Allen Bradley DF1 Half Duplex Autodetect Wizard

Introduction

Serial communications can be difficult to set up because of the many combinations of setup parameters. Setup parameters include: Communications Port, Physical Wiring, Baud Rate, Framing, Handshake and so on.

The Allen Bradley DF1 Half Duplex Autodetect Wizard can simplify the setup of serial communications. The wizard tries different combinations of communication parameters until an Allen Bradley device is found. The wizard can automatically:

Scan a set of serial ports
Try different baud rates, for example: 9600, 19200
Try different framing, for example: 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bits.

Note: The Wizard will only work if the physical connection to the device is wired correctly. If you run the Wizard with an incorrectly wired connection, the Wizard will not detect anything. It is worth spending time checking the physical connection is correct before running the Wizard.

Using the Allen Bradley DF1 Half Duplex Autodetect Wizard

To use the Allen Bradley DF1 Half Duplex Autodetect Wizard:

Start Configuration Tool. Use one of the connection options on the Start Page to connect to Fernhill SCADA.
Select the Tag Window in the Configuration Tool.
Right-click the folder where you want to import the detected configuration. The Tag Window Menu opens:
Click Autodetect.... The Autodetect... Wizard opens:
Click Next.... The Choose Device Type or Protocol page opens:
Note: You can only detect one device type or protocol at a time.
Select Allen Bradley DF1 Half Duplex then click Next>. The Choose Protocols page opens:
Choose the protocol(s) you want the Autodetect Wizard to try, then click Next>. The Choose communication ports page opens:
Note: The list of ports available on your computer may be different to the list shown above.

To select a port do one of the following:
- Double-click the port name.
- Select the port name, the click >.
The Autodetect Wizard will try the port(s) in the order shown in the Selected Items: list. You can reorder the list using the up and down arrows.
Choose the port(s) you want the Autodetect Wizard to try, then click Next>. The Choose Baud Rates page opens:
Choose the baud rate(s) you want the Autodetect Wizard to try, then click Next>. The Choose Framing page opens:
Choose the serial framing you want the Autodetect Wizard to try, then click Next>. The Choose Address Range page opens:
Note: Narrowing the address range will considerably speed up the detection process. For example, if the you known the highest address on the half duplex network is 10, set the Ending Address to 10.
Choose the address range you want to search, then click Next>. The Ready to Start page opens:
Review the autodetect parameters and, if you are satisfied with your selection, click Next. The Autodetect Wizard will start:
Note: If you selected many options in the previous pages, the wizard will take a long time to run.

When the Autodetect Wizard has finished searching the progress bar shows Complete:
If the Autodetect Wizard has found devices, you can click Next to review the results:
Click Finish to create suitable configuration to communicate with the PLC Device. Click Cancel to cancel the operation. If you clicked Yes, expand the NewConfiguration folder to see the automatically generated tags: