Beckhoff TE1010 User Manual
Manual | EN
TE1010
TwinCAT 3 | Realtime Monitor
2020-09-24 | Version: 1.3
Table of contents
Table of contents
1 Foreword ....................................................................................................................................................5
1.1 Notes on the documentation..............................................................................................................5
1.2 Safety instructions .............................................................................................................................6
2 Overview.....................................................................................................................................................7
3 Basic principles .........................................................................................................................................8
3.1 TwinCAT 3 Real-Time .......................................................................................................................8
3.2 Display in the Real-time Monitor......................................................................................................12
3.3 Use of cursors .................................................................................................................................16
4 Quick start................................................................................................................................................20
5 Reference, user interface........................................................................................................................22
5.1 Menu bar .........................................................................................................................................22
5.1.1 Project.............................................................................................................................. 22
5.1.2 User contexts................................................................................................................... 23
5.1.3 Tools ................................................................................................................................ 24
5.1.4 Info................................................................................................................................... 25
5.2 Toolbar - Real-time Monitor toolbar.................................................................................................25
5.3 Project tree ......................................................................................................................................26
5.4 Display window................................................................................................................................28
5.5 Properties window ...........................................................................................................................29
5.5.1 Project node..................................................................................................................... 29
5.5.2 Context node ................................................................................................................... 30
5.5.3 Marker group element...................................................................................................... 31
5.6 Cursor window.................................................................................................................................32
5.7 Event window ..................................................................................................................................32
6 PLC API.....................................................................................................................................................33
6.1 Function blocks................................................................................................................................33
6.1.1 FB_RTMon_LogMark ...................................................................................................... 33
6.1.2 FB_RTMon_LogMarkBase .............................................................................................. 36
6.2 Data types .......................................................................................................................................37
6.2.1 ST_RTMon_MarkDef....................................................................................................... 37
6.3 Global constants..............................................................................................................................38
6.3.1 TcMarkOption .................................................................................................................. 38
7 C++ API.....................................................................................................................................................39
7.1 Data types .......................................................................................................................................39
7.1.1 TcMark16......................................................................................................................... 39
7.2 Classes............................................................................................................................................39
7.2.1 CTcLogMark .................................................................................................................... 39
7.3 Constants ........................................................................................................................................41
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Table of contents
TE10104 Version: 1.3
Foreword
1 Foreword
1.1 Notes on the documentation
This description is only intended for the use of trained specialists in control and automation engineering who
are familiar with applicable national standards.
It is essential that the documentation and the following notes and explanations are followed when installing
and commissioning the components.
It is the duty of the technical personnel to use the documentation published at the respective time of each
installation and commissioning.
The responsible staff must ensure that the application or use of the products described satisfy all the
requirements for safety, including all the relevant laws, regulations, guidelines and standards.
Disclaimer
The documentation has been prepared with care. The products described are, however, constantly under
development.
We reserve the right to revise and change the documentation at any time and without prior announcement.
No claims for the modification of products that have already been supplied may be made on the basis of the
data, diagrams and descriptions in this documentation.
Trademarks
Beckhoff®, TwinCAT®, EtherCAT®, EtherCAT G®, EtherCAT G10®, EtherCAT P®, Safety over EtherCAT®,
TwinSAFE®, XFC®, XTS® and XPlanar® are registered trademarks of and licensed by Beckhoff Automation
GmbH.
Other designations used in this publication may be trademarks whose use by third parties for their own
purposes could violate the rights of the owners.
Patent Pending
The EtherCAT Technology is covered, including but not limited to the following patent applications and
patents:
EP1590927, EP1789857, EP1456722, EP2137893, DE102015105702
with corresponding applications or registrations in various other countries.
EtherCAT® is a registered trademark and patented technology, licensed by Beckhoff Automation GmbH,
Germany
Copyright
© Beckhoff Automation GmbH & Co. KG, Germany.
The reproduction, distribution and utilization of this document as well as the communication of its contents to
others without express authorization are prohibited.
Offenders will be held liable for the payment of damages. All rights reserved in the event of the grant of a
patent, utility model or design.
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Foreword
1.2 Safety instructions
Safety regulations
Please note the following safety instructions and explanations!
Product-specific safety instructions can be found on following pages or in the areas mounting, wiring,
commissioning etc.
