Hello everyone,
New member, but have lurked around in the past when working with the Vision series controllers. I recently started a project with a Unistream controller. I completed a nearly identical project in the past, but using the Vision controller. I've run into a couple of issues with communication on the Unistream.
The first issue I had was MODBUS over RS485. We are using 38.4kbps, 8N1 as the settings. I set this communication up with a Schneider Altivar 61 drive. It was configured exactly like the connection we had with the Vision controller, except now using the Unistream. The main issue we noticed is that it would successfully communicate for 3-5 sessions, but then start just dropping all sessions. The one thing to note is that during development, we use a short run of shielded twisted pair cable with a ground to connect RS485 and add a 120 ohm resistor on the drive end, turn on the termination in the Unistream. Not the ideal connection, but this works on the Vision controller just fine. Could the cable/resistor be the issue, or am I missing something else? I would ideally like to use MODBUS over RS485, as this project will communication with many drives over time. Loading a new EDS based on the drive would require me to modify the program and we'd like to have it be more configurable by an operator.
Due to the above issue with MODBUS, we decided to give CANopen a try. We were able to successfully get that communication working. We loaded in an EDS file from Schneider, which at first worked. Once we tried to modify the PDOs at all, Unilogic would not compile. Unitronics helped us out on that end and found that there was an issue parsing the EDS file (there were some extra spaces). Once that was resolved, we ran into another issue.
Now, when we try to modify the default addresses on PDO1, we get an EDS initialization error. When we look at the error, it complains that we are trying to set 0x1800/0x01 (the COB-ID) to 0x80000194. I am actually not modifying the COB-ID (leaving it default, which should be 0x00000194, NodeID is 20). I have even tried entering 0x0194 (#H0194) in the EDS configuration, but I still get the same error. Anybody know what I am missing here?
I covered a lot of ground up there, with not a lot of detail. I can provide more info, but I am not sure what you guys would need. I am posting some links to the files of the drive in case that helps:
Altivar CANopen manual: https://www.schneider-electric.com/en/download/document/1755865/
EDS file: https://www.schneider-electric.com/en/download/document/ATV61_CANopen_V2.1/
Thanks,
Manuel