Open Protocol

Configuring Open Protocol

In the Plant structure workspace select a controller.
Select the Virtual Station tab .
The virtual station overview shows a list of virtual stations for the selected controller. The list is empty if no virtual stations have been created.
Double-click on a virtual station to open an existing configuration, or select Add to create a new virtual station configuration.
Select Configure in the Protocols menu.

The virtual station Open protocol configuration switch allows a user to enable or to disable Open protocol communication between a virtual station and the integrator, which is part of the factory control equipment.

The Open protocol uses the same factory ethernet connection on the controller that is used for configuration or for delivering tightening results.

Each virtual station is uniquely identified by a port number. For each virtual station using the open protocol, a port number must be entered in the Port field.
If the open protocol is used to select the task, the Disconnect setting controls the actions to be taken when the communication between the virtual station and the client is lost:
- None: If the system loses connection towards the Open Protocol client, no action will be taken and any selected task will be able to continue with normal operation.
- Unassign task: If the system loses the connection towards the Open Protocol the selected task will be deselected, the tool will not be locked
  - If an open protocol error occurs, the current tightening is finished and the task ends. The current task is deselected from the virtual station.
  - If a communication error occurs, the current tightening is finished and the task ends. The current task is aborted but not deselected from the virtual station.
- Lock tool active high: If the system loses connection towards the Open Protocol the tool will be locked.
  - When the Open Protocol connection is restored, the tool will remain locked. In order to resume normal operation the tool has to be unlocked using MID 0043 (Enable tool) or IO signal Master unlock.
  - The task will not be deselected when Lock tool option has been selected.
- Always lock tool: If the system loses connection towards the Open Protocol the tool will be locked, regardless whether the used task is selected via Open Protocol or not.
  - When the Open Protocol connection is restored, the Tightening program and Sequence task have to be selected to resume normal operation.
  - When the Open Protocol connection is restored the tool will remain locked. In order to resume normal operation the tool has to be unlocked using MID 0043 (Enable tool) or IO signal Master unlock
The legacy counter setting counts all tightenings in a sequence and outputs that number to secondary systems. To enable this setting, set Use legacy counter to On.
SoftPLC Index is used to map where in the shared memory the Open Protocol commands are to be written. The default value is 1 but it is possible to enter values 1 to 6.

As the default value for SoftPLC Index is always 1 and no check is made to see if it is in use, there is a possibility that you may have configured the system so that the same index is configured several times when adding Virtual stations. In this case the Soft PLC will not be able to determine from which Virtual Station the incoming MID is originating from.