CNCnetPDM OPC DA for Siemens Sinumerik 840D controllers enables you acquisition and monitoring of machine-, process- and quality-data from machines with Sinumerik controllers from a remote PC. It also allows to write and change parameter values on these devices.
This document describes setup and test of data acquisition and writing of parameter values from/to Sinumerik controllers that use OPC Classic which is most likely the case if your controller has a Microsoft Windows OS and does NOT run Sinumerik Operate >= Version 4.5.
To directly read/write data from/to machines with Sinumerik 840D controllers connected to CNCnetPDM with your applications you can use our free Open Source Client (C-Sharp)
If you have installed CNCnetPDM on your PC with a license other than a ‘free license’ and run this program from the folder where CNCnetPDM is installed you can modify all OPC Items. Otherwise you can monitor, read and write all predefined OPC items. Please see licensing for details or contact us if you have any questions.
Note: If you like to run this program from a different location on your PC you can simply copy your CNCnetPDM.ini file to this directory.
CNCnetPDM OPC DA CLIENT
The program enables you to connect to your controller via OPC DA (Classic), monitor, read and write items.
Extract all files from Sinumerik_840D_OPC_DA.zip to a folder on your PC. Right click CNCnetPDM.OpcDA.SimpleClient.exe with the shift key pressed and select ‘Run as different user’. Enter user name ‘auduser’ and its password.
In CNCnetPDM.OpcDA.SimpleClient.exe enter the DNS Hostname or IP Address of your controller into the textbox right to [Connect] (1).
FIG 5: Connect CNCnetPDM.OpcDA.SimpleClient
Click [Connect] you now should be connected to the OPC DA server on your controller.
FIG 6: CNCnetPDM.OpcDA.SimpleClient
Initially one item is queried, by changing ‘Active Items’ (1) to a different value you can activate up to 15 items.
The 15 predefined values under ‘ItemID’ are known to work well on most controllers. With a licensed version you can change them according to your requirements. The last two items are 2 writable R Parameters (user variables) that are visible at the controller: [MENU SELECT] -> [Tools Zerooffs] -> [R Variable].
If you click on button Read (3) the values of all active items are queried from the controller and shown in the dialog.
For the last two variables R1 and R2 you see their current values as set at the controller.
By entering different values for these two writable items and clicking on [Write] (4) you can change their values at the controller.
Clicking on [Monitor] (2) adds all active variables to a subscription and shows their current value.
Note: In the zip archive you can also find file ‘Querieable_Values.txt’ that contains a list with 1630 variables that can be queried from Sinumerik 840D controllers.
If you’re done, click on [Disconnect].
TROUBLESHOOTING
In case of errors the program outputs an error log file that can be found in the directory where the program is located. This file contains detailed information about any errors.
If you see a popup window with CoCreateInstanceEx: Access is denied make sure that you run the program as user ‘auduser’.
If you see a popup window with CoCreateInstanceEx: The RPC server is unavailable check that the controller is running, you typed in the correct IP Address and you configured your firewall correctly.
If you see values like Exception from HRESULT: 0x… in one of the output fields when reading or monitoring check that you typed in the item id correctly. In case of writing check that the item is writable e.g. a r-parameter and you didn’t type in an improper format e.g. alphanumeric instead of numeric.
