Panel for connections - IEC 60870 104

Open the panel for configuring IEC driver connections via the System management panel, Driver IEC tab:

Figure 1. System Management → Driver IEC

Click on the IEC 60870 104 Driver button to open the following panel. The panel allows you to create the data points for your connections (e.g. Gateway1 and Gateway2) and all addresses of the associated remote control components.

IEC 60870 104 - Target

Configuration of the connection data points

Select here the data point name (connection name) you want to configure from the combo box.

Click on Create to create a new data point of the _IecConnection data point type. (including a redundant DP). Valid characters for a connection data point are [a-z,A-Z,0-9,_]. In a redundant WinCC OA project a data point with the name "<datapointName>_2" is created automatically.

Click on Delete to delete the selected DP.

Click on Apply to apply the creation/deletion.

Note: You can only add one connection at a time. After applying the changes, you can add or delete another connection.

Connection settings

Allows the configuration of separate "physical" connections. Here you can see all configured connections for this driver datapoint.

Active

Sets all configured connections to (in)active.

Only active driver

Only the active driver of a redundant project connects to the server.

Encryption

Enables TLS encryption for the IEC driver (see also IEC 104 - encrypted connection).

Change Role

Activates change of IEC 104 driver communication role to TCP server. Normally the TCP server is the controlling station and TCP client is the controlled station.

Force active

You can configure the behavior of the redundant connections via the combo box: either the driver should select a connection automatically or an explicit connection can be selected. In the latter mode, a connection switch-over does not take place even if the connection gets lost. Therefore, all connections are listed in the combo box (that are displayed in the table) and can be selected.

Invalid Bit

Configures the invalid bit setting on connection loss. See IEC driver internal DP _IecConnection.Config.SetInvalidBit.

Table

In the table you can find all configured connections. The columns display the connection parameters. In the last column you can set the connection active/passive.

Click on the button to specify the connection parameters for a new connection.

Click on the button to change the parameters of the selected connection.

Click on the button to delete the selected connection from the table.

In case of the IEC 104 several connections can be configured. Specify the following parameters : IP Address, Port and Timeout.

The timeout is used to establish a connection meaning that new connection requests are made in this interval.

10 seconds is the recommended value.

In the redundant state the panel differs only by the table and the connection status. In a redundant state, the host and the redundant host as well as the both ports are displayed.

The timeout is the same for both hosts. You can also set the redundant/non-redundant connection to active/passive. Thus, also here only one check box is available. At the bottom the both connection states of the corresponding connections are displayed.

Local List

Enter the addresses of the stations that can only be accessed via this connection (see IEC driver, basics). The addresses are specified in the text box below the lists. Format: " region.component.module.value.subaddress" (= Common Address.Information Object Address, see also Panel for defining the peripheral addresses of the IEC driver). A value of "*" means "all values between 0 and 255".

The buttons allow you to insert, edit or delete (see Default buttons).

Global List

Enter the addresses of all stations that are not only accessible via this station (IECTARGET1) but rather via other stations, too. This saves you having to enter parameters several times for redundant connections. In our example the same stations are also accessed via IECTARGET2. So if you set the parameters for IECTARGET2 connections, click to open a panel and copy the global lists from IECTARGET1 to the current data point IECTARGET2.

CAUTION: With addresses of the list, make sure that you specify the address without a data type, while the IEC bus address begins with the data type (see Panel for defining the peripheral addresses of the IEC driver). This is particularly important when filtering by DPs!

CAUTION: Telegrams that are received from the PLC and are not available in the global or local list but posses a WinCC OA address, are processed by the driver.

Note: If several connections, which contain same addresses in the local or global list, are created the messages are always sent via all paths. This means that the station receives the messages more than once.

Note: If you want to execute a general query via the config entry autoGQ, _DriverCommon or _IecConnection data point, a wildcard ('*') must not be used for the Common Address (first 2 bytes from left) in the Local/Global List!

Note: The difference between Local and Global List is irrelevant in the driver itself. Both lists are equivalent for the driver. The distinction between local and global stations is only intended to make the configuration easier!

CAUTION: If no explicit connection name is specified in the peripheral address, the driver only sends telegrams via the one connection if the station is in the local or global list. Otherwise the command is discarded!

Status

Displays the (DP global) communication states (States.ConnState):

0: Communication error
1: Communication OK and started
2: Communication OK but not yet started
3: Connection deactivated
> 4: Connection state undefined