Devices

A device specification, provided by the OEM, contains the configuration and extra files (C and header files, libraries, scripts) needed to produce the executable binary file. Each device is contained in a device directory, below the C:\geb3\devices\ directory. A single device directory can contain several devices specifications.

Each device corresponds to a configuration file named device.properties or device*.properties.

The following example correspond to three devices, in two device directories:

 C:\geb3                                    <=== installation directory
 C:\geb3\devices                            <=== all devices directories are here
 C:\geb3\devices\deva                       <=== device directory (one device)
 C:\geb3\devices\devx\device.properties     <=== single configuration file
 C:\geb3\devices\devb                       <=== device directory (two devices)
 C:\geb3\devices\devx\device_b1.properties  <=== first configuration file
 C:\geb3\devices\devx\device_b2.properties  <=== second configuration file

A device configuration file includes:

Device name and description, it appears in the IDE when choosing a device for a project
Compiler mode and command: specifies how a binary is built (locally, remotely)
Transfer mode and command: whether a transfer is required for transfering the binary to harware
Run mode and command: if running (local or remote) the binary from the IDE is supported
Debug mode and command: if debugging (local or remote) the binary from the IDE is supported
IO Vars: declares the range of "directly represented variables" (AT) that is mapped into this device
Miscellaneous flags and options.

For details, see the configuration files included in the IDE, they are fully documented.

Directly represented variables - "Mapped variables"

The IEC-61131 standard allows some variables to be implicitly binded to some device-specific addresses or arbitrary I/O mapping. For instance, the user can code some variable with an AT qualificator:

    VAR X AT %MW10.2.4.1 : INT;

This would imply that the values of variable X will be read-written from-to some special place or by a particular procedure, defined by the device: it can be a memory position, a I/O port, a MODBUS table, etc. (%MW10.2.4.1 would be sort of a virtual address). If a device does not know how to map a particular AT address used in a POU, a error will be thrown at compile time. When debugging on the simulator, the simulator recognizes these variables as inputs/outputs, and allow the user to se their values and change manually the inputs. See the videos for demos.

To create or customize your own devices:

To get more detailed technical information, and to create your own customized devices for any target hardware, see OEM Tasks -> Creating devices.