CX Emulator for MS Visual Studio .NET

This page describes the steps for the installation of a CX emulator with integrated TwinCAT components. The emulator is used to implement and test HMI applications under Microsoft Visual Studio .NET without CX1000/CX1020/CX9000 hardware.

Required software on the host PC:

Beckhoff CX Emulator for Visual Studio .NET

The Beckhoff CX emulator is an extended version of the standard SDK emulator. This extended version includes TwinCAT components. It is thus possible to start an HMI application in the CE emulator and to create an ADS communication to a running TwinCAT PLC application on the host PC via a virtual network from the emulator.

The emulator allows thus implementing and testing a CX-VS .NET application without CX hardware.

Installation of the emulator:

1. Download from the Beckhoff-FTP-Server
http://download.beckhoff.com/download/Software/embPC-Control/CE/Solutions/CX_Emulator/emulator.zip (18 MB)

2. Zip file contains an installation. During installation additional components will be downloaded from Microsoft web.

3. Modify batchfile "StartEmulator" with your local settings.

Now the emulator can be started via the batch file.

NOTE:

-we tested with Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 and 2005.

-A virtual network connection between host-PC and emulator can be established if host-PC is connected to network (linksignal required).

The Microsoft standard emulator is extended with TwinCAT components in the Beckhoff version:

CX Emulator for MS Visual Studio .NET 1: