# Omron Fins and CIO

**URL:** https://discourse.nodered.org/t/omron-fins-and-cio/31142
**Category:** Industrial
**Created:** [4 August 2020 18:56 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/omron-fins-and-cio/31142 "2020-08-04T18:56:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![djpjd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6f9a4e/32.png) [@djpjd](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/djpjd)
#### Post date: [4 August 2020 18:56 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/omron-fins-and-cio/31142/1 "2020-08-04T18:56:23Z")

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I am using "node-red-contrib-omron-fins" and I am trying to read the CIO of an Omron CJ series PLC. I can successfully read W,H,A and D areas but when I try C I always get back the present value of the Timer area. What I am trying to achieve is to read the raw value of an analog input that resides at CIO2007. Anybody have any thoughts on this?

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### Author: ![Steve-Mcl](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/steve-mcl/32/4826_2.png) [@Steve-Mcl](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Steve-Mcl)
#### Post date: [4 August 2020 19:25 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/omron-fins-and-cio/31142/2 "2020-08-04T19:25:05Z")

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> [@djpjd](#):
>
> Anybody have any thoughts on this?

I should (I wrote the node)

As I remember from the fins manual, no specifier is required for core IO (just use the channel number)

Did you try that?

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### Author: ![djpjd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6f9a4e/32.png) [@djpjd](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/djpjd)
#### Post date: [4 August 2020 19:56 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/omron-fins-and-cio/31142/3 "2020-08-04T19:56:57Z")

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Thanks for the response. I did try that but I get an invalid address error.

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### Author: ![Steve-Mcl](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/steve-mcl/32/4826_2.png) [@Steve-Mcl](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Steve-Mcl)
#### Post date: [4 August 2020 20:33 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/omron-fins-and-cio/31142/4 "2020-08-04T20:33:38Z")

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Odd. Let me check and get back to you.

Edit...  
So it seems I do expect CIO (as in CIO2007)

I cannot test or debug this as I dont have access to a PLC until tomorrow.

NOTE: If you need to proceed without waiting for me to get back to you, you can work around this by a simple line of ladder...  
`CF113 Normally On --> MOV 2007 D20007`  
then reading from D20007 (or whatever address you have spare)

NOTE2: I see you are accessing quite a few different areas - is generally recommended to read consecutive memory areas for 3 good reasons...

1. Data Consistency (all data is read in one POLL meaning any related values are in phase with each other (read in the same PLC scan) )
2. Speed (less polls == more speed)
3. Cross reference (reading and writing to addresses not entered in PLC logic cannot be cross referenced and difficult to debug, less portable and can be a cause for concern especially when writing to the PLC)

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### Author: ![djpjd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6f9a4e/32.png) [@djpjd](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/djpjd)
#### Post date: [5 August 2020 11:20 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/omron-fins-and-cio/31142/5 "2020-08-05T11:20:24Z")

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I tried the CIO prefix and it gives the same result as C which returns the PV of the Timers.

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### Author: ![Steve-Mcl](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/steve-mcl/32/4826_2.png) [@Steve-Mcl](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Steve-Mcl)
#### Post date: [5 August 2020 13:45 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/omron-fins-and-cio/31142/6 "2020-08-05T13:45:23Z")

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Yeah, I have confirmed a bug will fix soon 🤞 .

In the meantime, did you see the work around...

> [@Steve-Mcl](#):
>
> If you need to proceed without waiting for me to get back to you, you can work around this by a simple line of ladder...  
> `CF113 Normally On --> MOV 2007 D20007`  
> then reading from D20007 (or whatever address you have spare)

Also, out of curiosity, did the (un-requested) advice in NOTE2 make any sense to you? I am wondering where your head is at on the points I raised?

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### Author: ![djpjd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6f9a4e/32.png) [@djpjd](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/djpjd)
#### Post date: [5 August 2020 14:11 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/omron-fins-and-cio/31142/7 "2020-08-05T14:11:23Z")

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Yes thank you for the advice and in most cases i will collect the data that i need into one continuous block of memory and do a single read. I am not actually reading all those different locations, I was just relaying my experience with testing your node. In this particular case I do not have access to the programming of the PLC as the machine manufacturer has a lock on it and will not allow me to get in so I am stuck with grabbing what I can from the I/O. I have another PLC on the same network so I may use it to collect data from the locked PLC with a message and grab it from there. Roundabout but will get the job done.  
Thank you very much for the work that you put into this! I am just starting out with Node Red and finding all kinds of fun use cases for it.

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### Author: ![Steve-Mcl](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/steve-mcl/32/4826_2.png) [@Steve-Mcl](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Steve-Mcl)
#### Post date: [5 August 2020 15:46 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/omron-fins-and-cio/31142/8 "2020-08-05T15:46:58Z")

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> [@djpjd](#):
>
> In this particular case I do not have access to the programming of the PLC as the machine manufacturer has a lock on it and will not allow me to get in so I am stuck with grabbing what I can from the I/O

I did suspect that might be the case (damn them oems 😉 )

Sometimes I get lucky and find the OEM has put most things in a contiguous area for HMI & supposing I only need 3 values that are 100 addresses apart - I request all 100 addresses - it is a LOT quicker to poll 100 addresses than 3 single polls! Sometimes we get lucky.

So, question, when I publish a Beta would you be willing to test it out & feedback?

The fix for CIO put my head back into the code and suddenly a number of _short comings_ I had pushed to the back of my mind resurfaced - I'd like to get them resolved. One particular issue is that the node would simply discard an incoming `msg` if it was **busy getting your last request** - not ideal! I am implementing a sequence manager that will allow multiple in-flight requests to occur and (hopefully) instead of just ignoring your request, you get a big speed increase 🙂

Would you be ok with being a tester? It will require a manual NPM install (I will provide instructions)

Let me know if you can (it would speed up getting Beta into Release).

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### Author: ![djpjd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6f9a4e/32.png) [@djpjd](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/djpjd)
#### Post date: [5 August 2020 15:56 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/omron-fins-and-cio/31142/9 "2020-08-05T15:56:57Z")

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Sure, I would love to help.

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### Author: ![Steve-Mcl](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/steve-mcl/32/4826_2.png) [@Steve-Mcl](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Steve-Mcl)
#### Post date: [7 August 2020 10:35 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/omron-fins-and-cio/31142/10 "2020-08-07T10:35:47Z")

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Hi, sorry for the delay.

So while it was a simple fix,

I have made some major improvements to the node & the underlying lib, I am now achieving speeds of over 130 msg per sec (not that I recommend that - polling at 200ms is more than adequate for most situations)

So the beta is no on NPM.

This is how you will install.

1. stop node-red
2. uninstall existing version `npm uninstall node-red-contrib-omron-fins`
3. install beta `npm install node-red-contrib-omron-fins@beta`
4. start node-red

This is a demo i did...

 ![2020-08-07_11-32-23](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/3X/3/3/33f5ae3d6a4a21289e7d1719f67511202f7012f9.gif)

The output from debug...

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/3X/7/a/7ae48c2a9f0601623767ecfe839d04bc7caf987e.png)

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Steve-Mcl](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/steve-mcl/32/4826_2.png) [@Steve-Mcl](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Steve-Mcl)
#### Post date: [10 August 2020 07:58 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/omron-fins-and-cio/31142/11 "2020-08-10T07:58:32Z")

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@djpjd did you manage to successfully access all the data elements you need using this beta?

please let me know after you have done some testing and i will push the beta to live (once we have some confidence).

Cheers.

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### Author: ![djpjd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6f9a4e/32.png) [@djpjd](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/djpjd)
#### Post date: [12 August 2020 18:27 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/omron-fins-and-cio/31142/12 "2020-08-12T18:27:41Z")

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I was able to install the Beta and have been running it for a few days. everything works as expected so far. Thanks!

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### Author: ![Steve-Mcl](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/steve-mcl/32/4826_2.png) [@Steve-Mcl](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Steve-Mcl)
#### Post date: [12 August 2020 18:56 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/omron-fins-and-cio/31142/13 "2020-08-12T18:56:58Z")

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Good stuff.

Note, I pushed an updated beta about 48h ago. It fixes the output property (was being ignored).

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### Author: ![Steve-Mcl](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/steve-mcl/32/4826_2.png) [@Steve-Mcl](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Steve-Mcl)
#### Post date: [15 August 2020 16:13 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/omron-fins-and-cio/31142/14 "2020-08-15T16:13:39Z")

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@djpjd I have now released V0.3.0 & should soon appear in the node-red node library for installation.

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### Author: ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/1X/d073cd938eafa2e558d7c2cd59003b3ef4963033.png) [@system](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [14 October 2020 16:13 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/omron-fins-and-cio/31142/15 "2020-10-14T16:13:44Z")

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