ADS Communication

The ADS protocol (ADS: Automation Device Specification) is a transport layer within the Beckhoff TwinCAT system. It was developed for data exchange between the different software modules, for instance the communication between the NC and the PLC. This protocol offers the freedom of using other tools to communicate with any point in TwinCAT. If it is necessary to communicate with another PC or device, the ADS protocol is used on top of TCP/IP. This means that in a networked system, all the data is accessible from any desired point.

The ADS protocol runs on top of the TCP/IP or UDP/IP protocols. It allows the user within the Beckhoff system to use almost any connecting route to communicate with all the connected devices and to parameterize them. Outside the Beckhoff system a variety of methods are available to exchange data with other software tools.

Software interfaces

ADS-OCX

The ADS-OCX is an Active-X component. It offers a standard interface to, for instance, Visual Basic, Delphi, etc.

ADS-DLL

You can link the ADS-DLL (DLL: Dynamic Link Library) into your C program.

OPC

The OPC interface is a standardised interface for communication used in automation engineering. Beckhoff offer an OPC server for this purpose.