Captron Caneo Series Capacitive Switches Part 2: IO-Link Configuration from Automation Direct

This is Part 2 of AutomationDirect’s video series exploring the capabilities of Captron’s Caneo line of capacitive pushbuttons. In the previous video, we introduced the Caneo buttons and discussed using them as stand-alone devices right out of the box. To revisit that video, find the link in the description below. Also in the description below, you’ll find links to technical manuals for both the 40 series and the 10 series buttons. These manuals are treasure troves of detail on the devices. Everything we discuss here and much more can be found there, so I strongly recommend you download the manual appropriate to your needs. As was shown in the first video, these pushbuttons are highly capable control devices on their own, but in this video, we are going to highlight more of their potential with the IO-Link Device Tool software. To look at the configuration options available through IO-Link, we’ll need to have a Caneo series switch connected to an IO-Link Master and have our PC or laptop also connected to the IO-Link master via Ethernet IP. We’ll furthermore need to have the IO-Link Masters device tool application open and provisioned with the proper IODD file for the switch we’ll be examining. If you need to brush up on any of that, please refer to our IO-Link Masters Device Tool video by clicking here. That video demonstrates connecting the IO-Link Masters Device Tool to a Caneo series pushbutton and covers basic operations, but here we are going to go deeper into the configuration possibilities. Once we’ve established a connection between the Device Tool software and our Caneo pushbutton and have the IODD file in place, we’ll see a device screen like this one, with 7 tabs. Deep underground here at AutomationDirect’s secret laboratories and studio complex, we’ve set up demonstrations with these two models. All 41 and 10 series buttons share most of the functions we’re going to demonstrate. 41 series display models of course have additional 7-segment display configurability, and we’ll touch on that a bit later. On the common tab, you’ll find a lot of descriptive and identifying information on the connected device, its IODD, and the connection. The Process Data tab shows the current status of several input and output data points. Most relevant here are the statuses of the Input Pins 2 and 5, the Output Pin 4, and the button's actuation status or flag. Also here you’ll see the actuation count – we can watch that advance with each button actuation. The Actuation Strength is interesting – the force with which the button operator is pressed is a data point here, as is the ambient light level (Surrounding Brightness) of the button’s environment. The Identification tab displays some read-only ID details for the connected device. The Observation tab shows just a few read-only data points. Let’s come back to the Parameter tab – that’s where all the action is for this video, but first a quick look at the other two. On the Diagnosis tab, you’ll find a number or read-only status points as well as a couple of write-only commands for device reset and device self-testing. Also here are some security options – device access locks. The Generic tab displays raw parameter information in hex format as well as process data, but it is mostly undifferentiated and largely unlabeled. All good info, but not in the most user-friendly format. That’s what the other tabs are for. Back at last to meat of the matter, on the Parameter tab. In this video, we are going to concentrate on a few of the possibilities here, but for a thorough treatment of anything we skip, please refer to the manual we mentioned earlier. All of the read-write parameter fields allow us to custom configure our capacitive pushbuttons in a great many ways. Just running through a few – Sensor Mode determines the button action. See the previous Captron Caneo pushbutton video for full details on the selections here, but here is a quick explanatory diagram. Notice you can also adjust touch sensitivity, actuation delays, and LED brightness as well as select output options like PNP or NPN and NO or NC, etc. Water Resistance is an interesting one – depending on the environment, you may want to set this so that rain or splashes of water don’t actuate the button. The 41 series buttons add a configurable timer function along with 2 user-definable custom RGB colors. Refer to the manual for details on these functions. LED Control Mode sets the means of control. The Scene Controlled by IO-Link Process Data and Advanced Control by IO-Link Process Data both set the Caneo button to be controlled directly over IO-Link by a PLC or other controller. To configure one of these buttons for stand-alone deployment, we’re going to look at Automatic Scene selection as our LED control mode. With the Active Inputs field here you can select 3, 4, or 5 pin mode. We touched on this in the last video – 3 pin means that the device accepts only one input, which is the button actuation. 4 pin adds one wired digital input and 5 pin adds another. So a 3-pin configuration allows for 2 states – button pressed or not. 4 pin expands this to 4 states, and 5 pin to 8. For each of the states possible for our selected Active Inputs, we’re going to define an LED Scene. Scene 0 is defined here as no touch, no input on E1 or E2 – a default state. We can assign a color from among those available for our button model, or a blank or “Off” condition. Next, we choose the LED Effect for the Scene – notice the 41 series buttons have many more options. Lastly, assign a frequency for the effect – this really comes into play if the effect is flashing, pulsing, or otherwise animated. Be sure to see the manual for frequency entry information. Once scenes are set up for each possible combination of inputs, download the new configuration to the button and it is ready to be deployed. A couple more options worth mentioning – If you have a Series 41 Display model, you’ll configure the 4-character 7-segment display here. Series 10 models have one additional LED Control Mode, the Classic 2-LED mode. See the manual for more about this somewhat simplified mode as well as the 7-segment Display setup. In our final video for this series, we’re going to come back to real-time direct interface these devices with a PLC or other controller, specifically highlighting AutomationDirect’s Productivity PLCs with our pre-made task libraries that make the connection a snap. Click here for that video. 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