Generic Avatar Function Blocks

Some data sets and functionalities are common to all avatars. For these, generic function blocks have been defined to access the data. They work with any avatar that supports the data sets and functionality (see individual function block descriptions for details). The function blocks can be found in the folders “DP_Common” and “PN_Common”. For each avatar that the functionality is used for, or that the data is retrieved for, an individual instance of the function blocks must be created using the same data access parameters as used for the avatar control function blocks. The access to acyclic data should be interlocked externally to avoid detected errors, due to resource limitations of the PLC as described in Acyclic Data. For cyclic communication, the protocol is designed so that there is no interference between different function blocks.

Generic avatar function blocks use a combination of cyclic input and output data as well as acyclic read requests, depending on the functionality they provide.