MuttsNutts

Hiyo, I have InTouch 9.5 and I need to talk to a series of Eurotherm controllers. I haven't got as far as testing the actual comms yet. As I understand it, I have finsgtwy running for connection to my Omron PLCs and now I need DAServer running for InTouch to see the Modbus slaves. I am expecting to talk to the Modbus slaves via Com1 RS232 port and then onto a link adapter to converto to RS422. Anyhoos, I have yet to successfully install the DAServer Serial driver on my PC (runnign XP servicwe pack 2 and computer name shorter than 16 characters). Have fired up DASMBSerial.exe (file version 621.45.0.0) and this was loaded from the InTouch IO Servers CD2. As far am I am aware it is tagged as DAServer Serial V2.5 But System Management Console should then see it under a local group but that's where the problem is... I see nothing. Am I missing something? Any help is greatly appreciated

...I'm lost <scratches head>

Iconics is being used in Heathrow Terminal 5 as the front end for everything: CCTV, door access control, fire alarm system, services (boilers, steam etc) and HVAC. All of this is via OPC servers (Matrikon if I remember correctly) However, the front end looks appaling because of design choices - square box plus triangle to represent a CCTV camera for example. BUT.... we had a 4 screen display for every workstation: Alarms, Overview & Navigation, Specific screen of your choice and another screen of your choice. It worked well and coped with a tremendous amount of data but in an installation of this size, dividing up the load was an important consideration. I didn't work on behind the scenes scripts so I have no experience on passing variables/tags through to generic popups etc but if it was good enough for T5....

I like WinCC but PCS7 is a whole different kettle of fish. I really wish the standard libraries for PID Loops and Valve control (etc) would look a bit more slick. They take a hell of a lot of getting used to

Ok, after a bit of digging, I have come up with the following: it is not possible to get PF (Powe Factor) back as a 4-20mA. BUT.... PF = P/S (which is Active Power kw / Apparent Power kva) and because I bring back Active Power (on Out 2), then all I need to do is bring back Apparent Power on Out 3 (the one I'm trying to get PF on) and perform the calculation in the PLC. This, of course, could all be achieved so much easier by using a ProfiBus module but I've got to work with 4-20mA I/O units so I hope this will help someone else in the future.

Hello. I have a Socomec DIRIS unit with two A40/A41 (4-20mA) modules puluuged in the back. I can get some values back but I am struggling with Power Factor. Page 11 in the manual (ref: 536048) lists all the 25 possible options that can be assigned to Out 1 ( to Out 4 in my case). I can get back Voltage, Current and Kw in Out 1 to 3 but what is the parameter for Power Factor? Also, should I care about the min and max scaling for all analogue outputs? What I mean is, for voltage, I am assuming that I will not get more than 500v therefore have set the max to 500. If the unit is capable of measuring 1000v then would it "compress" a value of 1000v to give 20mA, or would it give 20mA at 500v and above? I am reading back 412.3 for voltage and this corresponds what is shown on the display, so I am guessing that a max of 500 for this Analogue Output is in EU and I have therefore chosen a correct scale (0 to 500). One final question - what is the difference between "K" and "/" after the min (or max) settings? (I assume K is 000s but what is "/"?) Any help appreciated.

Hello, I have a PV 1000 touchscreen unit running FTV ME edition. I want to put 2 simple pages on, each with a handful of trends. I have been given a 2GB flash card for storage and inserted this yesterday (with the unit powered off). The unit restated ok and all seems well. Question 1: If I set up a new Data Log Model, what should I put in the [Paths] tab so I can get it to store the data to this flash card. I have no idea what the card will appear as in the PV operating system - in other words, I have no idea what the path to this "drive" will be. Will it be something like "\Storage" or some other default name, or do I have to somehow go behind the scenes (how do I do this on a touchscreen?) and navigate to it and set up a folder? Question 2: How can I set up the trending/pens such that when I leave the screen, I can come back to it later on and scroll backwards and forwards? At present (and because I guess I'm not storing the trends) everytime I leave the screen and come back to it, the trends start all over again. I expect to set up 4 pens on 15 second sample times (I will set the Data Log accordingly) and have a 12 hour window for the trend, which I'd like to be able to navigate backwards and forwards through. There probably is an easy way to do this but it's not intuitive as far as I can tell. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Ah, yes. I can see how that would be the case. Thanks for the info

Thank you very much for the reply. I expect I will now be able to set up a datalog and configure a trend object to point to this such that every time I come back to the trends screen, the trends will still be showing and not starting all over again, yes?

Question: I have a scenario where I use maths to calculate a CIO address and then pass it to a IR. I may get a result of 3200 and I want to pass this to an IR to use elsewhere by calling a subroutine. I do this because I have several blocks of CIO data I wish to manipluate (rather like a set of records) and I can call one subroutine by pointing to the start of the particular block I wish to manipulate at that moment in time. What I have tried so far: I store the result (which is 3200) in a DM word, say, DM20000. I have tried storing the result (3200) in CIO 4000. I use a [MOVR D20000 IR2] in the case of the result being stored in DM20000, and I have tried [MOVR 4000 IR2] in the case of the result being stored in CIO 4000. The subroutine dereferences the IR by using ,IR or +22,IR (if I want the 22nd word from the start of the pointer) but it seems that I end up reading/writing data to DM3200 which is not what I want. I want to read/write data to CIO 3200. Note: I have tried @ options but the MOVR instruction doesn't like it. So, any ideas on how to calculate CIO addresses and use Index Registers to point to this data... or perhaps a different approach? Many thanks, (The) Mutts Nuts

I had the exact same requirement to smoth out signals from a flowmeter to show on a small HMI. The [AVG] instruction is about as useful as... I dunno, Paris Hilton (utterly useless) when your intuition tells you it ought to be ideal to use. The reality is to write yer own. By the way, that algoritm: FV=FV+C(NV-FV) is excellent.