Exclusion of liability
All the components are supplied in particular hardware and software configurations appropriate for the
application. Modifications to hardware or software configurations other than those described in the
documentation are not permitted, and nullify the liability of Beckhoff Automation GmbH & Co. KG.
Personnel qualification
This description is only intended for trained specialists in control, automation and drive engineering who are
familiar with the applicable national standards.
Description of symbols
In this documentation the following symbols are used with an accompanying safety instruction or note. The
safety instructions must be read carefully and followed without fail!
DANGER
Serious risk of injury!
Failure to follow the safety instructions associated with this symbol directly endangers the life and health of
persons.
WARNING
Risk of injury!
Failure to follow the safety instructions associated with this symbol endangers the life and health of persons.
CAUTION
Personal injuries!
Failure to follow the safety instructions associated with this symbol can lead to injuries to persons.
NOTE
Damage to the environment or devices
Failure to follow the instructions associated with this symbol can lead to damage to the environment or
equipment.
Tip or pointer
This symbol indicates information that contributes to better understanding.
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Overview
2 Overview
The TwinCAT 3 Real-time Monitor enables precise diagnostics and optimization of the runtime behavior of
tasks in the TwinCAT 3 runtime. It offers a graphical representation of the temporal processing of real-time
tasks and their modules across all cores. In addition, user-defined processes and their dependencies can be
represented graphically through appropriate instrumentation of the control software.
The Real-time Monitor makes the time behavior of the control software on a target system completely
transparent and enables comprehensive time analysis. It thus supports both fault diagnosis and time
optimization of the configuration, especially on multi-core systems.
Installation
A separate installer is used for the installation. The license is activated as usual under TwinCAT 3.
Requirements
The Real-time Monitor can only be used for diagnosis of TwinCAT 3.1 runtimes from TwinCAT 3.1 version
4024.0 or higher.
It is suitable for Windows 10-based target systems, but not for target systems based on Windows CE.
Licensing
The TwinCAT 3 Real-time Monitor (TE1010) is an Engineering product. Licensing is therefore carried out
exclusively on the Engineering system.
There is no 7-day trial license available for this product.
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Basic principles
3 Basic principles
The following chapter describes the basic principles that should be read before using the TwinCAT 3 Realtime Monitor.
3.1 TwinCAT 3 Real-Time
According to the DIN 44300 standard, real-time / real-time operation is defined as follows:
Real-time operation is an operating mode of a computing system in which programs for the processing of
data are continuously operational in such a way that the processing results are available within a specified
period of time.
In other words, the output values of an application program (calculated based on the inner state and input
values) are available within a defined and guaranteed time. This defined time is also referred to as cycle
time.
The application program itself can consist of several program function blocks, which in turn call other
programs or function blocks etc. (see also IEC 61131-3 standard). The program blocks can be assigned to
real-time tasks, which in turn call them with a cycle time to be defined and a defined priority.
TwinCAT 3 Real-Time is a real-time extension that can be used in the current TwinCAT 3.1 version under
Microsoft Windows operating systems from Windows 7 or later. TwinCAT 3 Real-Time supports the following
features in order to meet the requirements described for the control of industrial processes:
• Real-time capable scheduling
• Parallel execution of processes
• Direct hardware access
In addition, TwinCAT 3 Real-Time also offers multi-core support to meet the ever-increasing demands for
high-performance and flexible/expandable control platforms. The available cores can either be used
exclusively for TwinCAT or shared with Windows. In the following sections, the cores are therefore referred
to as "isolated" or "shared.
Real-time capable scheduling:
TwinCAT 3 Real-Time works with the double-tick method. This means that both switching to real-time mode
and switching back is triggered by an interrupt. The interrupt when switching to the real-time mode also
starts the scheduling at the same time. After an adjustable period of time, but no later than after 90% of the
set cycle time, TwinCAT only on shared cores switches back in non-real-time mode, so that the guest
operating system has sufficient computing time available to comply with the response times required for
hardware functions etc. The isolated cores are an exception.
Scheduling refers to the (system) process that determines the processing sequence and the processing time
of the individual tasks, based on the defined cycle time and the defined priority. Strict adherence to the
processing time ensures that the real-time compliance described above is guaranteed.
Triggered by a synchronous basic tick on all real-time kernels, the scheduling for each real-time kernel is
calculated independently in TwinCAT 3 Real-Time. This guarantees that real-time tasks running on different
cores do not interfere with each other (unless already explicitly prevented in the user program through the
use of interlocks).
