node-red-contrib-ads-client (TwinCAT ADS client for Node-RED)

TwinCAT ADS client for Node-RED (unofficial). Basically a Node-RED wrapper on battle-tested ads-client Node.js library.

Project status

The ads-client library used under the hood is battle-tested and reliable.

Not all features are yet in this Node-RED port version work is in progress.

Features

Target is to have all same features as the ads-client has.

• TwinCAT 2 and TwinCAT 3 support
• Supports connecting to the local TwinCAT 3 runtime (see enabling localhost support)
• Supports multiple connections from the same host
• Reading and writing all any PLC variable
• Subscribing to PLC variables (ADS notifications)
• Automatic conversion between PLC<->Javascript objects
• PLC symbol and data type handling and caching
• Automatic 32/64 bit variable support (PVOID, XINT, etc.)
• Automatic cache and subscription refreshing when PLC program changes or system starts
• Automatic byte alignment support (all pack-modes automatically supported)

Installing

cd ~/.node-red
npm i node-red-contrib-ads-client

Important

Please make sure you also read ads-client README as it has lots of valuable information.

Available nodes

Please see help of the each node in Node-RED help window for instructions and more info.

The following nodes are available at this point:

Node	Description	Equivalent in ads-client	More info
ADS - Connection Status	Reports status changes of the selected ADS connection.	connect, disconnect and reconnect events
ADS - Read Symbol	Reads any kind of variable by given variable name.	readSymbol()	README
ADS - Write Symbol	Writes given value to any kind of variable by given variable name.	writeSymbol()	README
ADS - Subscribe	Subscribes to given variable to receive notifications.	subscribe()	README
ADS - Invoke RPC Method	Calls a function block method with parameters using RPC (remote procedure call).	invokeRpcMethod()	README
ADS - Read Runtime State	Reads TwinCAT PLC runtime state (run, stop) from given ADS port.	readPlcRuntimeState()	README
ADS - Read System Manager State	Reads TwinCAT System Manager state from target (using ADS port 10000).	readSystemManagerState()	README
ADS - Get Symbol Info	Returns symbol information for given variable/symbol.	getSymbolInfo()	README
ADS - Read Raw	Reads (raw byte) data from PLC by given index group, index offset and size.	readRaw()	README
ADS - Write Raw	Writes (raw byte) buffer data to PLC by given index group and index offset.	writeRaw()	README
ADS - Convert To Raw	Converts given Javascript object/variable to raw Buffer data by given data type (like REAL, ST_Struct).	convertToRaw()	README
ADS - Convert From Raw	Converts given raw data (byte Buffer) to Javascript object by given data type (like REAL, ST_Struct).	convertFromRaw()	README

Getting started

After you have installed the package and restarted Node-RED, you should see the available ADS nodes in your nodes list.

Creating a connection (and reading a value)

You need to create a configuration (ads-client instance) to every target PLC you will use. To do this, you need to add one node to the flow first.

In this example we have GVL_Test.MyStringVariable in the PLC.

1. Drag a ADS - Read Symbol node to the flow
2. Double click the node
3. Under ADS connection it should state Add new ads-client-connection..., -> click the edit icon next to it.
4. (Optional) Give a name to the connection
5. NOTE: See ads-client readme for different connection setups (like Windows, Raspberry etc.)
6. Setup target settings
   • Target AmsNetId - Target PLC AmsNetId (like localhost, 192.168.1.5.1.1 and so on)
   • Target ADS port - Target runtime ADS port (like 851 for TwinCAT 3 runtime 1)
7. Setup optional settings
   • See ads-client settings documentation
8. Press Add
9. In Read Symbol node, enter variable name you want to read
   • Example: GVL_Test.MyStringVariable
10. Press done
11. Drag an inject node to the flow
12. Connect its output to the input of the Read Symbol node
13. Drag a debug node to the flow
14. Connect output of the Read Symbol node to the debug node input
15. Deploy the flow

Now pressing the button in inject node will command the Read Symbol node to read value from PLC. The value (or error) will be shown in debug window.

Example to import

[{"id":"290b97f1.b47728","type":"tab","label":"Flow 1","disabled":false,"info":""},{"id":"3f5e8355.09cafc","type":"ads-client-read-symbol","z":"290b97f1.b47728","name":"","connection":"bbd41d0d.87aac","variableName":"GVL_Test.MyStringVariable","x":230,"y":120,"wires":[["48a7c812.ab1db8"]]},{"id":"8b366e5a.37926","type":"inject","z":"290b97f1.b47728","name":"","props":[{"p":"payload"},{"p":"topic","vt":"str"}],"repeat":"","crontab":"","once":false,"onceDelay":0.1,"topic":"","payload":"","payloadType":"date","x":130,"y":40,"wires":[["3f5e8355.09cafc"]]},{"id":"48a7c812.ab1db8","type":"debug","z":"290b97f1.b47728","name":"","active":true,"tosidebar":true,"console":false,"tostatus":false,"complete":"false","statusVal":"","statusType":"auto","x":200,"y":220,"wires":[]},{"id":"bbd41d0d.87aac","type":"ads-client-connection","name":"Local PLC","targetAmsNetId":"localhost","targetAdsPort":"851","objectifyEnumerations":true,"convertDatesToJavascript":true,"readAndCacheSymbols":false,"readAndCacheDataTypes":false,"disableSymbolVersionMonitoring":false,"routerTcpPort":"","routerAddress":"","localAddress":"","localTcpPort":"","localAmsNetId":"","localAdsPort":"","timeoutDelay":"","hideConsoleWarnings":false,"autoReconnect":true,"reconnectInterval":"","checkStateInterval":"","connectionDownDelay":"","allowHalfOpen":false,"disableBigInt":false}]

FAQ

• I'm having connection problems

  • See ads-client FAQ and ads-client issues

• How to get debugging information?

  • Set Debugging level of ADS connection to 3 under connection settings.
  • Output can be found from node-red console/terminal (see this issue comment)

License

Licensed under MIT License so commercial use is possible. Please respect the license, linking to this page is also much appreciated.

Copyright (c) Jussi Isotalo <j.isotalo91@gmail.com>

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.