DURApulse - GS4 Drive

[MikeR]

Noticed a nice pic of a BRX in the GS4 marketing material.
GS-EDRV100 feature integration? other cool stuff?

[ATU]

I am planning to buy a GS4 drive with and connect with a BRX for a project. Is the  Modbus TCP/IP card the best way to for those to communicate?

[Controls Guy]

Glad they finally got rid of the cheesy look.

[ATU]

Two big improvements I see so far.

Safe Torque Off  (Those Safety contactors are expensive for 100A)
Ethernet Coms

[Controls Guy]

STO - excellent!

[ATU]

Dual Channel too!

[Greg]

Noticed a nice pic of a BRX in the GS4 marketing material.
GS-EDRV100 feature integration? other cool stuff?

The GS-EDRV100 will soon have firmware that will talk to the GS4 drive.

I am planning to buy a GS4 drive with and connect with a BRX for a project. Is the  Modbus TCP/IP card the best way to for those to communicate?

Until GS-EDRV100 integration, you can use Modbus TCP (MRX/MWX instructions) or EtherNet/IP (EIPMSG instruction).

[MikeR]

So, no GS4-CM-EDRV module.... bummer
 

[BobO]

So, no GS4-CM-EDRV module.... bummer
 

That's a great idea, but nobody in the position to do so has requested it or offered us the chance.

[Scot]

There's a help page on GS Drives, Topic: DMD0338 for the GS-EDRV100.
There's an ethernet module you can buy for the GS4 drives. A way to directly communicate with the GS4 drive through the ethernet port, without another adapter in between, would be pretty useful. Then all you'd need to connect dozens of VFDs would be network cables and a network switch.

Or, am I wrong and does the GS4-CM-ENETIP card for the GS4 eliminate the need for the GS-EDRV100 and we can already communicate directly from the ethernet port of the Do-More to the GS4 Drive?

[Controls Guy]

There are a couple different variations of E/IP, and I don't know which one they implemented in that card, I would assume the version that Do-More can do (explicit).  Catalog page doesn't say and I didn't bother to download the manual.  However, I think the PxK can do the other mode, so it's conceivable they did that.

TGFM (Thank God For Modbus)!  GS4 has a card for Modbus/TCP as well, and I guarantee Do-More can talk to that one.

[BobO]

There's a help page on GS Drives, Topic: DMD0338 for the GS-EDRV100.
There's an ethernet module you can buy for the GS4 drives. A way to directly communicate with the GS4 drive through the ethernet port, without another adapter in between, would be pretty useful. Then all you'd need to connect dozens of VFDs would be network cables and a network switch.

Or, am I wrong and does the GS4-CM-ENETIP card for the GS4 eliminate the need for the GS-EDRV100 and we can already communicate directly from the ethernet port of the Do-More to the GS4 Drive?

Not sure what the EIP module supports. If it supports Explicit Message, then yes, you could talk to it. If it only supports Implicit, Do-more doesn't yet have support for that.

I would use Modbus/TCP before I would use EIP. I don't know if they have that though.

But...you may give back all of the saved money in development effort. Do-more has very nice native support through the EDRV. You'll lose that if you use the other interfaces.

[Mike Nash]

But...you may give back all of the saved money in development effort. Do-more has very nice native support through the EDRV. You'll lose that if you use the other interfaces.

Except it doesn't yet as far as the GS4?

Noticed a nice pic of a BRX in the GS4 marketing material.
GS-EDRV100 feature integration? other cool stuff?

The GS-EDRV100 will soon have firmware that will talk to the GS4 drive.

I am planning to buy a GS4 drive with and connect with a BRX for a project. Is the  Modbus TCP/IP card the best way to for those to communicate?

Until GS-EDRV100 integration, you can use Modbus TCP (MRX/MWX instructions) or EtherNet/IP (EIPMSG instruction).

[Scot]

The problem then seems to be a lack of a standard.
Allen Bradley has an MCC line with a network interface that's for use with an Allen Bradley PLC but I doubt very much that it is simple and straight-forward. When we built the power plant, we used Allen Bradley MCCs but there was no way I was going to use their PLCs. We're using 5 Do-Mores instead.

But, if the maker of the GS-Drives (is it Automation Direct?) could settle on a standard and not require a separate external interface card, the D-More/GS4 VFD combination would be very slick. All the control wiring could be over an ethernet cable, like the A-B switchgear, with access to every aspect of every drive in the plant directly from the PLC.

A VFD could appear to the Do-More as a device like a CTRIO card. That would be the ideal outcome - if we could get the GS-Drive people to get on-board.

[BobO]

We have a near term plan to develop a Modbus Data Service in Do-more, that would act essentially like an I/O master, complete with data definitions akin to an EDS. It probably won't be in the 2.2 release slated for Q1, but likely in the next.

Done the way we are planning, it will look to the user very much like the current GSEDRV100 support, but will talk to any Modbus capable device.

We also want to make it possible for users to create their own EDS.