Digital I/O Device

The process integration MERLIC can be used in machine vision systems that are integrated in a manufacturing machine. The machine controller, e.g., a programmable logic controller (PLC), must be able to control an integrated vision system, to monitor the execution, and to query the results. Therefore, MERLIC provides a process integration mode to enable the communication with a machine controller. The process integration mode can be started with the application "MERLIC RTE" that is provided with the MERLIC installation. mode of MERLIC (MERLIC RTE) enables you to control the execution of MERLIC via a digital I/O device. To establish the communication with a digital I/O device, you have to configure the digital outputs and consider the assignment of the digital inputs.

MERLIC RTE requires some configurations at various independent resources. You have to ensure that each component is correctly referenced. For more information, see Setting Up the Process Integration.

Requirements

To use MERLIC RTE with a digital I/O device, the following requirements are necessary:

  • Ensure that the digital I/O device provides at least 6 input channels and at least 2 output channels. For the transmission of results, at least 1 further output channel is required so there are at least 3 output channels in total.

    Some I/O channels are programmable, so it is not defined whether they are input or output channels. For MERLIC to recognize the digital I/O device, all channels must be defined as either input or output channels or the device will not appear in the list of available devices on the "I/O" tab of the MERLIC RTE Setup.

  • Ensure that the driver for the digital I/O device is installed on the same PC as MERLIC.
  • Ensure that the respective MVTec I/O interface is of version 13.0 (or higher) and stored in the "bin" directory of the MERLIC installation. You can download the MVTec I/O interface from the MVTec website.

For more information on device specific requirements, see Supported Digital I/O Devices.

Get More Information

Supported Digital I/O Devices

Configuring the Digital Inputs and Outputs

Using Digital I/O Devices