Murrelektronik's IO-Link Device Tool from AutomationDirect

IO-Link Masters are at the heart of any system using IO-Link communication. If you are new to IO-Link Masters or to IO-Link in general, take a look at the videos in AutomationDirect’s growing IO-Link playlist., linked in the description. You’ll find a ton of information there, from bedrock basics on up. In this video, we will be looking at two of the IO-Link masters available at AutomationDirect.com – specifically, at accessing these devices for monitoring and configuration with the Murrelektronik IO-Link Device Tool. To get started, download and install the IO-Link Device Tool from the AutomationDirect webstore using the link in the description below. Once it’s installed, open the Device Tool. In this video, we will provide an overview of many of the control and monitoring functions the Device Tool provides but for in-depth details, you should rely on the software manual, which can be accessed right here under the Help tab. A click on Content will open the complete manual, which will expand on all the topics discussed in this video and much more. You’ll want to have the IO-Link masters you’re looking for physically connected to your computer and configured appropriately for communication. We will be using Ethernet IP for communication, so Ethernet networking requirements apply. Your IO-Link Masters need to have IP addresses in the same subnet as the computer. For a video on setting an IO-Link Master’s IP address, click here. Once set up, search your network using the Search Master button at the top right of the Topology section to the right of the screen. IO-Link Masters present in the network will show up in a Master Discovery window. Double- click the entry to connect to a specific device. A window for the IO-Link Master will appear, populated with details about the device. Click Go Online at the top of that window, and then Check Devices. In the example here we have found 4 “unknown” devices. There is a little identifying information for each one, but nothing further. To get a closer look at these, Takeover devices into engineering. Now the port details in our IO-Link Master window populate and for each of the connected devices we can see some identification data. Double-click one of these devices and a new window opens, showing raw input, output, and parameter setup data for that device. All the information available from the device displays here and some can be manipulated, but in the raw form its immediate usefulness is limited. We need a key or template to help turn this raw data into something we can easily decipher. The IO-Link Device Description is a file that does exactly that. Drop down the Options menu and select Import IODD. In the Import window that opens you’ll need to specify a path to where the file is stored on your computer. If you don’t yet have the IODD for the device you’re targeting, there are a couple of places to find it. For a component sourced from AutomationDirect, go to that components page on our webstore at www.automationdirect.com. Scroll to the “Downloads” section and you’ll find a download link for the IODD. Another option is to visit the IODD Finder at io-link.com. Wherever you find it, what you are downloading is a configuration file with information the IO-Link master will need to properly display the device’s data. Back at the Import IODD window, with your device description in place, import the file. Re-check Devices and now you should see all the ID details filled in for that device. Takeover devices into engineering. Again, double-click. The window that opens now has a number of tabs as well as some upload/download controls at the top. These tabs will populate with data specific to the connected device. Depending on the type of device, different data and parameters will be available for monitoring and control. As an example, and without getting into a lot of detail on any particular device, let’s take a look at a capacitive pushbutton from Captron. The Common tab displays ID and connection information for the device. On the Process Data tab, you’ll find the current state of the device’s Input and Output data points. In this case, an activation of the button changes a number of the data points as seen here. Under many of these tabs, you can identify the monitored data points – the Device Tool shows information provided by the IODD, but initially you don’t see live values – the data is not automatically polled out of the device. This is where the upload/download controls we mentioned earlier come in. An upload will load all of the variable data from the device into the Device Tool interface. The Active Dynamic Refresh, when active, will trigger periodic data uploads. Read / Write variables marked as rw, such as those on the Parameter tab here, can be downloaded to the device in a couple of different ways. In Block Write mode, all changes made since the last download will be transferred at one time. Notice changed parameters show a yellow c, indicating they have not yet been written to the device. Once transferred, they turn green again. In Direct Write mode, a changed parameter will be written over automatically. Again, the IO-Link Device Tool has many capabilities beyond the overview scope of this video, so be sure to consult the onboard user manual for more details. For much more on IO-Link capabilities and products carried by AutomationDirect, be sure to check out our IO-Link videos collection. Click here for the video playlist. Click here for IO-Link products. Click here to subscribe to AutomationDirect’s YouTube channel.