JPH0444767B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a programmable controller that performs various control operations according to a program stored in a predetermined memory, and particularly to a programmable controller that displays its operating status on a display device in the form of a sequence diagram. This invention relates to an operating state monitoring method. Generally, in this type of display method, it is desirable that the state of the device to be controlled and the operation of the controller be displayed in a format that allows the user to understand at a glance, or in a format that makes it easy to analyze the state and operation.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a conventional example of such a display system, and FIG. 2 is an example of a sequence diagram. In FIG. 1, 1 is a controller control section, 2 is a program storage section, 3 is a bus, 4 is an input/output section, 4' is a keyboard including an operator console, 5 is an operating state monitoring control section, and 6 is a sequence diagram conversion section. , 7 is a sequence diagram storage unit, 8 is a display control unit, and 9 is a display device such as a CRT.

That is, the controller control unit 1 reads a predetermined program from the program storage unit 2 via the bus 3, and executes a predetermined control calculation based on the program. When the content of this program is related to input/output commands, for example, the controller control section 1 communicates data with the input/output section 4. On the other hand, when an instruction to monitor the operating state is given by specifying a program address from the keyboard 4' of the operator console, etc., the operating state monitoring control section 5 uses the keyboard 4' of the program storage section 2 to specify the program address via the bus 3. Read the program from the address specified. This program is converted into a predetermined sequence diagram by the sequence diagram conversion section 6 and stored in the sequence diagram storage section 7. Further, the operating state monitoring control section 5 reads out the state of the input/output section 4 corresponding to the sequence symbol stored in the sequence diagram storage section 7 via the bus 3, and stores it as on/off information in the sequence diagram storage section 7. Store. The display control section 8 displays a sequence diagram on the display device 9 based on the data stored in the sequence diagram storage section 7, for example, as shown in ~ in FIG. 2 are symbols representing contacts or switches, and symbols are representing output devices. Therefore,
It can be said that FIG. 2 displays the contents of a switch and a program in which a signal is given to an output device when the switch is turned "on." Note that the on/off information of the input/output device is expressed by, for example, the brightness or darkness of the display brightness. As described above, in the conventional method, (a) the contents of a program are displayed by specifying an arbitrary address using a keyboard or the like, so the display is performed regardless of whether the program is being executed or not.

(b) If the program is not executed in address order due to a conditional branch instruction (jump instruction), etc., the program execution order cannot be displayed. In other words, the display includes the jump destination program.

(c) It is not possible to display an instantaneous operation, for example, the state at the moment (instantaneous) when a switch with a predetermined number is turned on or off.

There are drawbacks such as.

This invention was made to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks, and it is possible to display programs executed by a programmable controller in the same order as the programs executed by the programmable controller. ) is intended to provide a monitoring method that can display the operation of

The feature is that the number and operating status data of the input/output equipment included in the command executed by the programmable controller are compared with the number and operating status data of the input/output equipment separately specified by the operator console etc. , memorize the execution commands and the operating status data of the input/output equipment until they match,
By reading and displaying the data stored when a match is made, it is possible to display the point at which the input/output device with the specified number reaches the specified state or the state of the controller up to that point. be.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of this invention, and FIG.
The figure is a block diagram showing the embodiment of FIG. 3 in more detail.
FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the structure of the trace buffer memory, and FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the instruction code format.

In FIG. 3, 10 is a trace buffer memory, 11 is an acquisition control device, 12 is a comparison device, and 1' is a programmable controller consisting of the controller control section, program storage section, input/output section, etc. shown in FIG. . Intake control device 11
As _shown in _FIG .
Similarly, the comparator 12 includes an input/output device operating state _{data comparator 12 1 and} an instruction comparator that compares instructions _, especially input/output device numbers included therein. 1
2 ₂ , an address comparison section 12 ₃ , etc. Note that 13 is a command storage section for storing commands given from the operator console 4', and the rest is the same as that shown in FIG. 1.

The operation will be explained with reference to FIGS. 4 to 6.

Since the controller control unit 1 outputs the program address via the bus 3, the program storage unit 2 outputs the command stored at the address output on the bus 3 to the bus 3. This results in
The controller control unit 1 takes in instructions via the bus 3 and decodes them. As a result, if the command is an input command, the input address, that is, the number information assigned to the input device is output, so that data from the corresponding input device of the input/output section 4 is output to the bus 3. After taking in the data output to the bus 3, the controller control unit 1 outputs the data to the bus 3 as an on/off state signal of the corresponding input device. On the other hand, if the instruction taken into the controller control section 1 is an output instruction, the control section 1 outputs the output address (output device number) and output data to the bus 3, so the corresponding output of the input/output section 4 Output the data to the device. Note that at this time, the control section 1 outputs an on/off state signal of the output device onto the bus.
In this way, the program address, instruction, and input/output device ON/OFF output to the path at each timing.
The off-state signal is stored in trace buffer memory 10. By repeating these operations sequentially, the buffer 10 stores the addresses (A ₁ to A _o ), instructions (B ₁ to _{B o} ) executed by the controller, and the input/output devices at the time of execution, as shown in FIG. On and off state information (C ₁ -C _o ) are respectively stored.

