MP STUDIO 2 Phase 7 · Monitoring and the Data Table

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Monitoring shows the state of the program running on the device on the MP STUDIO 2 screen in real time. You can check values on the ladder canvas, in the Data Table, on the Watch card and in the Value Trend graph, and change values on the device with value writes and forced I/O.

1. Download the current project to the device.
2. Click Monitoring in the top band or press Ctrl+M (Run → Monitoring).
3. To stop monitoring, press Esc or Ctrl+M.

• ① Power flow: contacts, coils, wires and function blocks that carry power change to the power-flow color. A green frame is shown around the canvas while monitoring.
• ② Current values: values of timer, counter and data addresses are shown above the cells.
• ③ Device pill: shows Monitoring · port and the scan time (SCAN).
• ④ Status pills: show the scan time (SCAN TIME) and the firmware version of the device.

If you edit the ladder while monitoring, monitoring is turned off with the notice Monitoring stopped because the program changed. To check the edited program, download it again and then turn monitoring back on.

If you edit the ladder after downloading and then turn monitoring on, the device pill shows Device program differs. The device is still running the previous program, so a value on the screen may belong to a different cell. When you see this tag, download again.

If the device stops responding during monitoring, the device pill and the status pills show No response. Check the cable, the device power and the communication port settings.

During monitoring, right-click a word cell and select Write Value to Memory, or select the cell and press Alt+Enter, to open the Write Value to Memory window.

1. Check ① the address and data type and ② the current value.
2. Enter the value to write in ③ Value and click ④ Write.

A value outside the range of the data type is not sent, and the reason is shown. The program may overwrite the written value on the next scan.

During monitoring, right-click a bit cell and use Force ON or Force OFF to force that point on or off. The Force buttons in the Inspector do the same. You can check and release all forced points at once in the FORCE INPUT / OUTPUT window.

During monitoring, the cell menu contains Monitoring Off, the value display formats (Signed Decimal, Unsigned Decimal, Hexadecimal, Binary and Floating Point), Write Value to Memory, Force ON and Force OFF, and Add to Watch (address).

Select Run → Data Table to open the Data Table window. Register addresses to see their values in a table, write values or record a trend.

1. Enter an address such as D10, M0 or R1 in the ① Address column and press Tab to move to the next cell. If the address has a symbol, it is shown in the Symbol column.
2. ② Format shows the data type of the address (BIT, WORD and so on). For word values, choose the display format, such as signed decimal, in the drop-down next to Value.
3. Click ③ Monitoring to start reading values. While monitoring, the button changes to Stop Monitoring.
4. To change a value, enter it in ④ Modify and click Force Write. You can enter decimal, 0x (hexadecimal) or 0b (binary) values.

• Use ⑤ Save .dt and Open .dt to save the address list to a file and load it again.
• Click ⑥ Trend to open the Value Trend panel.
• Click ✕ at the end of a row to delete that row, or Clear to delete all rows.
• The registered address list is remembered separately for each project file.
• Even when the program check fails, addresses in the fixed memory areas (P, M, D, T, C and R) can be read. User variable and system clock rows are then shown as —.

You can add the address of a ladder cell to the Data Table directly.

• Click the Add to Watch button in the Inspector.
• Or right-click the cell and select Add to Watch (address).

If the Data Table is closed, it opens and the address is added. An address that is already registered is shown as Watching in the Inspector.

The addresses and values registered in the Data Table are also shown on the Watch card in the right column. If monitoring is on, the values on the Watch card keep updating even after you close the Data Table window.

Click Trend in the Data Table to open the Value Trend panel, which shows how the values of the registered addresses change over time.

• ① Start Recording and Stop Recording: start or stop recording values. While recording, the number of recorded rows is shown.
• ② Pause and Resume: freeze or resume only the graph display. Recording continues.
• ③ Time span: choose the time range shown on the screen (seconds or minutes).
• ④ Legend: the color and current value of each address. Click a legend entry to hide or show the line of that address.
• ⑤ Save CSV…: saves the recorded values to a CSV file.

Bit addresses (M0 in the figure) are shown as ON/OFF waveforms below the graph.

Recording stops automatically when the number of recorded rows reaches the limit. Nothing is drawn while monitoring is off.

Select Run → FORCE INPUT / OUTPUT to open the FORCE INPUT / OUTPUT window. Forced I/O makes an input point read a set value instead of its real signal, or makes an output point send a set value regardless of the ladder result.

1. In ① the input points and ② the output points, choose ON or OFF for the points to force. Dimmed points do not exist on this model.
2. Click ③ Apply Force to send them to the device.
3. Click ④ Read Status to read the force state of the device again. The number of points forced ON and OFF is shown at the top of the window.
4. Read ⑤ the notice for how Apply Force works and how to release forced points.

Caution: Applied force values are stored in the device and stay in effect after a power cycle or a program re-download. To release them, press Clear, then Apply Force.

If both ON and OFF are set for one point, the device applies OFF. When points are forced, the device pill shows Forced N during monitoring; click it to open this window. Click Show Frames to see the communication frames that will be sent to the device.

• Phase 6 · Check, Communication and Download
• Phase 8 · Simulation
• Phase 10 · Troubleshooting

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