Art.

no 3HAC 8240-1 InterBus-S for S4C

CONTENTS
Page

1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 3
2 Description ....................................................................................................................... 4
2.1 Hardware ................................................................................................................ 4
2.2 DSQC344 Board..................................................................................................... 4
2.3 I/O Modules............................................................................................................ 6
2.4 Software.................................................................................................................. 7
3 DSQC344 Master Bus ..................................................................................................... 8
3.1 Power-up................................................................................................................. 8
3.2 IO Configuration..................................................................................................... 8
3.3 Internal Board Configuration.................................................................................. 8
3.4 Alternate Groups..................................................................................................... 8
3.5 Operation ................................................................................................................ 9
3.6 Error Recovery ....................................................................................................... 9
3.7 Limitations.............................................................................................................. 11
4 DSQC344 Slave Unit ....................................................................................................... 12
4.1 Power supply .......................................................................................................... 12
4.2 IO configuration ..................................................................................................... 12
4.3 Operation ................................................................................................................ 12
4.4 Error Recovery ....................................................................................................... 12

InterBus-S for S4C Robot Controller 1

InterBus-S for S4C

Page

2 InterBus-S for S4C Robot Controller

 Introduction

1 Introduction

This manual is primarily a description of InterBus-S field bus data communication

between the ABB Robotics S4C system’s DSQC344 board and its distributed I/O units.
Some of the physical characteristics of the DSQC344 board are also dealt with.

With an InterBus-S generation 4 Master/Slave board (DSQC344) in the S4C robot con-
troller, it is possible to connect many sets of input/output modules via the serial Inter-
Bus-S field bus net.

The robot controller handles and addresses the InterBus-S I/O signals in the same way
it manages any other S4C distributed I/O signals.

It should be noted that this is a supplementary manual to the other robot manuals.
Detailed description of the InterBus-S and different I/O units will be found in the doc-
uments from e.g. Phoenix Contact & Co.

InterBus-S for S4C Robot Controller 3

Description

2 Description

2.1 Hardware
The hardware of an InterBus-S field bus network comprises a Master/Slave control unit
(DSQC344) in the S4C robot controller, and distributed I/O units. The distributed I/O
units can be modules with digital or analogue signals, which are all controlled by the
master part of the DSQC344.

Robot
Controller
1
0

Teach Pendant PC

Slave

Master Master
Slave

Slave Slave
InterBus-S version 4

Figure 1 Two InterBus-S networks and configuration tools

The DSQC344 slave unit is normally controlled by an external Master on a separate

InterBus-S network. This network is equipped with its own power supply. The slave
unit is a digital input and output module with up to 128 signals each.

The DSQC344 must be inserted in the slot on the far right of the S4C rack.

The teach pendant and the PC with the CMD application are required in order to create
a complete configuration arrangement.

The DSQC344 is equipped with a PCMCIA card.

2.2 DSQC344 Board

The front panel of the DSQC344 Master/Slave control unit is shown in Figure 2. Con-
nections to the Master unit, Slave unit, and the PC system are shown.

4 InterBus-S for S4C Robot Controller

 Description

LCD display
LED, +24V voltage
to slave unit, on

Connection for slave UL

Diagnostic keys
power supply (+24V) 24V
SFAIL

LEDs, control signals

of the slave unit RESET button
RC
BA
TR
RD
DSQC 344
SL RB IN RS 232
Connection to the
slave unit PC interface, connection
for the CMD tool

Connection out from

the slave unit SL RB OUT REMOTE

Connection for the bus

Hardware and software where DSQC344 is master
release identification

11/402

Figure 2 Front panel of the DSQC344

Legend of the slave unit’s LEDs:

RC Remote bus check. Monitoring of the input remote bus cable.

BA Bus Active. Signals an IBS transmission.

TR Transmit/Receive. It becomes active if data is to be exchanged.

RD Remote bus disabled. Indicates that the outgoing remote bus

interface is disabled.

InterBus-S for S4C Robot Controller 5

Description

2.3 I/O Modules

Up to 20 modules can be connected to the S4C system. The slave unit is counted as one.

Modules accommodating digital and/or analogue signals are allowed to be connected

to the bus where the robot controller is the master (master bus). For modules supported,
see below.

Digital Modules

The digital modules can be of 8 bits width or a multiple of 16 bits width.

