I want to use a QuickPanel view (IC754VSI06STD) and AB micrologix 1100 with ethernet comms. Anybody try it? I didn't found any info on GE site about this. Do I need the last version?

Thanks

The late version of the GE Profify View has new drivers in it. You will find one for ControlLogix Ethernet that supports CIP communications to the Micrologix 1100.


Fred Loveless
Senior Application Engineer
Kepware Technologies

Thanks! it's work fine. I think it's strange to found micrologix driver in contrologix...I search in SLC family area.

Are you passing a lot of information back and forth in this system. I am just curious because i made the mistake of using proficy me and quickpanels as the hmi's for all my control logix plc's in a new facility. I found the quickpanels to be absolute junk (data updte rates, proficy is horrble sotware). As they fail i have been replacing them with ab panelviews (which of course means rewriting the hmi apps from scratch, but i just cannot tolerate the molasses slow updates, and writing the same app in rsview ME takes about 10% of the time). In your particular installation, is there a need for fast updates on the hmi?

I would appreciate any insight on this because i still have 8 quickpanels that are alive and kicking (unfortunatley). I spent at least 50 hours trying to harass and threaten GE into providing a solution and finally just gave up.

Thanks in advance for any insight.

I may be slow in response too with that much threatening and harassing.
Do you have Quick Panels or Quick Panel View? Yes there is a difference.
Are the comm's, Ethernet or serial and what protocol?
Are you using the latest OPC drivers or Native drivers?
What are the part numbers of your QuickPanels?
What are the versions?
What version of Proficy ME do you have?
I suggest that if you had put just half of those 50 hours into learning how to use Proficy ME properly you would get to like the software and be very productive with it. Or maybe you did not have the right instructor?
With the right information, someone just may be able to help save you some time and money?

All of the harassing and threatining (i guess it wasn't really a "threat" since i did stop buying Slowpanels and now do evereything with panelviews) came after much calm time trying to work with their tech support. I did not have an instructor with these. I also did not have an instructor with the following products:
HMIS:
GP Pro EX
EZ Touch
Nematron (asscii based graphics way back in the day)
RSView 32
RSView Enterprise

PLCs:
GE Series 1
GE 90/30
GE 90/70
GE Rx7i
Micrologix
PLC 2
PLC 5
SLC 500
Control Logix
Various Automation Direct, TI, and siemens PLCs

I have been working with plc's, HMI's, and custom data acquisition/display software (microsoft office, visual basic, SQL Server, access, RS Biz Ware) for the last 16 years, and i don't think it's anything i am doing wrong, since GE could not direct me on how to address the issues. If the reason for the slow updates was some bonehead thing i was doing, GE should have been able to point me in the right direction.

Anyway, enough of a rant. Here is the info you requested:

-Quick Panel View Loaded
- Ethernet, AB TCP/IP
- Native Driver
- IC754Vsl12CTD-FD (with 64MB RAM module Added)
- V5.50 Build 3655
- PLC's - Control Logix L61's w/ 2MB memory. 2 1756-ENBT's per rack, one for local IO (including HMI), one for millwide data acquisition/interlocking

I assure you i put a lot more than 50 hours into working with Proficy, in the course of developing at least 10 HMI's for an entire new facility. In all of those hours nothing convinced me that proficy was anything but garbage.

If you have any useful information on how to make these communications work quickly i am all ears. If you work for GE and that is why your response seems snide, maybe you should impress upon your bosses that you are losing even more market share (something ge cannot well afford to do) with these sorts of unresolved issues.

Thanks in advance for anything useful you may have to add.

Funny...I gave up on Panelview Plus's for the same reason. They work well once they start up but 3-5 minutes on serial is horrendous (Ethernet is faster but still slow). In addition, the flaky ground problems and other unexplained strangeness drove me up the wall. After putting in about a dozen installations and having constant and unexplained problems with 50% of them (in addition to the slowness), I eventually went for Red Lion if I want just a basic HMI. Price is 1/2 of AB and 1/3 of GE and rock solid. But it is after all just a basic no-frills HMI to a degree (although still more capability than RSView ME).

As to Cimplicity, I've had great success for years with PE (haven't touched ME in a long, long time). I've got a 3200 tag installation with 5 servers (web, thin clients, database, and 2 redundant PE servers). I've switched from Panelized PC's over to $300 thin clients from HP (used to be Neoware) and never been happier. Hardware is rock solid and boots in 60 seconds compared to Windows, etc. Software behaves nicely, too. About the only problem I had is that if some how someone manages to "lock up" a "PC", old fashioned rebooting does not cause the intended effect. So I went into the policy system on the thin client server and set up an auto-logout after the minimum time interval (1 minute). So turning off a thin client for more than that time (roughly 2 minutes) gets you a reboot without knowing your way around menus. I still haven't figured out how they lock up in the first place and there's only one machine that does it about once every 3 months.

With this setup my costs are $1250 (Nematron NEMA 4 touch display)+$200 (NEMA 4 keyboard)+$1800 (Cimplicity TS license)+$300 (thin client) = $3550. About the same price as a Panelview Plus and about $1000 less than the equivalent Quickpanel, and I get effectively a full blown PC installation without the PC headaches. I do have to pay for a server but I'm up to about a dozen thin clients with no noticeable performance penalty. Microsoft et al estimate that I can push as many as 2 dozen or so thin clients before the server will become an issue.