Text from ControlLogix or CompactLogix to printer

[gromit 4]

Is it possible to send text and results from ControlLogix or CompactLogix to a dot-matrix printer?? What is needed to perform this task?

[b_carlton 61]

If the printer has a serial port and the PLC has Ethernet then get this. Works great. You set up the appropriate print strings in the PLC, the gateway grabs them by way of the Ethernet link and send them out its serial port to the printer. As a note - even though the site emphasizes the external serial device sending data TO the Logix PLC it works just as well in the opposite direction. Edited 1 Jul 2010 by b_carlton

[gromit 4]

Thanks b_carlton!!! I went to the site and read through the documentation. It is very impressive, especially if it is as simple to setup as they say. Can multiple PLCs on the same Ethernet network write to one port/printer? Also, do you have an example of how to set up an ASCII instruction to facilitate this function? I envision capturing and printing the following any time an alarm threshold is exceeded or digital event occurs: RTC date, RTC time, tagname, tag description, value & EU or logic state descriptor; followed by a line feed. So, any time a prescribed event occurs, the printer will printout the referenced information on one line and jump to the next line to be ready for next event. i.e.: 1Jul10, 13:24:33, TT-101 , Fuel Gas Temperature, 311 degF Please advise.

[b_carlton 61]

It is impressive and it is as simple as they show. it is well worth the money in time saved. Edited 1 Jul 2010 by b_carlton

[gromit 4]

Thanks b_carlton. I will work with the logic to see if I can make it work. Meanwhile, I solicited pricing from http://www.rtaautomation.com/ for the 435NBA module.

[paulengr 44]

The Digi One IAP can do this. It appears as a SLC/PLC-5 and does several different protocol conversions including ASCII. You might also consider the Point IO ASCII card. If you use the Point IO Ethernet adapter, you can probably send to it from multiple ControlLogix (Ethernet/IP) processors. Not sure how you'd pull this off with others (not sure about CIP message formats). I believe there is a DeviceNet based tutorial on the mrplc site detailing this card. The major downside to this card to me is that it seems like a royal pain to get it up and going. Then again, anytime you mix PLC's and ASCII it is always a royal pain.

[b_carlton 61]

Actually for a 1-1 conversion this unit is about as painless as it gets. The setup on the Ethernet to the PLC side is to set the IP of the PLC, a string tag in the PLC to watch for transmission out a serial port and another string as a target for information coming in the serial port. To transmit the PLC simply copies a string into the first one mentioned. The adapter picks up that it is no longer empty and transmits it out the serial port using the setup you have done (baud rate, ending characters etc). It then clears the source string. That's all the handshaking there is. When the PLC program detects the cleared string it knows that it is free to place another string in it to be sent. Receiving is a mirror image. When the unit receives a string on the serial port (length or other ending characteristics can be set) it copies that to a target string (different from the one used to go out from the PLC). The PLC, seeing that there is now a non zero-length string copies it for its own use and zeroes that target string which is all the handshaking the convertor needs so that it can copy another string if one arrives. And the setup is via a html page, incredibly simple. It literally takes about the ten minutes they advertise. It has two serial ports, each can have its own characteristics and be tied to its own set of strings within the PLC (but only one PLC). (No I don't have any financial or any other ties to this company. But we have used them and the ease of use is well worth the modest price.)

[JeffKiper 9]

I second all of Bernie's comments. Painless. I setup a ASCII display in less than 10 min. I did 3 of them at 1 plant. I then when to a new plant and the plant programmer had a bad attitude about anything outside of the PLC. " All of that should be kept in the PLC" was the response I got from him. So being the not so cool head self I am now, I challenged him. We would start from a string already laid out in the correct format that these marquees needed. Now write the interface for the serial port. 8 minutes later I was watching the marquee change with the correct data. He was still researching the string commands for the SLC 5/05 that we where using. He now uses them on just about every serial job he does. I have a 460 from RTA on the shelf at the shop just in-case I get in a bind and need a bridge to get me out of hot water.