Overview

This document describes the installation, usage, and functionality of a TOPDOC Loadable Module (TLM) for SoftPLC that is used with the Allen-Bradley 1784-KTX, -KTXD, -KTS, -PKTX, -PKTXD, and -PKTS Cards. The TLM works with up to any 8 such boards concurrently in the same computer. (Each -PKTXD and KTXD board counts as two boards because they have two RIO channels on them.) Henceforth let the term "KTx" refer to any of the above cards.

SoftPLC can drive one or more Allen-Bradley KTx card channels in remote I/O scanner mode connected to 1771 I/O, SLC-500 I/O (1746), Block I/O (1791), Flex I/O (1794) or any devices that communicate using Allen-Bradley Remote I/O protocol (RIO). The 1784-KTX and the 1784-KTXD ISA cards differ in that the KTX has only one channel, whereas the KTXD has two channels; a given channel on either the KTX or the KTXD can be configured to communicate on DH+ networks or to act as a remote I/O scanner. The KTS can only be configured to act as a remote I/O scanner and has only one channel. The same can be said for the PCI cards: -PKTX, -PKTXD, and -PKTS, respectively.

This manual discusses how to configure SoftPLC to use the KTx driver, KTX.TLM, as well as details on configuring remote I/O, and on how the driver reports errors.

You may use any of the 3 different cards listed above as a remote I/O scanner. And you can combine cards to use as many as 8 KTx I/O channels concurrently. A common configuration is to use one of the channels of a KTXD or PKTXD for remote I/O, and the other for O.N.E. communications to Data Highway Plus. (Again, this document only addresses remote I/O.)

Each KTx card/channel can support a maximum number of remote I/O adapters, and this maximum is determined by which of these two constraints is encountered first:

1. A maximum of 32 remote I/O adapters, regardless of the size of the rack that those adapters reside in.
2. A maximum of 256 input words and 256 outputs words. Using 8 words per "logical rack" limits you to 32 logical full 128 point racks.