Group Level Programming

With group level, it will be possible to control as well as monitor the zones on group level.

Using the group level programming, one instance of function block TECT_GROUP is called in the program code instead of multiple calls of multiple zones in that group.

The first Zone Data and the Group Data structures need to be connected to the TECT_GROUP function block. Beside those, an array of TECT_TEMP_CONTROL for all zones in the group is to be declared and connected to the function block. Thus the TECT_TEMP_CONTROL function blocks will be called internally in the TECT_GROUP.

With TECT_GROUP, TECT_PWM8 function block is called internally:

• The instance for heating and cooling needs to be defined. Each instance supports 8 zones. For more than 8 zones, an array of TECT_PWM8 needs to be declared.
• This function can be enabled or disabled with input CO_OUTPUT. If it is disabled, then a dummy instance of TECT_PWM for each FIRST_PWM8_HEAT and FIRST_PWM8_COOL should be connected.
• The parameters for TECT_PWM8 are to be defined by inputs. For heating instance, MIN_CYCLES_HEAT, PWM_PERIOD_CYCLES are used. For cooling instance, MIN_CYCLES_COOL and PWM_PERIOD_CYCLES x rPeriod_Fact (in Machine Set of Zone Data structure) as PWM period.

Besides that, the user can enable the group fault monitor with input EN_FAULT_MONITOR with defined GROUP_FAULT_MASK. This function will set all zones in the group to fault state as soon as one zone in the group has fault (according to GROUP_FAULT_MASK).

For multiple groups, it is just a multiplication of the one group application.

Another function block TECT_HMI_MUX can be used for multiple groups to reduce communication data as well as reduced engineering effort for Panel project.

It works as a multiplexer, group index decides the zone data of which group will be active for user, so that it can be read to buffer as well as be written from buffer.

In this way, the communication data between AC500 and HMI can be reduced from n group to one group. At the same time the HMI project can also be programmed for one group instead of n groups.