Scheduling in which the priority of a task is derived from its cycle time is also known as rate-monotonic
scheduling. Activating the option "Automatic Priority Management" automatically sets TwinCAT 3 Real-Time
to this value. Since this is not always the best solution for every application, the priorities can be adjusted
manually.
Exemplary representation of the call of a PLC task:
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Basic principles
The figure shows the call of a PLC task. After the real-time tick has occurred, the PLC task is called by the
scheduler. This makes the current input values available to the PLC application (input update), followed by
processing of the application program (cycle update). Finally the results are written to the outputs (output
update). Once this has been completed, the device switches to non-real-time mode (double-tick). As shown
in the figure, the execution time of the user program may vary depending on which code is executed (based
on the internal state of the program). Thus the time when the outputs are written also varies. Depending on
which task a bus system is driven, this can cause the sending of the bus telegrams to vary (jitter) to the same
extent.
Sample call of a task with "IO at task start“
By using the "IO at task start" option, the processing sequence within a task can be changed so that after
reading the inputs, the outputs (of the previous cycle) are written directly before the application program is
executed. Although the outputs are not written until the next cycle, this setting has the advantage that the
time at which the outputs are written to the process/bus is exactly the same in each cycle.
Preemptive multitasking:
Preemptive multitasking means that the current state of a process (the CPU and floating point registers) is
saved in the event of an interrupt (e.g. by higher-priority processes), and the current process is paused. If
this happens, the scheduler determines the (new) process to be executed, based on the task priorities. Once
the process to be interrupted is complete, the process context is restored and the "old" process continues.
Direct hardware access:
In order to achieve deterministic (reproducible) real-time behavior, TwinCAT 3 Real-Time requires direct
hardware access. For this to be possible, TwinCAT 3 Real-Time must be executed in Windows kernel mode.
This makes it possible, among other things, for TwinCAT Real-Time to access the network ports directly and
send and receive real-time Ethernet telegrams (e.g. EtherCAT).
Schematic representation of the TwinCAT 3 runtime environment:
The following figure illustrates the structure of the TwinCAT 3.1 runtime environment in relation to
scheduling. The TwinCAT 3 runtime environment enables user modules to be executed in real-time. An
essential part of the TwinCAT 3 runtime environment therefore is the real-time driver, which is executed on
the cores that are activated for TwinCAT and handles the scheduling there. The latter takes place
independently on the individual cores.
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Basic principles
Isolated cores:
As described under Realtime scheduling [}8], TwinCAT uses a double-tick procedure to switch back to nonreal-time mode at a specified point in time. When switching between real-time mode and non-real-time
mode, the preceding process state is restored, as described under Preemptive multitasking [}9]. The
restoration takes some time, depending on how intensively the real-time and non-real-time programs use the
memory and in particular the cache. In order to eliminate these temporal effects, TwinCAT 3.1 Real-Time
allows cores to be isolated from the guest operating system. This eliminates the need to switch back,
resulting in more computing time for the real-time user program and better real-time quality (less jitter) by
avoiding the time effects associated with restoring the "old" process state.
Behavior when the cycle time is exceeded:
If the defined cycle time of a task is exceeded, processing of the "old" cycle continues in the next cycle. In
addition, the task exceed counter is incremented. Once processing of the old / previous cycle is complete,
the system immediately tries to start processing the tasks of the current cycle. If this is completed within the
current cycle, further processing is carried out as shown above.
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Basic principles
If the second cycle that follows directly is also exceeded (in this case it is irrelevant whether the system is still
processing the first cycle or whether the second cycle has commenced), the current processing task is
completed, and processing of the next task does not commence until the next possible scheduled cycle start.
This means that several cycles may be lost. The exceedance counter is incremented accordingly.
Differences in execution between PLC and "TcCom" runtime modules:
Processing of a TwinCAT task, in relation to the execution of runtime modules, is based on the following
sequence:
1. Copying of the inputs to the process images of the runtime modules called by the task.
2. Executing the modules according to the sort order (in ascending order).
3. Output update, which makes the outputs available accordingly. If this task drives an EtherCAT fieldbus, the frame is provided and sent during the output process image.
4. Post-cycle update: this is used, among other things, to trigger a cycle update when the "I/O at task
start" option is active.
