This is a python wrapper for TwinCATs ADS library. It provides python functions for communicating with TwinCAT devices. pyads uses the C API provided by TcAdsDll.dll on Windows adslib.so on Linux. The documentation for the ADS API is available on infosys.beckhoff.com.

pip install pyads 

or

git clone https://github.com/MrLeeh/pyads.git

Make sure that you have the TcAdsDll.dll provided by Beckhoff installed on your PATH.

Install the Linux ADS library from https://github.com/dabrowne/ADS

git clone https://github.com/dabrowne/ADS.git
cd ADS
sudo make install

Read the API documentation on http://pythonhosted.org/pyads/.

Open port and create a AmsAddr object for remote machine.

>>> import pyads
>>> pyads.open_port()
32828
>>> pyads.get_local_address()
<AmsAddress 192.168.0.109.1.1:32828>
>>> adr = pyads.AmsAddr('5.33.160.54.1.1', 851)

Add a route to the remote machine (Linux only - Windows routes must be added in the TwinCat Router).

>>> remote_ip = '192.168.0.100'
>>> pyads.add_route(adr, remote_ip)

Read and write a variable by name from a remote machine.

>>> pyads.read_by_name(adr, 'global.bool_value', pyads.PLCTYPE_BOOL)
True
>>> pyads.write_by_name(adr, 'global.bool_value', False, pyads.PLCTYPE_BOOL)
>>> pyads.read_by_name(adr, 'global.bool_value', pyads.PLCTYPE_BOOL)
False

If the name could not be found an Exception containing the error message and ADS Error number is raised.

>>> pyads.read_by_name(adr, 'global.wrong_name', pyads.PLCTYPE_BOOL)
ADSError: ADSError: symbol not found (1808)

Reading and writing Strings is now easier as you don' t have to supply the length of a string anymore. For reading strings the maximum buffer length is 1024.

>>> pyads.read_by_name(adr, 'global.sample_string', pyads.PLCTYPE_STRING)
'Hello World'
>>> pyads.write_by_name(adr, 'global.sample_string', 'abc', pyads.PLCTYPE_STRING)
>>> pyads.read_by_name(adr, 'global.sample_string', pyads.PLCTYPE_STRING)
'abc'

Setting the ADS state and machine state.

>>> pyads.write_control(adr, pyads.ADSSTATE_STOP, 0, 0)

Toggle bitsize variables by address.

>>> data = pyads.read(adr, INDEXGROUP_MEMORYBIT, 100*8 + 0, PLCTYPE_BOOL)
>>> pyads.write(adr, INDEXGROUP_MEMORYBIT, 100*8 + 0, not data)

Read and write udint variable by address.

>>> pyads.write(adr, INDEXGROUP_MEMORYBYTE, 0, 65536, PLCTYPE_UDINT)
>>> pyads.read(adr, INDEXGROUP_MEMORYBYTE, 0, PLCTYPE_UDINT)
65536

Finally close the ADS port.

>>> pyads.close_port()

Pyads includes a locally hosted dummy server which can be used to test your code without the need to connect to a physical device.

import pyads
from pyads.testserver import AdsTestServer
dummy_server = AdsTestServer()
dummy_server.start()
# Your code goes here
dummy_server.stop()

# Or as a context manager
with AdsTestServer() as dummy_server:
    # Your code goes here

The dummy server response can be customized by defining a request handler and passing it to the server. This function will be passed the packet received by the server, and is expected to return response data.

dummy_server = AdsTestServer(handler=request_handler_fn)

For an example handler function, see pyads.utils.testserver.default_handler.

Linux support!

Pyads now has Linux compatibility by wrapping the open source ADS library provided by Beckhoff. The main API is identical on both Linux and Windows, however the Linux implementation includes a built in router which needs to be managed programmatically using pyads.add_route(ams_address, ip_address) and pyads.delete_route(ams_address).

Version 2.1.0 also features vastly improved test coverage of the API, and the addition of a dummy test server for full integration testing.

I wanted to make the Wrapper more pythonic so I created a new module named pyads.ads that contains all the functions from pyads.pyads but in a more pythonic way. You can still access the old functions by using the pyads.pyads module.

Improvements:

• more pythonic function names (e.g. 'write' instead of 'adsSyncWrite')
• easier handling of reading and writing Strings
• no error codes, if errors occur an Exception with the error code will be raised