Nitra PAL Integration with Productivity PLC at AutomationDirect

AutomationDirect NITRA PAL or Pneumatic Automation Link is a highly versatile and scalable remote I/O and pneumatic system integrated via Ethernet/IP. AutomationDirect has made it simple to integrate your NITRA PAL with the Productivity series PLCs. There are just 3 steps to accomplish this. First import the EDS and create the Ethernet/IP device. Next, import the tasks and add to your code. And last pass data between the device and the tasks. Please follow this link or scan this QR code to get all the software and documentation for your system. Within these downloads, you’ll find the files referenced in this video and a walkthrough that accompanies this video for further reference. This video assumes the PAL system has already been configured. If you have not already configured it, please see the video in the link above. A brief note on Ethernet/IP. There are several terms that get used interchangeably. The PAL unit is an adapter, this is also called a server or a target. The PLC is a Scanner that may be called a client or an originator. So essentially, this means the PLC always initiates the connection for the exchange of data. On the Ethernet/IP tab of your hardware configuration within Productivity Suite import the EDS file from the link above and give it a name. Drag this new device to the left and add an exclusive owner message. I like using the structure to make tag name creation simple and logical. Then we’ll add an input array - this should be an 8-bit unsigned data type and 146 columns. This target to originator array or input array is the data the PLC receives from the PAL. And in an output array, this should also be an 8-bit unsigned data type, and it requires 102 columns. The originator to target array, also called the output array is the data the PLC sends to the PAL. And for troubleshooting help, let’s add an extended status array. This can tell us a lot about issues if we happen to have any. This completes the Ethernet/IP device creation for a single PAL unit. If you have more than one unit, you’ll repeat this process for each unit. To make things even easier, we’ve created tasks to manage your NITRA PAL data. These tasks are also part of the above download. We’ll just import the tasks into the task library. Now we can see the input and output tasks. Move the input task to run every scan above all other tasks. This ensures the inputs are updated prior to any logic that may use them. Then we’ll place the output task and run every scan. This should be the last task so that outputs changed by other logic will get updated properly. You’ll need to customize these tasks to your system. First, make sure the number of columns in the PAL user-defined structure is equal to the number of PAL systems you are adding. Since we only have one system, the default value of 1 is correct. While we’re in the Tagname database let’s look at what’s been created. The PAL_unit user-defined structure has all the PAL data in a logical fashion. We can see each of our I/O modules and valves with common sense names. You’ll need to pass the data from the Ethernet/IP device to the tasks. At the beginning of the input task, we’ll copy the target to originator (T->O) array we created in the EtherNet IP client into the PAL_unit user- defined structure that the task has created. This provides a more logical breakdown of the data from the PAL. We’ll also copy the number of PAL systems into the MaxNo_PAL_units tag so the logic can scan all units. In our case, this is 1 since we only have one system. At the end of the output task, we add another copy array so the UDS can be copied to the originator to target (O->T) array created in the device. If you have multiple PAL systems and created multiple PAL Ethernet/IP devices, you will need to duplicate these copies for each one and have them pass data to different columns of the PAL_unit user-defined structure. We need to enable the message, so I’ll just add an out coil to the main task. Now, download and make sure the CPU is in run mode. We can see the entire system in the user-defined structure so I’ll toggle a valve and verify it is functioning. Notice the diagnostic data reads 0 indicating there is no error. If an error code were present we could refer to the configuration software help file for a definition. So that’s it. We’re up and running with our PAL connected to our Productivity PLC. AutomationDirect is providing the products and support you need to make us your common-sense way to buy industrial controls. Please see this playlist for more integration videos and other content for the NITRA PAL system. We have a vast library of other videos. Please click here to view all product videos. Click here to subscribe to our YouTube channel for upcoming products and solutions.