Troubleshooting Guide Access from the Production Equipment

[adamriffe 2]

Don't know if this has been attempted: Members of our maintenance team have collected some good information for troubleshooting our machines. We've had some turnaround, and so there are a bunch of noobs on the floor maintaining the equipment. We also have an extensive list of machine status codes generated for our process excellence team. My thoughts were to use these status tags and match them to a troubleshooting string in a database file. I've got an extra license for RSView32 and thought I'd create an event triggered off a "troubleshooting" button where the VBA would search the database, format the string appropriately (according to the size screen), and send the strings to the processor, which would display them on the PanelView. The plant has all AB processors, all SLC500 and ControlLogix, networked over the Ethernet. I've got all the guts put together for it, just have to pull myself from other projects to finish it. I've got it running on a separate PC as well, so I won't bog down any of the others Any thoughts? 6 days to graduation!

[BobLfoot 302]

I may be mistaken in this, but I think RSView 32 can access an SQL database directly and display data from it. Why pass strings thru the PLC's. Unless you need them on Panelview screens. This can get messy. Have fun.

[adamriffe 2]

I've got other data logs to add to the RSView32 project, along with a few other items, but I'm not using it as an HMI. In fact, I don't even have a monitor hooked up. I remote into the PC to work with it. The key objective is to have an editable database that any mechanic can add to, that will be displayed on the PanelViews on the floor to serve as quick reminders of past issues.