stoneherst

Second of two issues: This goes back to the question, "when do I use SCADA software?" I saw no mention of system control over your machines (i.e., start, stop, acknowledge alarm messages from your pc). I drew from your description that you are looking at reports. So, what are these reports? Just a summation of system alarms that happened during the shift? (which is what it sounds like) Or is it something more formal, something that would be given to a higher authority? A higher authority such as your local environmental agencies that require proof of what it is you are reporting. If it is anything like this then RSView alone will not suffice. RSView is not a report generator--nor are most of the SCADA packages out there. You would need to send data to a report generator and customize it. If Access is something you are comforatble with send it there and as chakorules correctly points out, customize it with VBA. Drake, if you have no system control and the reports have to be customized anyway then your question of whether or not to use RSView is an appropriate one. Through NetDDE you can send data from RSLinx to Excel (which is what I do because I use so many SCADA packages from job to job) or Access for that matter. When I do reports, I am reporting analog values. Recording peaks for the day and when, how long...that sort of thing. However, it sounds like you are doing material handling of some nature so your report may not be this stringent. If this is the case use RSView. Probably you can simply have a data dump of the parameters you set up (timestamps included) and export them to a daily csv file or something.

Two issues: The first (and the easiest) issue to consider is the CPUs and protocol you are using. The SLC503 does have DH485 on its ch1 port. You have two such CPUs with roughly 550 data points going to your pc. You also want to have this system exandable. Because DH485's speed is 19.2Kbs, I would give thoughtful consideration to using another protocol. If your data aquisition never expands you are fine with the hardware and protocol that you have described--except that you need a PKTX card for your pc. But if there is a good possibility that more nodes will be added to your DH485 network, using the ethernet protocol instead may be an option to discuss with your onsite IT administrator. If ethernet is present in the plant as you say the hardware difference would be to use the SLC505 CPUs instead of the 503s. Instead of needing a PKTX card for your pc, your existing ethernet connection will suffice--or get a new ethernet card dedicated to the automation (what does it cost, $30?). You will need RSLinx OEM, but you will need this no matter what protocol you choose. In addition, if you use RSView32, it is going to come with RSLinx Professional--which obviously works too. I will make another post for the second issue...

I do not know if RSLogix will work or not. But, I would be VERY surprised if RSLinx does. Communications is what bites us in the rear every time a new version of Windows comes out. That is why we wait at least 6 months before committing to the new OS at work. That said, it is one thing to do some graphics/office work on an Apple running a windows emulator. Going online with industrial equipment is quite another.

In iFIX there are two things that you can manipulate. First there is Mission Control. This allows you to manually to start and stop your communication driver altogether. Your driver is almost certainly the ABR driver which interfaces to RSLinx via OPC. If you stop the driver you don't talk to anything via RSLinx, so I don't know if this is what you want. Second, inside the ABR driver proper you are allowed to enable/disable channels, devices, and blocks. So you could disable just the data block that you use to signal, say, alarm conditions from a certain controller. Or you could disable comms to that controller altogether while communicating with other controllers on that channel. Further, you could inhibit the DH+ channel coming from a control logix gateway while the data you gather from an ethernet channel is in tact. iFIX seems limitless in what you can do in this regard. That is the nice thing about Intellution, its commincations are rock solid and very configurable--too configurable for some and not very intuitive, but that's a different subject. As much as iFIX relies upon the SCADA programmer's VBA skills, I have to believe that these items are available to us. No doubt, you will need to talk to iFIX's tech support to get some specifics on how to bring that into a password protected screen on your SCADA interface.