FieldServer FS-8700-40 - Manual (Page 10)

FS-8700-40 SBT FSI Driver Manual Page 10 of 32
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can be used to map multiple panels with various numbers of modules into a packed array to be read by the
Server side of the FieldServer.
2 When the customer receives a Communication FieldServer with the default driver installed, the configuration
is set to poll 2 MXL/XLS devices once per second.
3 In addition to the two sets of event counters, alarm bit arrays are set up for 8 modules (1 to 8) per device. If
the required configuration falls within this size, only the Server side of the FieldServer needs to be configured.
To connect to a device using Modbus RTU protocol, configure the interface as if the FieldServer were another
Modbus PLC and create a Map Descriptor to assign a Modbus address (such as 40001) to the Counts Data
Array so that it can be read by the Modbus bus master.
4 If the customer has different panel numbers, the Nodes section of the configuration file will need to be
changed. To add more panels, add Node entries and Map Descriptors by copying the original ones and
modifying the Panel number entries and Data Array offsets. To access panels with more modules, first
increase the Data Array lengths. If the extra modules are contiguous, the Map Descriptors for that panel can
have their lengths increased also. If there are large gaps in the numbering of the module, it will be more
efficient to add additional Map Descriptors by copying the ones that are given and modifying the
Block_Number to start at the next existing module number.
5 While the creation of passive Client-side Map Descriptors is optional, error messages will appear when events
arrive for which Map Descriptors cannot be found. It is therefore recommended that Map Descriptors
(especially ack mapdescs) be allocated even if only as dummies to prevent nuisance error messages.
The configuration file tells the FieldServer about its interfaces, and the routing of data required. In order to enable
the FieldServer for SBT-FSI communications, the driver independent FieldServer buffers need to be declared in the
“Data Arrays” section, the destination device addresses need to be declared in the “Client Side Nodes” section, and
the data required from the Servers needs to be mapped in the “Client Side Map Descriptors” section. Details on
how to do this can be found below.
Note that in the tables, * indicates an optional parameter, with the bold legal value being the default.