BASEstar Open DAS for Allen-Bradley PLCs on_Digital_UNIX[TM]_________________________________ Release Notes Operating System and Version: Digital UNIX Version 4.0 Software Version: Device Access Software for Allen-Bradley PLCs, Version 3.1 Digital Equipment Corporation Maynard, Massachusetts ________________________________________________________________ March 1997 Possession, use, or copying of the software described in this publication is authorized only pursuant to a valid written license from Digital or an authorized sublicensor. Digital Equipment Corporation makes no representations that the use of its products in the manner described in this publication will not infringe on existing or future patent rights, nor do the descriptions contained in this publication imply the granting of licenses to make, use, or sell equipment or software in accordance with the description. The following are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation: Alpha, BASEstar, DEComni, Digital, OpenVMS, TK, VAX, VMS, and the Digital logo. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries licensed exclusively through X/Open Company Ltd. PLC, PLC-2, PLC-3 and PLC-5 are registered trademarks of Allen-Bradley Company Inc. SLC, SLC 500, SLC 5/01, SLC 5/02, SLC 5/03, SLC 5/04 are trademarks of Allen-Bradley Company, Inc. Data Highway and Data Highway Plus are trademarks of Allen- Bradley Company, Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective holders. This document was prepared using DEC DOCUMENT Version 3.0. _________________________________________________________________ Contents 1 New and Changed Features for 3.1.............. 1 1.1 Support for DEComni V3.1.................. 1 1.2 Support for BASEstar Open V3.1............ 1 1.3 Support for SLC 500 Family of PLCs........ 1 1.4 Support for Write Indications............. 1 1.5 Support for PLC-2 Write Commands.......... 1 1.6 Group Variables and SMA_MODE.............. 1 1.7 Support for TELNET........................ 1 1.8 Improved Error Messages................... 2 2 Problems Fixed in This Release................ 2 2.1 Total Byte Count Calculation.............. 2 2.2 Duplicate Transaction Number.............. 2 3 Known Restrictions............................ 2 3.1 Restriction on Devices on a Line.......... 2 4 Known Problems................................ 2 5 Documentation Errata.......................... 3 iii 1 New and Changed Features for 3.1 The following changes are included in this release: 1.1 Support for DEComni V3.1 Support was added for DEComni V3.1. 1.2 Support for BASEstar Open V3.1 Support was added for BASEstar Open V3.1. 1.3 Support for SLC 500 Family of PLCs Support for the SLC 500 family of PLCs has been added. Supported models include SLC 500, SLC 5/01, SLC 5/02, SLC 5/03, and SLC 5/04. A new protocol profile number of 54 has been added for use with SLC devices. 1.4 Support for Write Indications The DAS now supports write indications in addition to information reports as a mechanism to receive unsolicited data. For the SLC family of PLCs only write indications are supported. The DAS generates a write indication rather than an information report if a local VMD is configured. See the BASEstar Open documentation for details on configuring a local VMD. 1.5 Support for PLC-2 Write Commands The DAS supports PLC-2 protected and unprotected write commands for all families of PLCs in addition to the native PLC family write command. 1.6 Group Variables and SMA_MODE The DAS now supports omni_group_variables and the SMA_MODE ENABLED flag in creating a protocol profile. This support allows variables in a pollset to be read as a group rather than individually. The DAS limits variables in a group to all have an address that is in the same PLC file. 1.7 Support for TELNET TELNET support has been added to the DAS. The DAS now allows access to a terminal server using the TELNET protocol. 1 1.8 Improved Error Messages More error messages have been added to allow better diagnosing of communications problems. 2 Problems Fixed in This Release The following problems from the previous release were fixed in this release: 2.1 Total Byte Count Calculation Previously, the total byte count calculated for data in a packet was incorrect if DLE (hex 10) bytes were received in a data packet from a device. The effect of the miscalculation caused data to be corrupted in the first data packet received from the device in a multi-packet data transfer. 2.2 Duplicate Transaction Number Duplicate transaction messages were being generated when no duplicate transaction actually existed. This problem could occur when both the host and the PLC sent the same transaction number. The DAS now distinguishes between transactions sent by the host and those sent by the PLC in determining if the same transaction has been sent more than once. 3 Known Restrictions The following restrictions exist in this release: 3.1 Restriction on Devices on a Line All devices configured on a particular line must be accessed using a single process. This restriction exists because all devices on a line must share the same physical port. 4 Known Problems There are no known problems as of this release. 2 5 Documentation Errata There are no documentation corrections at this time. 3