-PN can acquire data from SIMOTION motion controllers as an active device. The bus monitor provides 2 independent internal PROFINET devices, which can be specifically supplied with data from PROFINET controllers. As a shared device, a bus monitor can communicate with up to 8 PN controllers. 

In addition, as a sniffer, ibaBM-PN can read the data exchange between the SIMOTION controller and other PN participants at the TAP interface.

Acquisition with the bus monitor on SINAMICS control units

The ibaBM-PN bus monitor is also able to acquire data at a SINAMICS Link as a sniffer and therefore enables the connection of SINAMICS control units (with CU320 unit and CBE20 extension board). SINAMICS Link is a special version of the PROFINET communication to exchange PROFINET IRT data between SINAMICS control units. SINAMICS Link is based on a strict, straight network topology with a maximum of 64 SINAMICS CU320 controllers. 

An ibaBM-PN usually needs to be connected between at least two participants on the SINAMICS Link. To enable data acquisition at the SINAMICS Link with just one controller, one of the two PROFINET devices can be switched to the SINAMICS emulation mode.

Connection via PROFINET CP

Connecting the SIMOTION and SINAMICS controllers via PROFINET CP requires a Siemens interface card CP1616 (PCI) in the ibaPDA computer as well as the data interface ibaPDA-Interface- Profinet-CP. 

The CP1616 card offers a PROFINET interface with 4 ports and supports controller- controller and controller- device communication. The values to be recorded must be programmed in the controller and sent by the controller program. Any change of the values requires a program change.

Signal selection without programming

However, programming work can be avoided by using special iba solutions: The Xplorer interfaces can be used to flexibly select the measured values via an address book at the click of a button. In addition, the values to be recorded can be changed without intervention in the programming while the controller is running.

How does the Xplorer interface work?

With the Xplorer interfaces, it is possible to easily and cost-effectively connect to SIMOTION and SINAMICS drive controllers. The Xplorer interface allows free access to internal data of a controller. The standard mechanisms of the controller are used. Additional hardware is not required. The measured values are cyclically requested and sent by the controller in a so-called polling procedure. Data acquisition is not scan-cycle- precise, since the data is only sent by the controller when the request can be processed.

Different Xplorer interfaces

The SIMOTION-Xplorer and SINAMICS-Xplorer interfaces can be licensed individually, but are also available in a bundle for ibaPDA: the ibaPDA-Drive-Xplorer license includes all available Xplorer interfaces for drive controllers. 

In addition to the Xplorer interfaces for drive controllers, Xplorer interfaces for many control systems are also available: SIMATIC S7, ABB, Allen Bradley, B&R, Bachmann M1, CODESYS-V2 and V3, Mitsubishi MELSEC, SIGMATEK controllers and Beckhoff TwinCAT controllers. The ibaPDA-PLC-Xplorer bundle includes all above mentioned interfaces and offers the full ibaPDA functionality for up to 64 signals. ibaPDA-PLC-Xplorer is therefore a cost-effective entry-level solution that is ideal, for example, for efficient troubleshooting during commissioning.