Recently I started a project using ABB Control Builder to program a AC500 PM573 PLC.

I need to write a collection of C functions that can be used in CoDeSys as functions & function blocks so the end user (PLC Programmer) doesn’t need to use Structured Text (ST) to write what would be complicated Pascal.

Control Builder doesn’t provide a C editor, so I chose something light as I don’t need a full IDE – Sublime Text 2. This is the first time I’ve used it.

Control Builder is also a bit dated and doesn’t seem to have keyboard shortcuts for compiling, so I created my own build system for AC500 C development. This is the sublime-build file I used, thanks to sublimetext.info:

C.sublime-build

{
    "cmd" : [
    	"C:\\GCC\\4.7.0\\bin\\powerpc-elf-eabi-gcc.exe",
    	"-I", "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Common Files\\CAA-Targets\\ABB_AC500\\AC500_FWAPI",
    	"-mcpu=860",
    	"-fno-common",
    	"-msdata=none",
    	"-fno-jump-tables",
    	"-fno-section-anchors",
    	"-fno-merge-constants",
    	"-fno-builtin",
    	"-nostdlib",
    	"-Werror-implicit-function-declaration",
    	"-Wconversion",
    	"-std=c99",
    	"-c", "C_Code_App_Shell.c",
    	"-o", "C_Code_App.obj"
	],
    "shell" : true,
    "working_dir" : "$file_path",
    "path" : "C:\\GCC\\4.7.0\\bin"
}

You’ll notice the following things about this build definition:

• It won’t work with the “automatic” setting as I don’t want it picking up any other C projects
• It compiles a specific file only – C_Code_App_Shell.c – which is the same file compiled by Control Builder so your other included files should be included properly

Use at your own risk, and I recommend using Control Builder to finally build your code when ready for testing and production, but this is a handy way of using a modern editor in the meantime.