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B&R PVI Interface

B&R PVI Interface

B&R PVI Interface (Bernecker & Rainer Process Visualisation Interface)

Protocol description

The B&R PVI Interface protocol is used to communicate with the B&R PLC using the PVI interface from Bernecker & Rainer. The following features are supported:

  • reading and writing (input and output I/O tags),

  • reading and writing simple types (i8, i16, i32, i64, u8, u16, u32, u64, boolean, string, wstring, time, dt, date, tod),

  • working with individual items (which are of simple types) of structured variables,

  • reading arrays into structured I/O tags with a configured  Destination column of the structure.

Working with the "data" data type is not yet supported.

Communication was tested with both virtual and physical B&R PLC with PVI versions:

  • Automation Net PVI V4.0

  • Automation Net PVI V4.2

  • Automation Net PVI V4.3

  • Automation Net PVI V4.7

Hierarchy of PVI objects

B&R PVI defines the following object hierarchy for the INA2000 line, which is used to communicate with the B&R SG3, SGC, and SG4 control units via the INA2000 (Industrial Network Architecture) protocol.

Line and Device objects are configured in the protocol parameters of the D2000 communication line.

Station, CPU, Module, and Task objects are configured in the protocol parameters of the D2000 communication station.

Variable objects are configured as D2000 I/O tags.

 Communication line configuration

  • Communication line category: API.

Line protocol parameters

The following global line protocol parameters can be configured for the "B&R PVI Interface" protocol:

Parameter

Meaning

Unit

Default value

Parameter

Meaning

Unit

Default value

--- PVI Parameters ---

Communication timeout

Parameter for the PviXInitialize function (PVI interface initialization).
Communication timeout for the client/server communication in seconds The value specified with this parameter serves as the default setting of the initialization parameter COMT. If no particular presetting is desired, the default value 0 should be entered.

sec

0

Retry time

Parameter for the PviXInitialize function (PVI interface initialization).
Retry time for PVICOM user messages in seconds. The value specified with this parameter serves as the default setting of the initialization parameter RETR. If no particular presetting is desired, the default value 0 should be entered.

sec

0

Initialization parameter string

Parameter for the PviXInitialize function (PVI interface initialization).
String with initialization parameters. According to the PVI documentation, the following parameters are supported:

Parameter

Description

COMT

Communication timeout for the client/server (application/PVI Manager) communication in seconds
The timeout also defines the time for the life sign monitor. An additional period is needed to detect a disruption in the client/server connection. To determine the total time where a communication disruption would be detected (at the latest), the timeout value specified here has to be doubled. If the timeout is 5, then an interruption in the connection can be detected as early as 5 seconds and as late as 10 seconds. Connection interrupts are not recognized as such by the PVICOM interface if they occur within the timeout period. Data transfer simply continues once the connection is reestablished. Often used values are 3 - 10 seconds for local communication and 5 - 30 seconds for remote communication.
Value: 1 - 3600, = 0 ... Default value of 30 s used.
The value specified in the function argument "Timeout" serves as a presetting for this parameter.

RETR

Retry time for PVICOM user messages is seconds.
The default setting ("RetryTime=0") should normally be used for this parameter. See the User Message Operations section for more information about this parameter.
Value: 1 - 3600, <= 0 ... no repetition.
The value specified in the function argument "RetryTime" serves as a presetting for this parameter.

LM

Limit on user messages. Default: "LM=1".
PVICOM applications basically do not need to change the default setting of this parameter. However, if an application is able to respond quickly to PVICOM user messages, then a higher limit value ("LM=100", "LM=500") can speed up user message execution. See the User Message Operations section for more information about this parameter.
Value: 1 - 65535, <= 0 -> No limiting.

