Interfacing Inputs and Outputs with IEC 61131-3 Control Software

The paper presents interfaces for handling inputs and outputs from IEC 61131-3 control software available in the CPDev engineering environment. The programmer can use code-embedded clauses which directly connect addresses of variables to particular I/Os. Another approach is to perform additional configuration step to map the variables to hardware channels, what is especially convenient when external modules are used. I/O function blocks are yet another possibility to connect variables to inputs and outputs. The blocks may be either generic or specialized for particular purposes such as fieldbus communications or to perform additional signal processing.