On the other hand, upon receiving an operating status monitoring instruction (input/output signal and status display instruction when it is turned on or off) from the keyboard 4', the monitoring device control unit 5 stores this instruction in the command storage unit 13, and also A detection start instruction is given to the detection unit ₁₁₁ .
The input/output data comparing section ₁₂₁ compares the on/off state signal of the input/output device taken in from the bus 3 with the on/off state data of the input/output stored in the command storage section 13, and determines whether they match. Outputs a match signal when The instruction comparison section ₁₂₂ consists of an operation section D and an input/output number section (address section) E, as shown in FIG. Compare with input/output number. When the match detection unit 11 ₁ receives a match signal from the input/output data comparison unit 12 ₁ and the instruction comparison unit 12 ₂ , it notifies the acquisition control unit 11 ₂ to that effect. The acquisition control unit 11 ₂ stops the acquisition of data into the trace buffer memory 10 and stores the address of the trace buffer memory 10 at that time in the storage unit 11 ₄ . When the monitoring device control unit 5 detects that the capture has stopped, it reads the already captured instruction from the address stored in the storage unit ₁₁₄ of the trace buffer memory 10, and converts it into a sequence diagram by the sequence diagram converter 6. and stores it in the storage unit 7. Also, buffer memory 1
The input/output on/off state taken into 0 is also stored in the storage unit 7 as, for example, display brightness information. In this way, trace buffer memory 1
0 stores the program executed by the controller until the information given from bus 3 about the input/output device number and its status data matches the information specified from the keyboard. It is possible to display the operating status at the moment (instant) when the input/output device with the specified number reaches the specified status (on/off). In addition,
The display control section 8 displays the data stored in the sequence diagram storage section 7 on the display device 9.

In the above, the operating state of the controller is displayed until the comparison device 12 detects a match or at the time when a specified phenomenon occurs, but if you also want to display the subsequent state, do as follows.

The coincidence detection section 11 ₁ is an input/output data comparison section 12 ₁
When a match signal is received from the instruction comparator 12 ₂ , a value of, for example, half of the total address area of the trace buffer memory 10 is set in the take-in counter 11 ₃ . As a result, the acquisition control unit 11
₂ subtracts the acquisition counter ₁₁₃ each time data is acquired, and when this value reaches zero, the acquisition is stopped. After the monitoring device control unit 5 detects this, the contents of the trace buffer memory 10 are By reading out the data in the same manner as described above, it is possible to display an amount of data corresponding to half the size of the buffer memory 10 after a match has been detected. In other words, if the size of the buffer memory 10 corresponds to the size of one display screen of the display device 9, the data at the time of coincidence detection can be placed in the center of the screen, and the data before and after it can be viewed in half. It goes without saying that the value set in the counter ₁₁₃ is selected as appropriate. Therefore, by scrolling up/down instructions from the keyboard 4', it is possible to read and display data from the address stored in the storage section ₁₁₄ of the trace buffer memory 10 to addresses ±n before and after it. It becomes possible. In addition, although the input/output device number and its status data are displayed above, the address comparison section 1 as shown in FIG.
By using 2 ₃ , the address executed by the controller can also be displayed.

As described above, according to the present invention, the execution command of the controller output to the bus, the state data or execution address of the input/output device at the time of execution are captured and stored, and these are stored by the specified input/output device number and When it compares with the status data and it matches, it stops importing the data and displays the data that has been imported up to that point, so it is possible to display the programs executed by the controller in the exact order in which they were executed. Instead, it is possible to display the operating state of the controller at the time when a given input/output device reaches a given state, making it possible to determine the state at a glance, which has the effect of making operation analysis easier. It is something that brings.

Note that the present invention can be applied not only to monitoring the operating state of a program controller as described above, but also to developing or maintaining a program (software) for a controller.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram showing a conventional example of a monitoring device for monitoring the operating state of a programmable controller, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a sequence diagram, and FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. , FIG. 4 is a detailed block diagram showing the embodiment of FIG. 3 in more detail, FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the structure of the trace buffer memory, and FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the instruction code format. Description of symbols, 1...Controller control unit, 1'...
... Programmable controller, 2 ... Program storage section, 3 ... System bus, 4 ... Input/output section, 5 ... Operating state monitoring control section, 6 ... Sequence diagram conversion section, 7 ... Sequence diagram storage section, 8 ……
Display control unit, 9... Display device, 10... Trace buffer memory, 11... Capture control device, 11
₁ ... Match detection section, 11 ₂ ... Import control section, 11
₃ ...Intake counter, 11 ₄ ...Trace buffer address storage section, 12...Comparison device, 12 ₁ ...
...Input/output data comparison section, 12 ₂ ...Instruction comparison section,
12 ₃ ... address comparator, 13 ... command storage section, 4' ... keyboard (operator console).

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Sequentially stores instructions that are read out from a predetermined memory onto a common bus and executed by the programmable controller, and operational status data of input and output devices that are input from input devices or output to output devices by executing the instructions. a trace buffer memory, a comparator that compares input and output device numbers and their operating status data included in the instruction code provided via the common bus with data provided via a separate specifying means; an acquisition control means for receiving a comparison match signal from the comparator and stopping the acquisition of the data into the trace buffer memory and storing the address of the memory at that time; and a trace buffer designated by the stored address. and display means for reading and displaying the contents of the memory,
An operating state monitoring method for a programmable controller, characterized in that the control operating state at the time when at least input and output equipment with a designated number reaches the designated operating state is displayed in the order of execution.