BinaryCounter (FB)¶

FUNCTION_BLOCK FINAL BinaryCounter EXTENDS PointWithFlags

DNP3 datapoint of type (Binary) Counter.

An instance of BinaryCounter does represent an instance of a datapoint of DNP3 object group 20 “counters”, and optionally also a datapoint of DNP3 object group 21 “frozen counters”. This function block ist called BinaryCounter, because the slang term “Binary Counter” is used frequently in DNP3 realm.

DNP3 object group 21 “frozen counters” behaviour¶

In general the DNP3 “freeze” is an activity only relevant for the master, the “frozen” value is not of any interest for the application. Nevertheless DNP3 defines a “freeze-and-clear” operation. The DNP3 standard states - begin of citation … Freeze operations take two forms—freeze and freeze-and-clear. With a freeze-and-clear type operation, the counter value is zeroed after its counts are copied to the frozen counter. … end of citation.

This functionality is optional, and can be disabled setting enableFreezeAndClear:=FALSE. If enabled, there are two aspects to take care of. First: the counter value will be zeroed during a “freeze-and-clear” operation - be aware: the variable value will be modified. Second: eventually the application need to know, that an “freeze-and-clear” operation happend and need to do someting useful. The output freezeAndClearOccurred is set to TRUE for one application cycle, to signal the application to do its part.

InOut:

Scope	Name	Type	Initial	Comment	Inherited from
Input	Description	STRING		Description of the datapoint - this is a configuration, changes are ignored after Outstation was enabled.	Point
	Number	DINT	-1	Point number - this is a configuration, changes are ignored after Outstation was enabled.. The point number can be configured if needed to either: start with Point number > 0 have gaps in Point numbers If set to -1 (the default) the OutstationDataModel (more precisely the related “Group”) takes care to set the Point number internally: starting at 0, if first Point number is not set explicitly. increment by 1 In case you set Point number explicitly please keep it consistent: Point numbers need to be >= 0 Point numbers need to be ascending	Point
	EventClass	USINT	Constants.TMWDEFS_CLASS_MASK_ONE	The initial event class - this is a configuration, changes are ignored after Outstation was enabled. Operational event class may be changed by a master.	Point
	EventMode	PointEventMode	PointEventMode.EVENT_MODE_SOE	The event mode - this is a configuration, changes are ignored after Outstation was enabled. Only used if the sampling rate is set within the outstation configuration.	Point
	tScanPeriod	TIME	TIME#0ms	Scan period for datapoint. If tScanPeriod is set to T#0MS, the Group related tScanPeriod or the OutstationDataModel.tScanPeriod is used.	Point
	udiLogOptions	UDINT	OutstationLoggingOptions.None	LoggingOptions can be combined using OR.	Point
Output	xError	BOOL		An error occured.	Point
	eErrorID	Error		The specific error.	Point
Input	flags	BYTE	Constants.DNPDEFS_DBAS_FLAG_ON_LINE	Flags used by the point. Can be changed in case a point goes offline or any other error. If set to 0, the variation without flags will be used by DNP3	PointWithFlags
	EventWithTimeStamp	BOOL	TRUE	Enable / disable if events will be send with / without timestamp - this is a configuration, changes are ignored after Outstation was enabled.
	EnableFreeze	BOOL	FALSE	Enable / disable freezing the current value - this is a configuration, changes are ignored after Outstation was enabled. If enabled, an instance of DNP3 object group 21 “frozen counters” is created.
	FreezeEventClass	USINT	Constants.TMWDEFS_CLASS_MASK_ONE	The initial event class used for the optional datapoint of DNP3 object group 21 “frozen counters” - this is a configuration, changes are ignored after Outstation was enabled. Operational event class may be changed by a master.
	FreezeEventMode	PointEventMode	PointEventMode.EVENT_MODE_SOE	The event mode used for the optional datapoint of DNP3 object group 21 “frozen counters” - this is a configuration, changes are ignored after Outstation was enabled. Only used if the sampling rate is set within the outstation configuration.
	enableFreezeAndClear	BOOL	TRUE	Enable / disable “freeze-and-clear” operation.
	value	AnyNumber		The current value to use, in most cases using the POINTER TO value representation is appropriate.
Output	freezeAndClearOccurred	BOOL		A freeze-and-clear occured.

Properties:

PointNum, inherited from Point

PointTyp, inherited from Point

Methods:

GetDescriptionString, inherited from Point

IdentificationToString, inherited from Point

ToString, inherited from PointWithFlags