Analogue Modules

Only the analogue units from Phoenix’s ST family, which are listed below, are sup-
ported.
IB ST 24 AI 4/SF
IB ST 24 AI 4/SF4
IB ST 24 AI 4/BP
IB ST 24 AI 4/I
IB ST 24 AO 4/SF
IB ST 24 AO 4/SF4
IB ST 24 AO 4/BP
IB ST 24 AO 4/I

Combined Modules

One module that comprises both digital and analogue signals from SCA Schucker
GmbH is supported. It has 32 digital output signals and 2 (16 bit) analogue output sig-
nals and 64 digital input signals. The ProductID is 03, DeviceType is 1002, and Ven-
dorId is 4. Furthermore, the module’s analogue signals must be specified as follows:
-Name myGlueUnit \
-Type SCA64\
-Bus IBS \
-Address 5.0 \
-Digin 64 -Digout 32 \
-Anin 0 -Anout 2 \
-PollRate 10 \
-Signals SCA_SIGNALS

SCA_SIGNALS = EIO_PHS_SIGNAL:
-Phsig 1 -Type AO \
-PhMax 10 -PhMin 0 \
-NoOfBits 16
-Phsig 2 -Type AO \
-PhMax 10 -PhMin 0 \
-NoOfBits 16

No other types of units are allowed to be connected to the master bus without the
approval of ABB.

6 InterBus-S for S4C Robot Controller

 Description

2.4 Software
Robot software with support for InterBus-S option.

PC software: Phoenix CMD application generation 4.

InterBus-S for S4C Robot Controller 7

DSQC344 Master Bus

3 DSQC344 Master Bus

3.1 Power-up
At power-up the InterBus-S Master net configuration definitions must be set in order to
be started. The DSQC344 board must be set to automatically start the InterBus-S com-
munication since the S4C assumes that as a precondition. In case of problems, the S4C
controller reports the cause and the I/O signals are inaccessible.

3.2 IO Configuration
The InterBus-S Master and Slave I/O configuration is set according to the contents of
the DSQC344 board’s internal configuration (flash memory or PCMCIA), and is then
compared to the I/O configuration data received from the S4C’s system parameters
configuration. Any deficiencies between the two I/O configurations are reported.

All modules connected to the master must have a specified DeviceType above 1000.

3.3 Internal Board Configuration

The DSQC344 board’s internal configuration (flash memory or PCMCIA) is pro-
grammed by a PC equipped with the generation 4 CMD application from Phoenix.

3.4 Alternate Groups

Groups are to be defined on the DSQC344 board’s internal configuration (flash mem-
ory or PCMCIA) by means of the CMD application. These groups are called alternate
groups. A group is a set of modules that comprises one or more modules.

A module in an alternative group should have the “-Disabled” parameter set in the con-
figuration of the unit. No other definitions are required in the S4C controller. The
“-Disabled” parameter will make the unit disconnected and all its signals inaccessible.
A “-Disabled” unit stays disconnected until it is connected by a RAPID instruction.

The modules in an alternate group are connected and disconnected by the standard
RAPID instructions “IOEnable” and “IODisable”.

IODisable tool_01, 5 (disconnect tool_01)

IOEnable tool_02, 12 (connect tool_02)

8 InterBus-S for S4C Robot Controller

 DSQC344 Master Bus

The name tool_01 points out a single I/O unit. When the IODisable instruction is exe-
cuted, all the group’s members are physically disconnected from the InterBus-S net.
However, from the S4C controllers point of view, only the single unit tool_01 is dis-
connected and inaccessible. Therefore, it is also necessary to disconnect each remain-
ing member of the group via its own IODisable instruction.

A unit that is physically disconnected but still accessible from the S4C, is called logi-
cally connected. A logically connected unit is treated by S4C as if the unit is still phys-
ically connected. Vice versa, a logically disconnected unit can still be physically
connected.

The physically disconnected but logically connected unit’s output signals can be
changed by the robot controller without any warning or error messages. The change of
an output signal for a physically disconnected unit can naturally not be carried out
physically. But the change will turn in effect as soon as the unit is connected again.
Input signal changes will not be detected by the S4C since it is physically disconnected.
However, the input signals are displayed on the teach pendant but the values are the
same as when the unit was physically disconnected.

When a member of a group is enabled again, all that group’s output signals, logically
changed or not, are transmitted to the physically re-connected I/O units.

Note 1: Be careful to enable/disable all units of a group1. Otherwise, one can end up
having all units of a group physically connected but one or several units logically dis-
connected. One disable instruction must have one and only one corresponding enable
instruction, therefore always use enable/disable as a pair.

To set the groups that should not be available after a power-up (or restart), set the
“-Disabled” parameter for each unit in the system parameter configuration. All other
units, without the “Disable” parameter, are set to be connected after the restart.

Note 2: Omitting the “-Disabled” parameter for a unit in an alternative group will acti-
vate the entire alternative group if it is physically connected and no error messages are
displayed.

