empanada

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Posts posted by empanada

  1. Posted

    On 02/03/2020 at 4:59 AM, NevergoldMel said:

    Since this is the Allen Bradley section I will point out that Only the ML1400 supports ModbusTCP MSG's

     

    Yes , it's one of the negative points of Allen Bradley. I use a Prosoft gateway to communicate with Modbus, but it is an ugly solution. For me it's a great disadvantage of Allen Bradley. The posibility to communicate with open standards it's basic in my opinion.

  2. Posted · Edited by empanada

    In my opinion the control network must be completely isolated from the IT network, and even from the Internet, if possible. The potential risks are enormous , not only economics, but, also for safety of the workers and even outside the factorys.

    The connection between both worlds must be minimal and the risks must be measured carefully.

    In a lot of cases there is no real need to have the control network exposed to those unnecesary risks, and someone must says to the CEO that view the factory on real time from his smartphone it's very cool on the work meetings...but in a number of cases, it's not more than a toy, a very, very risky toy. 

    Cheers

    1 person likes this

  3. Posted

    Some ideas:

    - If you use a managed switch you could create a VLAN where only the PLC and the desired driver can comunicate: very easy.

    - Or if you add a firewall, or a cheap PC acting like a firewall (like a raspberry Pi) you could filter the IP's and/or MAC addresses to allow traffic only between the PLC and the desired drives. Not so easy, but same result as above.

    Cheers

    1 person likes this

  4. Posted

    15 hours ago, bwhinch said:

    I'm trying to figure out how to make an overlay visible if a button on the HMI is held down, I'm hoping there is a way without modifying the PLC.

    We have a plant with hundred of motors, I'm wanting to make a simple overlay that displays text over a motor to say what MCC and section the drive is located. 

    You can use FTVSE Tags as memory bits only used on the HMI, and then toggle visbility using buttons that modify this TAG memory bits. 

    16 hours ago, bwhinch said:

    We are using PlantPAx objects, however they don't really have a spot to enter MCC locations. 

    But its much easier and the result much more elegant if you customize the PlantPAx objects to embed the info. 

    You can add global parameters to those global objects to include the desired information.

    Cheers

    1 person likes this

  5. Posted · Edited by empanada

    Hi,

    You can acces the recorded data on the USB or local memory with SMB network sharing: type \\PANELVIEW_NAME or \\PANELVIEW_IP  on a computer on the same subnet network.

    Then use RSView Enterprise File Viewer (Utility to Read and Save Logs) to save the data as csv and you can import on excel. You can write some Visual basic code to import automatically with task scheduler on windows (or Libreoffice + cron on Linux'es).

    Cheers

  6. Posted

    Hi,

    In FTV SiteEdition you  don't need a parameters file.

    Create a global object, let's call it "BUTTON" in which you define a main global object paramater, say #1 (but you can add many global object parameters as much as you need/want).

    On this global object you insert a button to call the desired display (for example a PID faceplate (default one or custom)). On this button you configure that the button pass the global object parameters to the called display (continuing with the example, the PID faceplate).

    Insert this global object on the parent display.

    On the Global Object Parameter Definitions tab insert the desired value for #1 (for example"01").

    You design the faceplate using the #1 as a replaceable value so when the faceplate is called from a "button" global object , the faceplate will use the global object parameter passed from "button" . For example, in a numeric display of the faceplate you can use the "PIDE_#1.PV" . If you assign to the PIDE controller on the PLC program the name "PID_01", the faceplate will display the Process Value of the  "PIDE_01".

    I'm writing from memory, and there is more than one year that I don't code on FTV. In 8 hours I'll be on my job desktop and I can explain better, and/or with some screenshots.

    Cheers

     

  7. Posted

    6 hours ago, softgoodsint said:

    Hello "Empanada", THANK YOU! I am ever so grateful for your answer and implicit encouragement.

    I'm glad it were useful. It's all about sharing knowledge. We are in the earh only a few years. Let's share all the knowledge we learned from OTHER people for continuing to grow up and improve this planet.

    6 hours ago, softgoodsint said:

    they are like overlay zones surrounding the valve or pump graphic shapes, so I was clicking, in the development mode, and it would select the graphic, not the GotoButton zone. I learned to click off the graphic, but still close enough to hit the GotoButton zone to select. 

    The object explorer it's very useful, and also to play with the object's order inside the display ("Send to back" and "Bring to front").

     

    6 hours ago, softgoodsint said:

     It's due to my being a newbe to FT, and learned my way with DeltaV and Step7 TIA which do this differently.

    It's normal, those systems have thousands of options, and when you learn one of them , your mind get's used to this way to work and change to a completely way of work it's , sometimes, harder than start from zero.

    I have experience with Allen Bradley / Rockwell, and a lot of work made on Honeywell Experion from releases R230 (S9000...) until today (R4xx), but zero experience with Emerson and nearly zero with siemens (a bit with old S5 and S7's, but it's almost forgotten).

    Cheers!

    1 person likes this

  8. Posted

    Hi,

    I suppose the differents options are selected in the "Goto Display button"s.
    Double click or right click--> Properties. 
    In the main tab "General" , on the center there are the  "Display settings" : I think that your "Goto Display buttons" are calling a "Display" plus a "Parameter file:", and both are configured in this config tab.
    Usually, the display faceplate it's a mere container of a faceplate global object, and usually, this global object uses the parameters contained on the "Parameter file:" attribute. 
    Right click the global object--> "Global object Parameter definitions" to view the definitions. Inside the global object those definitions are used to control the global object.
    I hope have explained reasonably well.
    Cheers