Deploy to muliple Neurons

[_andi_]

Hi,

so I've a bunch of Neurons, all should run the same software (control for a couple of similar heater boxes). From my point of view these only differ in ip-address and some one-wire ids. Is there a manual somewhere on how to do such deployments with the least amount of hassle?

Thanks, Andi

[_andi_]

so, I guess there is no documentation...

I sort of managed to be able to deploy one program to multiple plcs by not using autogen at all and doing io mapping in a way that it works if I copy&paste the plc in mervis and attach another physical plc to that copy. Far from ideal, I am not looking forward to doing this with 30ish plcs...

[Martin Kudláček]

Hi @_andi_ ,
this is possible. Right click on the "System" in the Solution tab on the left panel and in the context menu click on the "Add controller".

Then proceed with attaching controller as usual and setting the PLC task to the same program. When deploying the solution, you can select to which PLCs you want to deploy the solution. Select all of them.

Martin

[_andi_]

Hi, thanks.

It's also possible to save some time by copying a AUE and live with the crude naming style. Would be nice to be able to change the prefix.

But as soon as you change for example settings on a modbus server you have to change it for every single PLC. Annoying for the six Neurons we're using atm, a dance I'm not looking forward to for the full installation (40ish PLCs).

[Martin Kudláček]

Hi @_andi_,
I'm not sure what you mean by AUE but you can rename the controller to your liking.

You are right about the changes in the configuration - you would have to do it manually for all the PLCs. We didn't have such need as yours so far, so the IDE is not prepared for this. I forwarded your question to the programmers, since maybe there is some low-level way how to deploy the solution to PLC outside of the IDE. Would it be ok, if it would be via command line? Something like:

MervisIDE.exe --deploy-solution c:\project\heating.ssn --deploy-ip 192.168.1.111

Best regards,
Martin

[_andi_]

Hi Martin,

thanks!

AUE PLC / Neuron. Mixed in the project abbreviation for the thing, sorry.

Sure, command line would actually be appreciated, better for automation.

Yeah, I guess what I'm doing is sort of unusual. It's augmentation for an industrial plant, plenty of little heaters/fans to squeeze a bit more efficiency out of an old workhorse. Since operation is not critical we opted to try the neuron/mervis combo since the price point is really attractive compared to lets say siemens or wago units.

[Martin Kudláček]

Hi @_andi_,
while we wait for the response from the programmers I read your question once more and you talked about using 1-Wire sensors. The addresses of these devices are stored in the solution. That will be probably a showstopper for a group deployment.

[_andi_]

Yeah, three one-wire temperature sensors. The upside is that we average the values, so we don't really care which one is which. But if I can't find a way to loop over the sensors without the bus mapping then this feature would become much more involved. Or some shell/sscp/??? magic to replace some one-wire address values after deploying...

[Martin Kudláček]

@_andi_ That would have to be done on the solution's files before deployment. The solution is stored in the PLC as acompiled binary file, so no changes afterwards are feasible. I'll see what the programmers will say.

[_andi_]

Thanks Martin!

[Martin Kudláček]

Hi @_andi_,
the reply from the developers is that it is not possible to do it even by hand. But we take your suggestion as a feature request.

Best regards,
Martin