Using i/o data in your application, Using i/o data in your application -8 – National Instruments NI-DNET User Manual

Page 39

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Chapter 4

NI-DNET Programming Techniques

NI-DNET User Manual

4-8

ni.com

For strobed and polled I/O connections, determination of a valid

ExpPacketRate

can be somewhat complex. If you have trouble

estimating an

ExpPacketRate

value for strobed/polled I/O, set the

PollMode

parameter of your initial call to

ncOpenDnetIntf

to

Automatic

. When you use this automatic EPR feature, the

ExpPacketRate

parameter of

ncOpenDnetIO

is ignored for

strobed/polled I/O (

ConnectionType

of

Strobe

or

Poll

), and NI-DNET

calculates a safe EPR value for you. This automatic EPR is the same for all
strobed and polled I/O connections (scanned I/O).

After you start communication, you can use the

ncGetDriverAttr

function to determine the value calculated for

ExpPacketRate

. From that

value, you can then experiment with other

ExpPacketRate

configurations

using

PollMode

of

Scanned

or

Individual

.

The following information is used by NI-DNET to calculate a safe EPR:

NI-DNET assumes that it is the only master in your DeviceNet system.

The

BaudRate

parameter of

ncOpenDnetIntf

determines the time

taken for each message.

The

InputLength

and

OutputLength

parameters of each

ncOpenDnetIO

determine the time needed for each I/O message.

NI-DNET assumes that each strobed/polled I/O device can respond to
its command within 2 ms.

NI-DNET sets aside a fixed amount of time for explicit messages. This
time depends on the baud rate.

Using I/O Data in Your Application

Appendix A,

DeviceNet Overview

, explains that the data transferred to and

from a DeviceNet device on an I/O connection is usually processed by an
Assembly Object within the slave device. Input assemblies represent the
data received by NI-DNET from a remote device, and output assemblies
represent data that NI-DNET transmits to a remote device.

To use a device’s I/O data within your application, you need to understand
the contents of its input and output assemblies. You can find this
information in the following places:

Printed documentation provided by the device’s vendor.

If the device conforms to a standard device profile, the I/O assemblies
are defined within the DeviceNet Specification.

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