The software features the following characteristics:
Multiple communication functions. Zijinqiao Configuration Software [3] supports the following communication functions:
Supports serial communication methods such as RS232, RS422, RS485, as well as wireless radio, telephone dial-up, and telephone polling dial-up.
Ethernet communication supports both wired and wireless Ethernet.
All device drivers support mobile network standards such as GPRS, CDMA, and GSM.
Convenient development system. A rich set of components and controls form a powerful HMI development system; enhanced gradient and progressive color functions fundamentally address the issue where excessive use of these colors in many similar software significantly impacts screen refresh speed and system operational efficiency; more flexible and diverse vector sub-images make engineering screen creation faster; provides object-oriented programming, built-in indirect variables, intermediate variables, and database variables, supporting custom functions and custom menus.
Openness. The openness of Zijinqiao Configuration Software is reflected in the following aspects:
Supports Excel accessing the database via VBA.
The software features an open architecture, supporting DDE, OPC, ODBC/SQL, ActiveX, and DNA standards. Provides external access interfaces in various forms such as OLE, COM/DCOM, and dynamic link libraries, facilitating users to conduct in-depth secondary development using common development tools (e.g., VC++, VB, etc.).
The architecture of Zijinqiao Configuration Software I/O drivers is open, with the interface source code publicly available, allowing users to develop new drivers independently.
Database functionality. Zijinqiao Configuration Software includes a built-in real-time database, which itself contains multiple functional blocks for data processing and storage, enabling various functions such as accumulation, statistics, control, and linearization.

When a programmable logic controller (PLC) is put into operation, its working process is generally divided into three stages: input sampling, user program execution, and output refresh. Completing these three stages is called one scan cycle. Throughout the operation, the PLC's CPU repeats these three stages at a certain scanning speed.
1. Input Sampling Stage
During the input sampling stage, the PLC sequentially reads all input states and data in a scanning manner and stores them in corresponding units of the I/O image area. After input sampling is completed, the process moves to the user program execution and output refresh stages.