If runtime modules are added to a task, they "log on" to the respective calls of the task. The only exceptions
are PLC runtime modules. For reasons of compatibility with TwinCAT 2, the PLC runtime modules directly
update the inputs and outputs. The difference between the two behaviors is shown in the following figure.
Four runtime modules can be seen in each case. Standard TwinCAT 3 runtime modules log on to the
corresponding method calls of the task. This means that all input updates (yellow) and output updates (red)
are triggered by the task and take place one after the other directly at the start or end of task processing. If
two of these modules communicate with each other via a mapping, they do not receive the current values
until the next cycle.
The PLC runtime modules independently perform an input and output update. If two PLC runtimes
communicate with each other, the runtime module that is executed second directly receives the current
values from the first runtime module. Thus, there is no cycle offset in the communication direction from first
runtime module to second runtime module, but there such an offset does exist in the other direction.
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Basic principles
3.2 Display in the Real-time Monitor
In simple terms, the TwinCAT 3 Real-time Monitor enables the display of grouped events. In order to avoid
confusion with the messages or alarms stored in the TwinCAT EventLogger, the data handled by the
TwinCAT 3 Real-time Monitor are referred to as (time) markers.
These markers can be used to represent the temporal behavior of tasks or user processes. For this purpose,
the markers are assigned an ID, a marker type, a context and a timestamp. In addition, if required a userdefined date formatted as UINT can be provided, in order to include additional information in the display in
the real-time monitor (e.g. error number, state of a state machine etc.).
Marker ID:
The marker ID is used to identify the displayed task / process. In other words, all markers relating to the
same task/process should use the same marker ID.
Marker type:
The TwinCAT 3 Real-time Monitor enables the display of events or processes / operations over time. For the
representation of processes / operations, these are marked as a sequence. A sequence can be divided into
one or more intervals. Markers can be typed to define the start or end of sequences or intervals. In addition,
they can also show events within an application over time. A distinction is therefore made between the
following types of markers:
1. Marker:
The marker can be used to log an event, e.g. the time of an alarm or the change of a state etc.
2. Sequence start:
A sequence start indicates the time when a task / process is allowed to start (higher-priority tasks /
processes may result in a delay).
3. Interval start:
An interval start specifies the time when a task / process actually starts. Due to interruptions etc., a sequence may contain several interval starts.
4. Interval stop:
An interval stop specifies the time when a task / process is no longer executed. This can happen, for
example, due to interruptions caused by higher-priority tasks or unfulfilled dependencies.
5. Sequence stop:
A sequence stop indicates the point in time at which a task may no longer run or a process is terminated.
Context:
A context describes a summary of markers or marker groups.
For the system tasks, all tasks that are processed on a core are combined into one context (e.g. core 0).
Such a (real-time) context thus maps the scheduling within a real-time kernel. For these real-time contexts,
only one of the tasks assigned to a context is active at any one time. This restriction does not apply to userspecific marker groups.
When using simple markers (by using FB_Mark), the user-specific marker groups are automatically grouped
according to their application ports. For example, all markers stored from within a PLC project with port 851
are assigned to a context with context ID 851 (hexadecimal 0x353).
When using more complex markers (based on the function block FB_RTMon_LogMarkBase [}36]), contexts
(i.e. correlations) can be defined independently. This could be, for example, a grouping by process type or by
machine modules (functional units).
Display in the tree view:
As described above, all markers that describe the same task / process use the same marker ID. These
markers are combined into a marker group and are assigned an entry in the tree view of the TwinCAT 3
Real-time Monitor.
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Basic principles
An entry with the corresponding task name is automatically created in the tree for the system tasks.
For user-related marker groups that describe processes, for example, this must be done manually. For each
detected user-specific marker group an entry NewGroup automatically appears in the tree, which can be
identified by the marker ID (corresponds to the group ID in the Properties window of the group). This group
can be renamed as required (see Context node [}30]).
As described under Display in the Real-time Monitor [}12], the individual marker groups are combined into
contexts. This happens automatically for the system tasks and when simple markers are used. When using
extended markers, the context ID that is transferred in the application code is used for this purpose.
The names of marker IDs (group IDs) and contexts can be exported for later reuse and subsequently re-imported.
In the chart display, a marker group (i.e. all markers of a task / process) is shown within one row. For more
information see Display in the Real-time Monitor [}13].
Chart display:
Symbols in the chart display:
TE1010 13Version: 1.3
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