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TwinCAT ADS

TwinCAT is a software platform developed by Beckhoff Automation and to provide real-time control for industrial automation applications. It is designed to be an open and flexible system for ease of integration with other automation systems.

Automation Device Specification (ADS) is the communication protocol that provides data exchange and control within, and in combination with, TwinCAT systems. TwinCAT ADS can work over serial or network connections and provides a standardized interface for communication between different components of a TwinCAT system, such as the TwinCAT runtime, the TwinCAT engineering environment, and third-party devices. TwinCAT ADS is extensively documented and can be integrated with the Cloud; note, however, that the Cloud only supports ADS over TCP/IP.

Initial Setup

The Edge server must be configured with the ADS router for use with the TwinCAT protocol. Make sure the ADS router is configured and running on the Edge server; contact EnergyMachines support for assistance.

TwinCAT-enabled devices utilizing ADS must be prepared using the TwinCAT environment so that the Cloud could have access to data endpoints. Since preliminary hardware and software setup outside the scope of the Cloud is not covered herein, instructions below assume the user already has a functional TwinCAT environment including an instance of Beckhoff Device Manager (BDM).

Follow the steps below to perform the initial setup:

  1. Open the web interface for BDM of the target TwinCAT device. Under Device » Connectivity, click on Add TwinCAT Route and enter the following parameters:
    • AMS Net ID
      The AMS Net ID of the Edge server running the site’s instance of the Cloud. Contact EnergyMachines support or consult the datasheet for the Edge server to retrieve this parameter.
    • Address
      The TCP/IP address of the Edge server within the site’s local network. Leave other parameters as default.
  2. Save the route by clicking on ✓. The route will now appear under TwinCAT Routes.
  3. Note the AMS Net ID parameter in the Connectivity card above the list of available routes. This parameter is necessary for device setup in the Cloud.

Device Parameters

For device parameters not covered herein, see Device-Based Tags.
  • Net Id
    AMS Net ID as mentioned in Step 3 under Initial Setup above.
  • Address
    The TCP/IP address of the target TwinCAT device.
  • TCP port
    The TCP/IP port of the target TwinCAT device. Default value is 851.

Tag Parameters

For tag parameters not covered herein, see Tag Editor.

Field type

Determines the endpoint for data access:

  • Symbol
    Accesses data endpoint by its name in the TwinCAT environment, which is specified as Symbol path. Multiple symbol paths can be entered with comma separation, forming an array; see Data type and External data type for related data handling options.
  • Direct
    Access data endpoint directly by its index.

Change on Value

Subscribes the tag to notifications on changes in the data endpoint’s value. If activated, the Cloud will rely on the device’s internal monitoring of its symbols instead of polling the device at a predetermined interval. Thus, tag updates will only be triggered by notifications from the device; this setting also disables the Request interval.

In case multiple paths are specified in the Symbol field, Change on Value only updates indices where the corresponding symbols have updated instead of overwriting the entire array.

Writable

For more details, see Writable.

Data endpoint must support writability to be able to accept manual input. However, unlike with Modbus or BACnet devices, the Cloud will not restrict the Writable checkbox as it is not able to test the data endpoint for writability at this stage. Attempts to write data from the Pages interface of the HMI to a data endpoint that cannot accept input will result in an error:

Tag values were not updated