如何在 Windows 10 中从 TwinCAT 获取符号？

Question

I have to use Beckhoff I/O in real-time mode (not PLC project), because the final goal is to make a Soft-PLC, where the program runs on the cumputer and not on Beckhoff. So in Visual Studio I wrote ac# code which opens an existing TwinCAT project in background (with a task and some variables linked), activates the configuration and then gets the symbols from that task, so I can use them to control in realtime the variables (eg reading an input or writing an output). The problem is I can't get the symbols! (Im using the SymbolLoaderFactory.Create method). I created a class "Controlling" in the same namespace which contains some methods like GoConfig(), Open(), Activate() etc..

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using EnvDTE;
using System.IO;
using TCatSysManagerLib;
using System.Management;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices.ComTypes;
using System.Collections;
using System.Xml;
using TwinCAT.Ads;
using TwinCAT.Ads.ValueAccess;
using TwinCAT.Ads.TypeSystem;
using TwinCAT.TypeSystem;


namespace TCControl
{
    class Program
    {
        [STAThread]
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            
            string solName = "solution1"; 
            string solPath = $@"B:\...solutionPath...\{solName}";

            string[] terminal = new string[1];
            terminal[0] = "EK1100";

            string ipAddress = "10.157.4.69.1.1";
            int port = 301;

            Controlling co = new Controlling();
            MessageFilter.Register();
            

            //go to configuration mode
            co.GoConfig(ipAddress);

            
            //open the solution
            string[,] treeItemsandTypes = co.Open(solPath, solName, ipAddress, terminal);
            co.Activate(solPath, solName);
            
            //obtain symbols
            ISymbolLoader symbolLoader = co.SymbolsGetter(ipAddress, port);

            ISymbol[] symbols = new ISymbol[symbolLoader.Symbols.Count];
            
            int i = 0;
            foreach (ISymbol symbol in symbolLoader.Symbols)
            {
                symbols[i] = symbol;
                i++;
            }
            
            Console.WriteLine("\n" + symbols[0].ToString());
            Console.WriteLine("\n" + symbols[1].ToString());

All projects I created to test this had 2 variables linked to the task. Everything works fine until the SymbolsGetter method. From the Controlling class:

public ISymbolLoader SymbolsGetter(string indirizzo, int port)
        {
            using (TcAdsClient client = new TcAdsClient())
            {
                System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(2000);
                client.Connect(indirizzo, port);

                //Creates the Symbol Objects as hierarchical tree
                SymbolLoaderSettings settings = new SymbolLoaderSettings(SymbolsLoadMode.Flat, ValueAccessMode.IndexGroupOffsetPreferred);

                ISymbolLoader symbolLoader = SymbolLoaderFactory.Create(client, settings);

                //System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(2000);
                return symbolLoader;
            }
        }
    

The Thread.Sleep is because otherwise the client.Connect generated an error. It only works in debug if I add a break point on "return symbolLoader" and if I pass over it with the mouse puntator to see the value (of symbolLoader). I tried to insert another sleep but nothing, it doesn't work. Im actually starting thinking it is black magic. Another problem is that I can't get symbols from all projects (nether using the debug technique of before). And even when it works I can't use the name of the symbol to write a high/low signal to that variable. So nothing is working, I'm just able to create and open a project, a task etc. Just one more information: im using windows 10 (maybe TwinCAT works better on windows 7 or xp, but I have to make it work on windows 10). I have to do everything without touching or seeing the TwinCAT project window, it has to stay in background. I'm not a programmer and I'm quite new into the Beckhoff/TwinCAT world. Please if anyone can help me I'd be incredibly thankful to him.

Answer 1

If you want to use the ADS library from beckhoff you cannot not have a Beckhoff PLC-Runtime in the background.

With the ADS-lib you access the symbols in the PLC Runtime which has an Ethercat Master with which it can communicate with the Beckhoff Ethercat IOs.

If you do not want to use a Beckhoff Plc-Runtime (and it's not really clear to me why you wouldn't want to) you need another kind of Ethercat Master in order to communicate with the IOs.

I have to use Beckhoff I/O in real-time mode (not PLC project), because the final goal is to make a Soft-PLC, where the program runs on the cumputer and not on Beckhoff.

This is confusing, because the Beckhoff runtime runs on computer besides windows. If you want to control IOs without real time capability you can buy an Advantech PCI IO card for example and use their c# sdk.

You can't use c# to access Beckhoff IOs without a Beckhoff runtime in the background. Twincat doesn't work better on windows 7 or xp in fact Twincat 3 is not even supported on windows xp and new machines only use windows 10 for security and support reasons.