How to use an RS232/485 Ace PLC (here 1430) as an I/O expansion unit for Ace PLCs

How to use the Ace 1430 as an expansion unit for all Ace PLCs which have an serial port ?

The Ace 1430 includes IO interfaces for 6 digital inputs, 12 digital outputs and a serial port that is program configurable as either RS232 or RS485.

For this operation you must have an Ace PLC with a free serial port, RS232 or RS485 (Master Main Ace) and an Ace 1430 (Slave Remote Ace) !

You must link each Ace by the serial port:

RX to TX
TX to RX
GND to GND

Slave-Remote-Ace-1430 program to your Ace 1430 and run it. (Unzip the file before)
That’s all for the Ace 1430 side.

On your Ace PLC (Master Main Ace) side, you must configure the serial port as RS232, Custom type, 9600 bds, None parity and 1 stop bits. For this you must return to the setup hardware on the top left hand corner of vBuilder software (Green or Blue icon).

Select Add Subroutine, than Select Existing Subroutine: WriteReadRemote.viofs file than you can find in this zip file: Master-Main-Ace-3090

Note: This program can be use in any Ace PLC. Just change PLC version in the Setup Hardware.

In your Main program, to Write and Read the remote inputs/outputs, add just in the begining of your program the Subroutine call function from the ToolBox on the right of vBuilder.

This Subroutine call function must be in the begining of your MAIN program.
RInBitC1..C6 = Inputs C1..C6 of the Remote Slave Ace.
ROutBitD1..D6..E1..E6 = Outputs D1..D6..E1..E6 of the Remote Slave Ace.
If you want, you can rename the RInBit and ROutBit tags.

You can also test the whole program MyProject.vio in the previous zip Master-Main-Ace-3090