PT

Process timeout in seconds. Default: "PT=0".
This timeout can be used to monitor the time between requests and responses. This parameter is only intended for PVICOM applications that carry out particular tasks. Standard applications do not need to be monitored and should use the default setting (no timeout monitoring).
Value: 1 - 3600, <=0 -> No timeout monitoring

IP

TCP/IP address or hostname.
If the IP initialization parameter is specified, then the Remote communication type is used for PVICOM communication. Either the TCP/IP address (e.g. "IP=10.43.50.62") or the hostname ("IP=SystemPC1") of the server (PVI Manager) is specified with this parameter. If the hostname is given, then the IP address assigned to the name is determined by the system

PN

TCP/IP port number. Default: "PN=20000".
This parameter is only required in conjunction with the IP parameter. The port number assigned to the PVI Manager needs to be specified here (PVI Manager Properties).
Value: 1024 - 32767.

AS

Auto-Start (only for the local communication type).
1 ... PVI Manager is started (default).
0 ... PVI Manager is not started automatically and must be started already when the function is called.
More information about the startup procedure can be found in the PVI Manager section.

-

-

Line object definition

ObjectDescriptor parameter for the PviXCreate function when creating a Line object.
The parameter specifies the line description. The default value CD=LnIna2 creates an INA2000 line, which is used for communication with B&R SG3, SGC, and SG4 controllers via INA2000 protocol (Industrial Network Architecture).

-

CD=LnIna2

Device object definition

ObjectDescriptor parameter for the PviXCreate function when creating a Device object.
The parameter gives a description of the device. The default value CD="/IF=tcpip /SA=1" creates a connection using TCP/ IP (UDP), the source address (the D2000 KOM address) will be 1. The PVI documentation describes the parameters for individual device types (Serial, Ethernet UDP, Modem, CAN device, Profibus FDL device).

sec

30

--- Other Parameters ---

Browse tasks

The parameter affects the scope of browsing used to configure the I/O tags.
If the parameter is set to YES, when browsing the I/O tag, global variables, all Task variables defined within the CPU, as well as all local variables defined in all tasks will be searched. If the parameter is set to NO, the global variables and local variables of the task defined by the Task object definition protocol parameter are searched.
Note: this feature is disabled because, on a station, it only makes sense to configure global variables and local variables of the task defined by the Task object definition protocol parameter. Local variables of other tasks will not work.

YES/NO

NO

Inactivity timeout

If the value of the parameter is non-zero, then within the periodic reading of values within the station, it is checked whether any value was received by any station on the line during the last "Inactivity timeout" seconds. If not, the connection to the PVI Manager will be disconnected and re-established.
Note: this parameter can be used to speed up the detection of communication problems. If the values of the I/O tags change infrequently, we recommend creating an output I/O tag to which the value will be written every few seconds.

sec

0

Cleanup command

This parameter allows the batch file to be started at the (re)start of communication. This batch file can e.g. restart the PVI Manager process (PviMan.exe) - e.g. using the pskill.exe utility or using the Windows utility "sc" if PVI Manager is running as a service. Restarting helps if, for example, the PVI Manager stays in the "Locked" state.
The symbolic constant #APPDIR# may be used in the command name, which will be substituted by the application directory name, e.g. #APPDIR#cleanup.bat

-

-

Cleanup timeout

The time limit in seconds for the batch file specified by the Cleanup command parameter to finish execution. After this time elapses, the command will be terminated.

sec

10

Post create delay

Delay after creating each object. This parameter is used to slow down the start of communication for debugging and diagnostics.

sec

0,0

Asynchronous write/create

The parameter determines the method of communication with the PVI Manager when creating objects and writing values. The asynchronous method is recommended, the synchronous method is implemented only for debugging and diagnostics. In addition, the synchronous mode of operation is not supported by the PVI Manager from several threads, so it can only be used with a single B&R line.

YES/NO

YES

Value Debug

Logging of values being read and written, together with names of /O tags.

YES/NO

NO

Full Debug

Logging of additional debug information about communication.

YES/NO

NO