Overview

What is Powershell

Excerpt from Wikipedia: “PowerShell is a task automation and configuration management framework from Microsoft, consisting of a command-line shell and associated scripting language built on the .NET Framework and .NET Core.”

“In PowerShell, administrative tasks are generally performed by cmdlets (pronounced command-lets), which are specialized .NET classes implementing a particular operation. Sets of cmdlets may be combined into scripts, executables (which are standalone applications), or by instantiating regular .NET classes (or WMI/COM Objects). These work by accessing data in different data stores, like the file system or registry, which are made available to the PowerShell runtime via PowerShell providers.” (link)

These Cmdlets are packaged and deployed in so called Powershell Modules.

What is the Powershell Ads Module (Extension) named ‘TcXaeMgmt’

The so called TcXaeMgmt module contains a number of useful Cmdlets and Providers for TwinCAT Management/Administration and accessing Ads Devices natively via Powershell.

• Route Management (Add-AdsRoute, Remove-AdsRoute) and Broadcast search (Get-AdsRoute)
• Testing Route Connections (Test-AdsRoute, Get-AdsState)
• Establish Ads Communication channels via Sessions and Connection (New-TcSession, Close-TcSession)
• Type-Safe Read/Write Value Access via ADS protocol (Read-TcValue, Write-TcValue)
• Symbol and DataType Browsing (Get-TcSymbol, Get-TcDataType)
• Further Administrative Tasks (Copy-AdsFile, Get-TcVersion, etc.)

The package is published via the Powershell Gallery at https://www.powershellgallery.com/packages/TcXaeMgmt/.

Versions

There exist two different series of the ‘TcXaeMgmt’ module:

Please be aware of the Differences Microsoft Powershell vs. Windows Powershell.