ICL Application Note No. 00022
ICL File Transfer SCADABuilder Configuration
SCADABuilder provides the ability to transfer files from a host controller to one or more remote controllers using either the Modbus or Bricknet protocol. Files of any type can be sent to or retrieved, including log files, SCADABuilder configuration files and ISaGRAF application files. To use the file transfer feature, there are a few configuration parameters that need to be setup for both the host and remote controllers.
Setting up the file transfer is easiest if the configurations for both controllers reside in the same project. That is, both the host and remote units are nodes in the same project.
Host Node Configuration – Part 1
Enable TCP/IP and FTP
In order for the host to transfer files to and from the remote nodes. FTP must be enabled on the host node. In order to enable FTP, TCP/IP must be enabled first. Enable TCP/IP by clicking the “Enable TCP/IP” checkbox on the TCP/IP tab.
Once TCP/IP has been enabled, FTP must be enabled in the host node “Node Options | FTP/HTTP” dialog by clicking the “Enable FTP” checkbox.
Enable File Transferring
For the host node, a Modbus master or Bricknet session must be setup first. Once the Modbus master or Bricknet session is setup, file transfers can be enabled by checking the “Enable file transferring” check box in the “Session options” area on the “Misc” tab. See the ScadaWorks Technical Reference Manual for information on setting up network ports and sessions.
Remote Node Configuration
Setup the Default Node Address
Set default Node address in the “General” tab in the “Node Options” dialog.
Setup the File Host
Select the file host from the dropdown “Remote file hosting” list box.
Enable File Transferring
For the remote node, a Modbus slave or Bricknet session must be setup first. Once the Modbus Slave or Bricknet session is setup, file transfers can be enabled by checking the “Enable file transferring” check box in the “Session options” area on the “Misc” tab. See the SCADAWorks Technical Reference Manual for information on setting up network ports and sessions.
Repeat the Remote Node Configuration steps for all of the remote nodes.
Host Node Configuration – Part 2
File Transfers
Once the remote nodes are configured for file transfers, you can easily create templates for file transfers using the “Create Host File Transfers” button. This will create a directory on the host for each remote node. It will also setup a default File Transfer that will send new program configurations to the remote nodes when you use the ScadaBuilder “Send node setup to host” utility. To automatically create the file transfers, click the “Create Host File Transfers” button on the “Diagnostic” tab of the master session dialog.
You will now have file transfers for each remote node that was configured for remote downloads. A typical file transfer configuration is shown below.
This file transfer will send files to the remote node with address 111. The files will be sent from then deleted from the host node and they will replace any files on the remote node with the same name.
The “Restart remote” check box will cause the remote node to be restarted once the files have been successfully received. This option must be selected if you would like to download a new program and have it take effect immediately. If you do not select “Restart remote” when downloading new program files the new program will only take effect when the remote controller is rebooted. Make sure that you fully test the new program before you download it to the controller. If the program has any problems that prevent communication, you may not be able to download any further files to the controller.
While this transfer is setup to send all files in the Remote directory on the host, you can change it to send a subset of the files or to send files from or to a different directory. You can use the standard DOS wildcard characters ? and * when specifying file names. ? will substitute for any single character and * will substitute for multiple characters. File names must adhere to the standard DOS 8.3 format. That is no more than 8 characters to the left of the “.” and no more than three characters to the right.
You will also need to setup a trigger to cause the file transfer to take place. The default trigger setup by clicking the Create Host File Transfers button is shown here. Other trigger types can be used though. A TUI button trigger, for example, is useful for manually triggering a file transfer.
Sending remote node files to the host
Remote node files must first be transferred to the host node before they can be transferred to the remote nodes. SCADABuilder provides an easy method to do this. After you have made all of the changes to the remote node SCADABuilder configuration and ISaGRAF programs, simply click the “Send node setup to host” button or select “Tools”|”Send Setup to Host …”. This will transfer all of the necessary files to the remote node’s directory on the host node controller. Once this has been done for each of the remote nodes, the trigger for the file transfer will send the files to the remote nodes. You can also transfer files to the host node using the SCADABuilder file transfer utility or via FTP.
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