Messages
Each message section in the project has 1000 messages of length 255 char.
The text of the messages is recorded as text lists in the XAE.
The use of text lists allows the use of multiple languages, so the ASCII/Unicode text is recorded and translated outside of the PLC environment, in this case in XML.
More Languages can be added, but the LanguageLocation ENUM (line location within the XML) would have to be altered if multiple are used, outside the consideration of the ENUM
All of the messages present in the XAE are copied to the PLC on the activation of a project. If the PLC is not connected to the XAE, they will have to be copied across manually to the XAR
Each station from 1-6 contains the following message types
- Alarms - A message to stop the auto cycle process and semi auto advance processes
- Warning - A message that does not stop the process, but will be an issue if not resolved
- Prompts - A message that displays the current state of the station. This is normally what current action is performed AND the expected next motion
All messages are pre-populated and can be entered in an ad-hoc basis
Each motion, within each station pre-presumes each group of alarm and prompt messages for timeout messages for that station and row.
This means that for each of the standard five fault messages,
- Failed to Advance
- Failed to Return
- Lost Advance Switch
- Lost Return Switch
- Switch Fault (both switches ON)
-are already programmed within each stations group of messages, and no action is required to enable the messages, with the exception of entering the message text.
The PLC reads the messages from the XML on the C:\ of the PLC. This will be read on the firstscan bit of the PlcInfoTask1.FirstCycle from the PLC datatype
