Formatting Input/Output Data

Data from EasyBuilder jobs, such as individual tool results or overall job results (output only), can be communicated over Ethernet/IP, DeviceNet, Modbus TCP, PROFINET and POWERLINK. Formatted input data will be read after the sensor acquires an image, and output data will be sent after the sensor completes its job execution.

Note: DeviceNet, POWERLINK and CC-Link are only available on In-Sight vision systems using In-Sight firmware 4.x.x, and are not available on In-Sight vision systems running In-Sight firmware 5.1.0 and later.

To format your data:

  1. Click either the Format Input Data or Format Output Data tab.
  2. Press the Add button to launch the Select Input Data or Select Output Data dialogs.
  3. The Select Input Data or Select Output Data dialogs contain the data from any Location or Inspection Tools that were added to your job and the overall job results (output only). From the dialog, select the appropriate data that you want to be sent from (or to) the In-Sight sensor, and press the OK button.

  4. After you have added your data, you can modify the default data type of the selected data by choosing a different data type in the Data Type drop-down list.

    Note:
    • If you select String or Byte-Swapped String from the Data Type drop-down list, the Element Size (bytes) control will be enabled and you can specify the string length by choosing the correct number of bytes.
    • When using PROFINET, the maximum length for input and output data is 4,000 bytes. When using POWERLINK, the maximum length for input and output data is 256 bytes.

  5. You can also customize the byte order by specifying Low Byte first versus High Byte first by un-checking the High Byte/Low Byte checkbox (by default, it is unchecked for all protocols except PROFINET). You can customize the word ordering by specifying Low Word first versus High Word first by un-checking the High Word/Low Word checkbox (by default, it is unchecked). Any changes made on the Format Output Data tab will be updated in the preview window.

    Note: Any changes made to the byte or word ordering will affect all the data signals in the Format Output Data and Format Input Data tabs.
  1. Rearrange the order of the data that will be sent or received by selecting the data from the list and clicking either the Up or Down buttons to set your desired order.