BK02. How to Simulate BECKHOFF TwinCAT PLC Project via Virtual Machine System

[@ryno9732]

thank you very much for going through the effort of making these videos. theres been alot of videos that i have seen about beckhoff. THIS IS THE BEST SO FAR> you show all the details and technicalities which is very insightful

[@electricalautomation]

Thanks for your watching and your comments. There will be a couple of videos regarding Beckhoff PID videos (PID 26 -PID30) to be launched in this month. The PID 21 - PID 25 can be found from the playlist kzbin.info/aero/PL762SfoJC-e_1CtDQoRe6PYEG6Iz_zdvz. Thanks again!

[@paulfreed6394]

have to agree.

[@Sdik8cj]

@@electricalautomation Please, please,please... Hello Sir, I'm stuck at 5:59. I installed TwinCAT XAE and then VMware Workstation Pro but I can't see the ‘Player’ tab and I can't see the ‘Virtual Machine Settings’ icon either. I tried Ctrl+D but nothing. Please help me. Thank you very much.

[@jorgeavalos4429]

Thanks!

[@electricalautomation]

Thanks very much!

[@jorgeavalos4429]

@@electricalautomation no, thank you, your channel is awesome and I have learned more here than in school 🫡🍻

[@paulfreed6394]

Thanks for sharing. I was batling with the simulation without hardware. This was a great help.

[@electricalautomation]

Glad it helped! Thanks for your watching!

[@Sdik8cj]

Hello Sir, I'm stuck at 5:59. I installed TwinCAT XAE and then VMware Workstation Pro but I can't see the ‘Player’ tab and I can't see the ‘Virtual Machine Settings’ icon either. I tried Ctrl+D but nothing. Please help me. Thank you very much.

[@electricalautomation]

VMware Workstation Pro should have the similar option to allow you going into the settings for the ''Virtual machine settings', unless your VM is limited by the license or incorrect installation.

[@Sdik8cj]

@@electricalautomation Thank you very much for responding. I'll keep looking. If there is ever a way to send you printscreens that would be nice (mail, Discord, Telegram or other). But I think what bothers me is the "Player" tab in XAE, I don't have it but I will try to continue the tutorial differently.

[@Sdik8cj]

@@electricalautomation Thank you very much Sir, I was able to get through it.

[@electricalautomation]

@@Sdik8cj Glad to hear that!

[@AliDINÇER-d2q]

Thank you for video. It was really clear 🙏🙂

[@electricalautomation]

Glad it was helpful!

[@jorgeavalos4429]

Hey! thanks for the tips, i figured a work around but would like to know why this happens? maybe you have seen it, I can only simulate local if I first disable "Device 1(EtherCAT)" that has only a EL1889 for inputs and EL2889 for outputs: (once it goes online I eneble it back and nothing crashes and I did all in your video like write values etc.. Error starting TwinCAT system! Init12\O: Set State TComObj SAFEOP: Set Objects (4) to SAFEOP >> AdsError: 1823 (0x71f, ADS ERROR: device aborted the action) For further information start the event viewer and open the application log. 9/20/2024 4:34:28 PM 513 ms I 'TwinCAT System' (10000): Sending ams command > > Init12\IO: Set State TComObj SAFEOP: Set Objects (4) to SAFEOP > > AdsError. 1823 (0x71f, ADS ERROR: device aborted the action)

[@electricalautomation]

When you are doing simulation, you should 'disable' all your I/Os, then run the 'local' for testing your program

[@jorgeavalos4429]

@@electricalautomation thank you! 🫡🫡🫡, I'm learning so much, you are a good teacher. And we all appreciate it. Cheers!

[@nythuSree]

Hai Sir, I am facing trouble at the timestamp in your video 8:18, where I cannot change the change number of cores of isolated to 1, when I set the shared number to 1 then automatically the isolated is 3, and if the shared is 2, then isolated is 2 as well, when shared is 3 the isolated is 1. So Can you please tell me how can keep both the values to 1. Thanks in advance

[@electricalautomation]

You have to use the isolated core running as your PLC CPU.

[@yoghurtedchikenpneumatics749]

great job man

[@electricalautomation]

Thanks, welcome!

[@alexanderwallberg640]

Amazing video! Thank you so much!!!

[@electricalautomation]

Glad you liked it! Thanks for your watching!

[@pnntmp457]

All this works, thanks for the tutorial. But can you connect to and control EtherCAT slaves (e.g. servo drives) from TwinCAT running in a virtual machine? I can't make it work, when I scan for devices it finds nothing. If I switch target from to a physical Beckhoff PLC it finds EtherCAT slaves, but from it does not. Does this need some extra licenses added, or some configuration of the virtual machine network adapter? Thanks.

[@electricalautomation]

Hi As I understand, the means 'internal' or simulation. If you are trying to connect actual device, you need to switch 'target' to an actual device's IP address. Meantime, you also need to do some settings on your virtual machine to allow your VM to connect in an actual device. I would have a actual beckhoff controller and EtherCAT devices in 2-3 weeks. I will record how to connect a controller and scan the EtherCAT device once I have them.

[@electricalautomation]

I did use virtual machine to program, connect a Beckhoff controller before, as well as let the controller find the EtherCAT valve bank. VM should work for the online connection.

[@electricalautomation]

Hi , if you try to "scan EtherCAT slave", your TwinCAT3 target must be connecting with "CX" controller instead of , and you must switch the CX controller into "configuration mode" rather than run mode. Beckhoff calls this mode is "Free Run" Status (configuration mode, but scan the EtherCAT slave ) I just tried today. At this mode, the icon on your bottom line of the TwinCAT will show Red/Blue Flashing

[@electricalautomation]

Please check this video : kzbin.info/www/bejne/eJabZ6Sofqyjq5o BK04. How to Connect Beckhoff Controller using TwinCAT 3 (2 Scenarios)

[@AudioJunkie79]

You can use TC3 inside a VM and control EtherCAT slave devices. I have found that in my VM's with VMware 15 and Windows 10 it doesn't work. The Ethernet Port disappears in the VM when the realtime driver is applied to that port. However, Win7 64bit or 32bit works like a champ. There is a lag with TwinSAFE. You would probably see Watchdog errors. I have seen this in my testing. These can be adjusted in the project but would need to be set back to defaults when real hardware is used. For regular IO it works really well for bench testing and development work. To get this all to work you have to have your VM network settings correct so that the VM nic can see the outside world. Then it works just fine.

[@yannsieyadjeu]

Hi sir, what VM are you using?

[@electricalautomation]

I am using VMware

[@michagoralczyk6335]

Thank you so much! You are so helpfull!

[@electricalautomation]

I glad it helps. Thanks for watching!

[@nuttapronp3185]

I’m very new with PLC. I try to learn by myself and mine it shows avoided by HyperV. What should I do? 😢

[@electricalautomation]

Go to your laptop BIOS, and turn off this option.

[@MrBlendino]

Great job man! One question: I have download the plc project from real target , when I try to go online, is asking about Login with online changes. Two projects are identical if i compare with target system. Do you have any idea why that happen? Thank you.

[@electricalautomation]

May be the time stamp in the project, or the project was opened by different TwinCAT version. If you think there is no change on the PLC code, then just login the project to refresh the online code.

[@aaposour3305]

Hello do you know how to change the color config on background for the code edit area , I want make the black background and white text

[@3atze381]

Thank you!

[@electricalautomation]

Thanks!

[@ptipupu]

Thank you for this really GREAT video ! I wish the all Beckhoff's documentation would be so clearly explained ;-) I have 2 questions: About the Real Time setting of the VM. Set on Target returns me 16 core. Should I assign more then 1 core as isolated ? and if I do, what will be the setting between I/O, PLC task and PLC aux. task ?... 2nd Question: 9 months ago, pnn tmp asked you (here below) about connecting a device (e.g. EK1100) via EtherCAT to the VM ? Did you maneged ? I'm using now TC3 on WS10 and at moment, I failed...

[@electricalautomation]

Hello Q1: At Real-Time item, you can assign multiple cores. This assignment depends on the actual cores of your beckhoff hardware controller. Using VM is a brief test, so one core for testing is enough. From application view, you might have Motiontask under the hierarchy. The Motiontask is recommended to assign a dedicated core. Other tasks can be assigned in one cores. Sometimes the VISU_TASK HMI task can be assigned to be separated with PlcTask.

[@electricalautomation]

Q2: Using 'Simulation' or when set Target is "Local" is basically used to test program or code only. At this moment, you items under the I/O->Devices-> EtherCAT should be set as "Disable". So there is no way to communicate with actual external devices. Once you use a real beckhoff controller (e.g. CX9020) + EK1122, then the controller has EtherCAT Master function, it can connect EK1100(EtherCAT) station. (Tips: Likely a PC can be installed with EtherCAT Driver to run as EtherCAT Master, But I never tried that and never saw any actual project using this way. Personally I still highly recommend using Beckhoff controller to implement EtherCAT communication)

[@electricalautomation]

Please let me know if you found some explanations got something wrong or the answers have some missing.

[@jokerindia6875]

Is Twin CAT software Open source!!