Hello. I have been asked to look at an upgrade option for the following: A8GT-70GOT-SW-EUN (there seems to me a memory card installed) The PSU is labaled: A8GT-PW-EU The Comms interface is labelled: A7GT-BUS2-EUN I hope I'm not missing anythinng. As I understand it, this HMI is no longer available and the customer wants an option for something newer that spare parts are available for. It will involve transferring the project on it to a newer HMI. I know very little about Mitsibushi PLCs and HMIs. Questions: 1) Can the existing project be easily ported to a new HMI or would it be a case of start from scratch again? 2) Would the PLC code have to be taken into consideration - eg, the PLC might change pages or look at special registers inside the HMI for something like clock synchronisation? 3) What software should I use and is it expensive? (Am UK based) Any help would be greatly appreciated

<groan> It's £750 for the software. Still, if that's the way to go then so be it. Thanks for your help.

(I knew it wouldn't be long before I return) Final question: is GX Developer the only option to program A1S PLCs? It's quite expensive and will eat any margin I might make on this job

...I like you. Alot. Thanks v much, am away like a greyhound out of the starting traps now to unleash the creative beast. Many thanks.

Thaks very much for help so far. Ok, the HMI looks like it's going to be something like a GT1575 with a 232 to 422 converter so we can connect to the PLC which is A1S, but (like everything else in life) there is a further problem. I cannot open the PLC source files with GX Developer. The customer has given me the files and they are as follows: proj_12 proj_12.hdr proj_12.nam proj_12.prg proj_12.prm proj_12.prt (I've called it "proj" here) Question: how do I open these files and with what? Sorry for being a newbie about this. I will give feedback and details when I get this all cobbled together and gain confidence.

That's excellent. A fine showcase for what this kit can do.

Thanks very much. I have to say, the level of support in the UK from Mitsibushi local resellers is excellent. Better even than Omron and I didn't think I'd ever say that. This project, although probably simple, is fast becoming less of a nightmare and more of an interesting venture.

Thanks very much for the link. Although it looks complex, I expect the upgrade to a new HMI GOT1000 series(?) involves no PLC work and with a bit of luck, an import may not involve too many tweaks of the screens (fonts etc).

Thank you for the answer although the link you posted does not work if I cut and paste it into my web browser. Can you try again please?

Hello, I am trying to install Fieldcare 2.05 on my Windows XP laption with SP3 installed. Fieldcare reports that a prerequisite is SP2 and consequently has an "X" opposite it and I therefore cannot install the product. Does anyone know of a way around this (the guys at E&H are normally quite good for support but I've got a lot of "errrs" and "...ummmms" and non-returned calls on this matter)? Is my only option to roll back XP to SP2???

Hiyo, thanks for the idea. I'll have a look at this. Some feedback: I've regressed me laptop to XP Service Pack 2 (and told SP3 automatic update to "begone!") and everything works fine. Will have a gander at Pactware all the same though.

I am using ABB 800 controllers. A horrid wretched thing to have to work with. Sure, they can run an entire country of process plants, but rather than making life easy through reuseable libraries, the amount of work required to replicate a valve on the screen really is a pain in the booty. You have to ensure you have built all the equipment modules before you can knock up the graphics as it is all part and parcel of the product. They take absolutely ages to boot up and OPC is yer interface so be prepared for slow updates at times. I don't like the built in device faceplates either. It really is a massive amount of work to tweak these and offers more options to the operator than you can shake a stick at - wonderful if you spend the time to train your operators, but a very steep learning curve. Licensing is a pain in the booty as is the lack of ability to do online changes; any changes to the hardware layout requires a download to the controller. This won't stop yer process plant, but you cannot just "suck it and see". Building a new profibus device template adds years to you also. Look, don't get me wrong, it's a very powerful bit of kit, but it requires a massive amount of planning beforehand as to how your are going to design the skeleton of your software... how things will be built up as layers, what can be reused and how equipment modules will operate. And you can only do this after weeks of training. One final issue... the baffling notation of "loops" and the problems it causes. If you write to a variable and a few lines down you read from it, the compiler complains of a "loop". You have to write to a variable and then read from it using a notation like the following: <analogue plant tagname> = MySetpoint:old God knows why, I've never had a successful explanation for this myself. Anyhows, it's massively powerful and a true SIL enabled DCS system but it's let down by the constraints of its development software (graphics are a nightmare!) and frankly, the time it takes to develop an application. Oh, and the Project Explorer thingy.... it will baffle you for the 3D way it organises the various aspects of looking at collections of things. Arrrrgggghhhh!

We had 4 of these about 6 years ago. It's not just the programming you need to concern yourself with but the calibration of the robot. For example, it uses resolvers (if I remember) to work out the fraction of a degree of the inclination of the axis. You can manually move the robot (joystick or pushing it by releasing the brakes) back to zero on all axis and reset counters etc. I cannot remember all the details exactly, but it's stuff like this you also ought to bear in mind. That, and setting safe areas which the robot cannot travel outside, etc. I like the RAPID programming language, but the teach pendant was a buggy bit of kit (screen crashes etc) and the controller wasn't without its problems (again crashing). However, things may have improved since. Not an easy beast to quickly gain experience on (there are mechanical and electrical considerations to bear in mind... and make sure it's well bolted to the floor!!!) but good luck.

Interesting to read such positive posts. If I never work with such a convoluted and over the top unstable bit of software called RS Studio again then I will be a happy bunny.