General Structure of a TCP Open Communication EF

At a Glance

Communication functions are processed asynchronously in relation to the PLC cycle. A function is executed over several consecutive cycles following the cycle which launched its execution.

The parameters of a TCP Open communication function are the following:

interface number
specific parameters
management parameters

Interface Number

This interface number corresponds to the slot number of the ETY module in the main rack.

NOTE: Only rack 0 can take an Ethernet module that uses TCP Open communication functions.

In the case of the TSXETY5103, the Premium architecture divides this integer into 2 bytes.

The low byte contains the slot number of the sockets.
The value in the high byte can be used to extend the number of sockets as follows:
- 00 is used for full backward compatibility with applications created on firmware version 3.3 or earlier.
- 01 indicates that up to 64 sockets can be used; the firmware must be higher than version 3.3 to support this socket extension.

NOTE: When you set the value of the high byte to 01 (to extend the number of sockets to 64), make sure that the TSXETY5103 firmware is at an acceptable version. If you attempt to use this high-byte setting when the firmware is at version 3.3 or lower, the module goes into a constant reboot cycle and does not become operational.

Specific Parameters

These parameters are specific to each function. There may be more than one, in which case they are separated by commas. They are described in the chapters specific to each function.

Management Parameters

The management parameters consist of an array of 4 integers also known as the Management table. It is identical to the management table for standard communication EFs except for the exchange number which is not managed and the Time out.