ProSoft Technology 5202-DFNT-DFCM4 - Manual (Page 10)

Functional Overview DFCM ♦ ProLinx Gateway
Driver Manual DF1 Master/Slave
Page 10 of 88 ProSoft Technology, Inc.
October 15, 2010
1.1 Master/Slave Serial Port(s)
The ProLinx module supports the DF1 protocol as a Master or Slave on up to
four ports. Each of the ports is individually configurable.
The relationship between the port labeling on the front of the ProLinx module and
the application is as follows:
Port Label Function
Debug Debug/Configuration
Port 0 DF1 Port 0
Following ports only exist on multiple port units
Port 1 DF1 Port 1
Port 2 DF1 Port 2
Port 3 DF1 Port 3
One or more DF1 protocol master ports can be configured on the module to
continuously interface with DF1 slave devices over a serial communication
interface (RS-232, RS-422 or RS-485). Each port is configured independently.
Support for half-duplex (master-slave) and full-duplex (point-to-point) DF1 links
are provided on the ports. User defined commands determine the commands to
be issued on each port. Up to 100 commands can be defined for each port. Data
read from the devices are placed in the virtual database. Any write requests for
the DF1 slave devices are sourced with data from the virtual database.
The module can be configured to place slave devices that are not responding to
commands from the master ports at a lower priority. If the module recognizes that
a slave device has failed to respond to a message after the user defined retry
count, it will mark the slave as "in communication failure" and set the error delay
counter to the specified value. Each time the module encounters this slave in the
command list, the counter will be decremented. When the value reaches zero,
the slave will be placed in an active status. This facility can improve
communication throughput on the network.
If the DF1 master port is configured to support the DF1 half-duplex protocol, the
master port can be used to route messages between slaves. Peer-to-peer
communication is accomplished by the master constantly polling all the slaves on
the network and relaying the messages received. The slaves must contain ladder
logic with MSG commands to generate and accept messages. This routing can
be used in conjunction with the normal command processing discussed above.
DF1 slave devices can be emulated on the module to interface with remote DF1
master devices. Each port is configured independently. Support for half-duplex
(master-slave) and full-duplex (point-to-point) DF1 links are provided on the
ports. Simulation of a selected set of functions from the basic, PLC5 and SLC
command sets are supported. Virtual files are mapped to the internal database in
the module to provide support of the PLC5 and SLC command sets.