VBAI: Triggering Inspections

[Nelson_Bridwell]

Just starting out with VBAI.

I am an experienced Cognex In-Sight user and am very impressed with many of the VBAI capabilities. 

Dumb question: Inspections will be triggered by a ControlLogix PLC via EtherNet/IP messages.

Have I missed something, or do I need to build all the state transition logic for the ready/trigger/busy/done protocol, as well as heartbeats?

On Cognex it happens automatically.  Putting in loops to poll the state of E/IP tags is not the most CPU-efficient approach, since the PC will also be running other software (HMI).

For a discrete camera trigger I understand that the acquire image tool can wait for a trigger edge transition, but we try to stay away from discrete signals to keep the cables to the cameras simple (PoE).

Thanks in advance!

[Brad]

You are correct that we don't have a built-in ready/trigger/busy/done protocol with the Ethernet/IP step. We will look into this to see what is involved.

Sorry it's not currently available, but definitely let us know if there are other features you'd like or issues you run into.

Thanks,

Brad

[Nelson_Bridwell]

Brad:

At the least, I think it would be a really good idea to have an Ethernet/IP template for ControlLogix PLCs as well as a template trigger protocol state diagram that customers can use as a starting point.  I am sure that is something that you gurus could throw togethere in no time and would save customers untold development hours and eliminate unnecessary troubleshooting for your many new customers who are not yet VBAI veterans.

Cheers,

     Nelson