Basics of Configuring Hardware with Simatic STEP 7 (v5.5 & v5.6)


Introduction to Configuring Hardware.



You configure the hardware in HW configuration. You can open HW configuration by selecting a station in the
SIMATIC Manager and then double-clicking on the "Hardware" icon.
 
Configuring
The term "configuring" refers to the arranging of racks, modules, distributed I/O (DP) racks, and
interface submodules in a station window. Racks are represented by a configuration table that
permits a specific number of modules to be inserted, just like a real rack.
In the configuration table, STEP 7 automatically assigns an address to each module. You can
change the addresses of the modules in a station if the CPU in the station can be addressed freely
(meaning an address can be assigned freely to every channel of the module, independent of its
slot).
You can copy your configuration as often as you like to other STEP 7 projects, modify it as
necessary, and download it to one or more existing plants. When the programmable controller
starts up, the CPU compares the preset configuration created in STEP 7 with the actual
configuration of the plant. Any errors are therefore recognized immediately and reported.

Assigning Parameters
The term "assigning parameters" refers to the following:
• Setting properties for programmable modules in a local configuration and in a network. For
example: a CPU is a programmable module. Its watchdog time is a parameter you can set.
• Setting bus parameters, master and slave parameters for a master system (PROFIBUS) or
making other settings for exchanging data between components.
The parameters are downloaded to the CPU and transferred during startup by the CPU to the
respective modules. Modules can easily be replaced because the parameters set with STEP 7 are
automatically downloaded to the new module during startup.    

When Should You "Configure Hardware"?
The properties of the S7 programmable controllers and modules are preset with default values
such that in many cases you do not need to configure them.
Configuration is necessary in the following cases:
• If you want to change the default parameters of a module (for example, enable a hardware
interrupt for a module)
• If you want to configure communication connections
• For stations with a distributed I/O (PROFIBUS DP or PROFINET IO)
• For S7-400 stations with a number of CPUs (multicomputing) or expansion racks
• For fault-tolerant (H) programmable control systems.

  
 

 

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