http://www.rockwellautomation.com/rockwella utomation/news/thejournal/exclusive/2013/may8.

page Take the Pain out of Drive System Design and Start-Up Take the Pain out of Drive System Design and Start-Up

Simplified programming software can erradicate complicated drive-controller integration, and hours of grueling tagging and coding validation.

Drives configuration software that focuses on ease-of-use tools can enhance motor-drive installation and save time and labor during configuration, commissioning and setup. By Greg Mears, Product Manager, Drives Software, Rockwell Automation Inverters, drives, variable-frequency drives (VFDs) or motor drives whatever you call them, engineers understand and accept their performance-enhancing, energy-saving and motor-protection benefits. That acceptance has led to a proliferation of drives offerings, with much of the hardware based on similar technology delivering excellent quality across leading brands. Engineers considering drives options might want to focus on the ease-of-use tools and features provided by the configuration software as much as the actual hardware. By examining the whole drives package, especially the configuration software, engineers can make a more informed decision that saves them time and labor during configuration, commissioning and start-up.

Drives configuration software is experiencing rapid evolution, making it more powerful and easier to use. The most profound advancements involve integrating the controller and drive. For networked drives, integration capabilities help lower programming, installation and overall ownership costs by minimizing the software tools required. This helps users gain faster start-ups, improved accuracy and easier drive-system maintenance. Traditionally, adding a drive to a control system meant learning to work with a new software tool and managing separate drive configuration files. By using programming software that integrates the drives and the controller, users have a shorter learning curve and can manage the drive and the control system more easily because there is only one software package to purchase and learn. With integrated drive configuration software, users can reduce the chance of mismatched I/O, streamline data, remove cryptic parameters and simplify coding.

Reduce Mismatched I/Os

When installing drives, a major complexity is configuring the settings to sync up between two programming environments. For example, a conflict in the I/O configuration setting can arise when the controller and drive are configured at different times with different tools. In other words, the controller expects one size of I/O while the drive is configured for a different size. This mismatch creates an I/O connection error in the program and can become a nuisance for programmers, typically during system start-up when time can be limited. In the past, the first phone call to tech support involved troubleshooting to remedy these communication gaps. With integrated drives configuration, users now can configure both sides of the network connection at the same time with one tool, reducing the potential for errors. This capability can be especially beneficial in applications involving a large number of drives, where managing the various configurations can consume an inordinate amount of engineering time and resources.

Streamline Drives Configuration Data

To ease maintenance and improve access to information, some software saves drive configuration data as part of the controllers project file and also stores it in the controller. As a result, theres no need to store and maintain multiple files users only need one file for both the controller and all drive configurations. In the event of a failure, replacing and restoring the original drive configuration is a much easier process. In some cases, the controller can download the configuration to a replacement drive automatically, further reducing down-time.

Remove Cryptic Parameter Descriptors

Users can face a major challenge when individually programming parameters and tags when configuring drives. Many controllers store drive information in memory as a contiguous block, where each drive parameter is represented by a physical address or number rather than a descriptive name. Typical tags might read .data3 or .data4, forcing users to constantly refer back to user manuals to interpret and document the control program. This tedious task is time-consuming and often must be repeated for each drive in a system. Engineers installing drives should look for programming software in which a devicespecific data structure is created automatically. These data structures now can be represented with descriptive names rather than generic numeric-based parameteraddressing schemes used in the past. The data structures also use the proper data types integer, real, Boolean, etc. for each parameter, so no manual data-type conversion is required by the programmer. Engineers also should seek software options that provide network I/O drop-down boxes containing all the parameter names. This minimizes the potential for errors when defining various network I/O. Tags can then be created in the control development environment and accessed via a human-machine interface (HMI), reducing set-up and configuration time. A copy-and-paste programming feature can create additional duplicate drives quickly.

Simplify Coding
A common problem in many drives installation projects is that multiple engineers develop different versions of the same code. With numerous code variations, installation and startup become more tedious and complex. Thats because engineers must check and verify each version and the specific set of errors used with each code to confirm a smooth installation. Programming software capabilities, such as user-defined add-on instruction, encapsulate drive-specific operations into a reusable module of code. This reduces the development and validation effort, and promotes consistency among projects because theres no need to constantly reinvent commonly used control algorithms. Some software packages further simplify the programming of networked drives with tag generator tools. Users no longer have to worry about I/O mapping and correlating the I/O image with device user manuals. Tag generating tools help save users a significant amount of programming time per device, depending on the devices complexity. Startup wizards for drive commissioning are another key advancement. Instead of using a linear list editor to navigate through hundreds of parameters, startup wizards provide a simple step-by-step process. Graphs, images and descriptive text assist the user

through the remaining commissioning process. Besides dramatically reducing drive startup and commissioning time, wizards can improve set-up accuracy by significantly reducing manual configuration with the end device. Engineers can also enjoy the benefits that device configuration software can offer to simple, hardwired or stand-alone applications. Drives are just one of many components in a system. For these applications, device configuration software can take what once required several different software configuration tools, and wrap it into a single software package with a simple catalogue of devices available at the engineers fingertips.

Make it Painless
Combining a controller with a full suite of compatible components and application development tools application profile, quick starts, wiring diagrams and predeveloped HMI screens can provide engineers with a simplified way to implement common control tasks as part of the machine design. This improves user experience and reduces the risk of potential engineering programming, training and maintenance nightmares. Clearly, its not just about the hardware anymore. With simplified programming software, engineers can say goodbye to the complicated world of drive-controller integration and hours of grueling tagging and coding validation. Advancements in programming software capabilities are just the start of integration and interconnectivity capabilities to come. Rockwell Automation Integrated Configuration Tools DeviceLogix-Enabled Products for Drives Configuration

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