MX Component

[Colin Carpenter 10]

I recently purchased a secondhand copy of MX Component V3.06, mainly because it was cheap and I had no real idea what it was for, so it seemed like a good idea to install it and have a play with it. Having read through the manuals, it seems clear that the software enables the user to write visual basic, C++ software etc that allows easy communication to a PLC without having to know about the comms protocols to the PLC. I've installed it on my PC and the supplied setup programmes are happily talking to an FX2N that I use as a test bed PLC. It occurred to me having read the manuals, that it's apparently easy to set up HTML web pages that will provide a realtime view of data in the PLC. This could be very useful for me when I'm monitoring the PLC during commissioning, as I could create Web pages on my laptop that effectively gave me a crude HMI screen, which would be more informative than monitoring through the programming software. As usual, though, the manuals give clues, but never quite the whole anser to how to do this. I'm pretty sure it's related to Active X controls .... but would appreciate any advice on exactly how to do it from someone who might have used this software. Thanks, Colin

[Crossbow 295]

MX Component is a set of ActiveX controls which handles the communication to the PLC and all you need to do is tell it which PLC. I do not know how to use ActiveX controls in a web page. I've used MX Component with spreadsheets before, but never used a control in a web page.

[TimWilborne 108]

It can be done in a webpage using a server side script that supports Active X such as a VB Script. The file would need to be hosted on the computer that has MX Components. The real question is would it be worth the time compared to purchasing software designed to host webpages?

[Colin Carpenter 10]

Thanks .... I guess that's the question .... how long does it take to set up up a web page to access data registers (using the ActiveX controls)? I can knock out web pages quite easily and I have the ability to incorporate ActiveX controls using the HTML page designer, it's just that I haven't a clue what each of these ActiveX controls do, or how they work. I've opened up some of the sample HTML pages that come with the software, and I can view them up, it's just that they don't appear to connect to the PLC or do anything when I click them. Bear in mind that this is only for my own use when commissioning or bench testing software, so I can afford to invest a bit of time to find out the capabilities of the software .... but the manuals seem sadly lacking, unfortunately.

[funfrok 0]

The samples in Mx Component are static html pages. It is different if you want to build web pages. I use Mx-Component in ASP.Net projects hosted on IIS webserver (included in Windows XP Professional and Windows 2000 Professional). It is not very difficult for simple projects for demonstration. But in normal applications you can run into problems like performance issues, problems with multiple clients and multiple requests, conflicts with foreground applications. Mx-Component requires STA(Single threaded apartment) thread which can lead to data errors if used in MTA (Multiple threaded apartment) thread.