Trying my first conversion to AS6 from an existing AS4 project. We use the library DataObj to create / read / write data modules for saving all our plant engineering parameters directly on the PLC CPU. Within our SCADA we have tools to upload the data modules to the PC HDD so then we can use B&R RUC tool to transfer to another CPU (backup purposes). For this first conversion I have tried transferring the data modules using RUC V6 - but I get error 11150 which I assume is because the data modules were created on AR4 and not compatible with AR6.
Is this correct that the data modules are not compatible?
If not compatible then any chance of a conversion tool so we can save our plant engineering parameters: *.br modules from AR4 format to AR6 format? Could this be detected in the RUC V6 tool and automatically converted? It would be a huge task for each site to manually enter all the current values as well as mistake prone.
Example RUC created:
Hello,
there is no converter I would know of. If you have the original dataobject you could simply copy&paste the contents of a AS4.x dataobject into a new created dataobject with AS6.x but there is a second issue.
Single download of BR modules is no longer possible and you will get an error - this includes dataobjects.
Please see online help for this:
B&R Online Help
Basically “download” is no longer available and was replaced by project installation but this also results in no longer being able to download a single BR module
best regards
Oliver
Thanks for your reply Oliver.
I did not expect a conversion tool - more hope than anything.
Just to be clear we do not create the data objects in AS. We actually call DatObjCreate in the PLC program to create the data objects at run time - so the data object never exists in AS, only on the PLC CPU. This allows us to not worry about managing data objects - the PLC creates the data objects as required.
I have tested the individual *.br module downloads of data object using Runtime Utility Center V6 and it works fine which is great for how we manage our data objects.
Hi,
just as “crazy idea” about converting:
as I understood, the change from ASW6 to 4 affects the header and footer section of *.br modules, but not the content itself.
As long as the content of the module keeps compatible from your AS4 to AS6 project (compatible in direction of the usage of the content in your projects - depends on what and how you store it inside the data object), maybe a combination of using ArSim 4.x and 6.x could act as “converter” by:
- in ArSim 4 - using DataObj library to read the content from the dataobject, and store that content to a binary file by FileIO library
- in ArSim 6 - reading binary file by FileIO and create a datamodule with that content using DataObj
Many years ago, I had to do something similar and made a “dummy project” for just reading module and store content into file and vice versa.
Best regards!
I like the idea of @alexander.hefner
Using FileIO library would mean you can “export” the data to a file (probably on a USB stick) and then load the data via FileIO back to a dataobject on a second machine
Similar to an “export/Import” function
Ok not totally crazy idea at all.
Will take some investigating & work but that is definitely one path of attack. I can see that working.
My other path is try to work out the br file format for data objects and write a low level file data conversion routine. Job for someone else at my company.
I’ll set this topic to complete and have a beer (6pm here in Aus).
Hi @Jason_Z,
here is the code of the mentioned implementation, should it be helpful in any way (contains the library doing the copy content job + simple lib. usage sample, packed together as AS4 project).
dmfileAS4.zip (153.4 KB)
Enjoy the beer! I’ll have one soon too 