Cognex Designer and Profinet
Network Configuration
You use the Cognex Comm Card Configurator to set the following network parameters:
● TCP/IP addressing mode (DHCP or Static)
● Network address and subnet (Static mode only)
● Host name and (optionally) station name for PROFINET
● Settings, Remote Station and Device Addressing for SLMP
Note: Only a single application program can communicate with the Communication Card at a time. Make sure
that Designer is not running before you launch the Configurator.
There are two methods to launch the Cognex Comm Card Configurator:
● From the Installer, select the Utilities tab and double-click on the Cognex Comm Card Configurator icon.
● Select Cognex -> VisionPro -> Utilities -> Cognex Comm Card Configurator.
The Configurator displays the following window:
You can use the controls at the top of the window to specify the host name, select between DHCP and static
addressing, and in the case of static addressing, specify the IP address and subnet mask. You should select the
network settings that are appropriate for the network to which the card is connected.
Note: The Comm Card Configurator does not change your PC's network settings, only the settings used by the
Cognex Communication Card.
The Active Card Settings portion of the window displays the current settings of the card. These settings may be
different from the card's stored settings in some cases (such as when a PROFINET device alters the active card
settings). Whenever you change a setting and press Apply, both the active and stored settings are updated.
The Network Status portion of the window displays the current link status (whether the device is physically
connected to a network) and interface status (whether the activated IP settings permit the card to communicate
on an IP network).
PROFINET PLC Configuration
To set up a PROFINET I/O connection between your Vision Controller or Communication Card and a Siemens
controller, the vision system must first be added to the controller's hardware configuration, using the Siemen's
HW Config tool:
1. Open the SIMATIC manager and load the PLC's project.
2. Select the SIMATIC 300 or SIMATIC 400 node, then double-click on the Hardware node in the object
list.
3. The HW Config tool will now appear. In order to add PROFINET IO nodes to the controller, a PROFINET
IO system must be present in the hardware configuration diagram; if there isn't a PROFINET IO system
in the diagram, complete the following steps:
a. Ensure that the PROFINET IO interface on the CPU has been assigned a subnet address; to
verify this, double-click on the PROFINET IO module on the CPU. If the PROFINET IO
module's Networked status indicates "No," then click the Properties button and add a new
subnet.
b. Once the PROFINET IO interface on the CPU has been assigned a subnet, add a PROFINET
IO system to the hardware configuration diagram by right-clicking the PROFINET IO module in
the PLC configuration and selecting Insert PROFINET IO System.
4. If this is the first Vision Controller or Communication card to be added to the PROFINET network, the
Cognex-supplied GSD file will need to be installed. To install the GSD file, follow these steps:
Note: VisionPro and Cognex Designer include two GSD files, one for the Cognex Vision Controller and
one for the Cognex Communication Card.
a. From the HW Config tool, select Options > Install GSD Files from the menu.
b. Press the Browse button and select the folder C:\Program Files\Cognex\VisionPro\ffp\gsd.
c. Press the Select All button, then click the Install button to install the hardware description both
system types.
5. To add a your system to a PROFINET network, browse to the appropriate node of the Hardware Catalog
(PROFINET IO > Additional Field Devices > Controllers> Cognex Vision Controllers or PROFINET
IO > Additional Field Devices > Network Components> Cognex Communications Devices ), and
then drag an instance of the desired vision system into the PROFINET IO System in the hardware
configuration.
6. Set the device name and IP address to the exact name and IP address of the device that you
configured.
7. The Vision Controller or Communication Card should now be displayed as a device on the PROFINET
IO system.
Note: Note: If an underscore was used in the device name, the underscore will have to be replaced by a hyphen
when the vision system's name is input in PROFINET. For example, if the system was named "System_Top"
using the Comm Card Configurator, it will need to be renamed to "System-Top" in PROFINET.
PROFINET System Information
PROFINET -- Cognex PROFINET -- Vision Controller
Communication Card
Vendor ID 0x0137 0x0137
Device ID 0x0008 0x0008
Product Code 0x10D 0x802
Family Name "Cognex "Cognex Vision Controllers"
Communications
Devices"
Product Name "Communication Card "Vision Controller VC5"
CC24"
Product Description "Communication Card" "Vision Controller"
PROFINET Support
● Support for cyclic connections with 1 – 1024ms cycle times.
● Support for cyclic connections with 1440 bytes of user data and inspection result.
Network Data Model
The Cognex Network Data Model (NDM) allows both the vision application (written by you in Cognex Designer)
and the corresponding PLC application (running on the PLC) to interact with a familiar, platform-appropriate
interface.
On the PLC, the NDM is represented as a signal table. The signal table defines a collection of status and control
signals that the PLC and the vision application use to communicate. Signals are represented as named sections
consisting of one or more bits of memory on the PLC. The overall signal table is represented as a pair of
sub-tables that define the overall layout of the signal bits:
● A status table, that contains the signals and memory that are set by the vision application and read by
the PLC application.
● A control table, that contains the signals and memory that are set by the PLC application and read by
the vision application.
Note: The SLMP connection uses a modified version of the NDM signal table layout. For Mitsubishi customers,
bit-typed data is stored in bit registers in the PLC, and word-type data is stored in word registers in the PLC. Due
to this implementation, bit data is never grouped with word data in a data block, which allows these data items to
be addressed separately in the PLC.
The PLC implementation also includes blocks of memory that can be used for sending configuration information
to the vision application (such as the name of a job to load ) and for sending results data to the PLC (such as a
decoded string or a collection of part measurements).
Within the vision application, the NDM is represented as a collection of notification functions and events. Your
application invokes the notification functions to raise or lower the state of a signal in the signal table. Your
application is notified of signal state changes by writing handlers for the NDM events.
Note: The NDM imposes a collection of constraints on the virtual signals. The state of a signal may be
changeable or not changeable, from both the PC application and the PLC application, depending on the value of
other signals and on the internal state of the NDM. The SLMP specific NDM signal table groups the NDM signals
into four blocks, with each block containing only single bit signals, or signals that take up an entire word.
The following figure provides an overview of how the NDM works, and how it supports communication between
your vision application and your PLC.
The sequence of events shown in the preceding figure is simplified; in practice, communication tasks are
implemented with a series of signal changes.