3.5 Operation
The master operates independently of the slave unit.

One module must always be physically connected to the InterBus-S net otherwise an
error condition arises. The first unit on the InterBus-S net cannot be part of an alterna-
tive group. However, all modules can be logically disconnected without any error mes-
sages. Disconnecting all modules will physically disconnect each unit member of an
alternative group while the remaining units are still physically connected. Obviously,
none of the signals from the disconnected units will be accessible.

During operation it is not possible to restart the board without restarting the entire robot
controller. An attempt to restart only the board will unconditionally result in an error
situation.

1. Collecting all the group’s RAPID “disable <unit>” instructions in a function is recommended.

InterBus-S for S4C Robot Controller 9

DSQC344 Master Bus

3.6 Error Recovery

The S4C controller will report problems found during power-up, system restart, and
during operation of IB-S network communication. Any detected problems are reported
to the event log for IO and communication and displayed on the teach pendant. Each
error message shows the faulty module id and a type code, whenever such information
is available. However, it will not be possible to diagnose the IB-S network from the
teach pendant. In order to diagnose the IB-S network, a PC with the CMD application
must be connected to the RS232 port on the board.

At power-up the following diagnostics are carried out:

Faulty IB-S/ Yes Report faulty

VME board? board

No

Faulty dig- Yes Report faulty

ital I/O cfg? I/O configuration

No

Faulty IB-S Yes Report faulty

Master Net? IB-S network

No

When the S4C and the IB-S network is in operation, problems such as “error on the IB-
S network” and “faulty IB-S digital IO module” are detected and reported. All errors
reported by the InterBus-S M/S board are reported in the S4C’s event log.

10 InterBus-S for S4C Robot Controller

 DSQC344 Master Bus

The InterBus-S M/S board detects and reports four different types of problems. The
types are as listed in Table 1 where 3 indicates the most severe problem level and 0 the

Table 1: InterBus-S M/S error types

Problem types Severity

Board failure 3
Bus failure
Device failure 2
OUT failure
Peripheral failure 1
User command failure 0

least. An error of severity 3 disconnects all units and stops the access to the I/O signals
and a warm start of the S4C controller is required. During a restart of the S4C controller
the same procedure as for the power-up sequence is followed. The severity 2 error also
stops the access to the I/O signals but the S4C tries to recover from the error every five
seconds. Peripheral failure (severity 1) only stops the access to the I/O signals of the
faulty unit. An error recovery procedure is also executed every five seconds until the
problem is solved. “User command” errors are ignored.

InterBus-S communication in operation (run mode) is what the S4C is expecting.

When InterBus-S is not in operation it is treated as a severity 3 failure. Attempting to
only restart the board, by hardware or software, will unconditionally result in this type
of error.

Configuration changes carried out by the CMD application are local/internal to the
DSQC344 board and not detected by any other part of the S4C system. Problems aris-
ing from this must be manually recovered by a restart of the S4C controller.

When changing the DSQC344 board, the new board must be loaded with the configu-
ration from the PC’s CMD application and then the S4C controller must be restarted.

3.7 Limitations
No FMS, PMS, or PCP communication is supported. However, PCP modules can be
connected. Such modules must be defined in the system parameters as a digital I/O
unit. Naturally it is counted as one and it occupies the area of its specified number of
I/O signals.

InterBus-S for S4C Robot Controller 11

DSQC344 Slave Unit

4 DSQC344 Slave Unit

4.1 Power supply

The slave must be powered from the connector on the boards’s front panel in order to
work.

It is recommended that the slave has the same power source as its master.

4.2 IO configuration
It is possible to set the number of I/O signals of the slave module in steps of 16 input/
output signals, up to 128 input and 128 output signals. The number of input and output
signals must be the same.

The ProductID is 03 for the slave unit and its DeviceType must be above 1000.

4.3 Operation
The slave unit operates independently of the master.

The S4C controller always assumes that it has access to the slave I/O signals.

The input signal turns to 0 when the connected InterBus-S data transmission stops. So
if one of the input signals is set to 1, as soon as the bus is started, it is possible to deter-
mine whether the bus is working or not.

An attempt to restart the board will unconditionally result in a severity 3 error and the
slave unit will be logically disconnected. It will be impossible to restore access to the
unit without a restart of the robot controller.

The slave unit can be disconnected without any error messages although it is not pos-
sible to physically disconnect it.

4.4 Error Recovery

There is indication on the InterBus-S M/S board whether the slave is in operation or
not. So a defect is reported when the power supply is missing or when the unit’s soft-
ware is loaded. As soon as these type of errors are corrected, the unit recovers and will
become accessible again.

12 InterBus-S for S4C Robot Controller