SLC-500 DF1 Connectivity

The SLC-500 MotionBASIC Extension (MBX) software provides direct, cost-effective connectivity between the ORION motion controller and the Allen Bradley SLC-500 Series programmable logic controller (PLC) using the DF1 link protocol. Communicating over a DF1 link provides fast data transfers due to its point-to-point design. On a point-to-point network link, multi-node traffic congestion between message packets does not exist. With no traffic to contend with, the data transfer response interval is small compared to multi-node network link protocols.

Communications Architecture
Allen-Bradley’s DF1 protocol is based on an RS-232C physical layer. It is designed to be a point-to-point communications link which provides error detection and correction between a PLC development port and another computer. ORION motion controllers utilizes DF1 connectivity to provide a cost-effective communications method with the Allen-Bradley SLC-5/03 and SLC-5/04 PLCs.

Installation
To install and configure SLC-500 to the ORION motion controller communications:

• install the ORN-232 serial communications adapter into the ORION motion controller and connect the DF1 link cable to the SLC-500 PLC for the physical communications link;
• make sure the MotionBASIC System Card containing the SLC-500 communications MBX is installed;
• configure and test the interface, and;
• map SLC-500 register numbers to any MotionBASIC variables containing data to be transferred over the link.

Operation
Data received or returned by the SLC-500 is loaded into, or obtained from, registers that are mapped to MotionBASIC program variables. All SLC-500 polling and message responses occur in the background, and are transparent to your program. In addition, SLC-500 message response communication is configured to allow any change to certain registers made over the link to trigger a specified subroutine. This feature makes it easy for the SLC-500 to initiate an action to be taken by the ORION motion controller at the end of a data transfer.

Functions Supported by the ORION

SLC-500 Family of commands initiated by ORION:

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