Studio 5000 Logix Designer:  A Learning Guide for ControlLogix Basics

This book illustrates the use of Studio 5000 Logix Designer.  Many have found the transition to the ControlLogix platform and programming methods somewhat challenging.   This book has been written to help you easily gain a solid grasp of essentials for effectively using Studio 5000 Logix Designer  software.

As you build expertise in using these techniques, you will develop a greater level of mastery in the field of industrial automation.  Familiarity with these concepts directly lead to increased skill level and will ultimately save you time and frustration when troubleshooting a problem and getting critical equipment back into production.

I have endeavored, throughout the book, to discuss each topic in an easy, conversational style of writing, and to revisit various methods more than once – reinforcing newly learned concepts.

Here is a brief excerpt on the topic of Producer & Consumer Tags:

Creating Produced & Consumed Tags:

    These important tag types provide a method for sharing data between different controllers on a single network.  This transfer of data is set to occur according to configured RPI intervals of the receiving controllers, and doesn’t require the use of program logic to send or receive.  Here is a simple diagram of several controllers in a network, such as an EtherNet/IP network, that could share data by the use of produced and consumed tags.

 A producer tag contains the data to be sent or broadcast – from Controller 1 in this illustration.  The consumer tag is configured in Controllers 2, 3 and 4 – and will receive the data.  In other words, any data produced by one controller needs a “place to call home” at its consumer location.  The consumed tag provides that place, on each receiving controller, by defining a name and data type so the data can be stored and used by the logic on that particular controller (the consumer).

For a simple example, let’s say we want to use the following ladder logic to pass along the accumulated value of a counter to another controller that is controlling a conveyor system, and located in a remote area of a manufacturing plant.  The tag, "Part_Count_Limit", can be the produced tag, available to the other controller, the consumer, on its network. 

Many other topics are discussed, including methods of addressing, tag creation, the use of Add-On instructions and User-Defined Data types, using the GSV and SSV instructions to acquire status information, and the programming of data arrays and fault-routines.