Anyone have a micro 820 working? Looking for tips

[dkuchay]

Hello, Very new to programming. Spent 5 years wiring panels and my new employer loaned me an 820 to take home and learn.

Adv-HMI looks like exactly what I was looking for in an hmi solution.... only after a day of trying to make a button in adv-hmi toggle an actual output on the 820 I got no where.  Saw that there was a driver for the 820 in Adv-HMI, thank you. Cycled through all ip based communication protocols but couldnt get one to work as expected. Many exceptions and errors dealing with plcaddress variable.

In CCW does one need to specify a panelview and associate the ip address that Adv-HMI would be using? Protocol? Or should we not include a panelview in to projects and set up the application without a panelview? What protocol to use with the 820? Looks like CIP or Modbus are the only ones not for a given series.

Do we need to designate program names anywhere?

In Adv-HMI I saw that I was limited to 11 chars for addresses. All of the internal addresses in a Micro820 are 12 characters in length. Tried using aliases but Adv-HMI did not pick up on them. How does one approach PLCAddressClick and PLCaddress Visible with a 820? I have read a number of posts looking for what these fields actually do but an not finding anything other than things that apply to different plc's like "N7:00" or "U41600".  All I can find in the controller are values too long to put in to Adv-HMI like _IO_EM_DI_00. Since backplane routes are not needed in micro820 what is the magic recipe for getting Adv-HMI to handshake with the Micro820?

In cross reference browser variables in 820 I see that most tags are showing with read attributes. Do these need to be writable? After cycling through all protocols and not getting any desired results I am not sure where to start. Again, tips or pointers from another 820 user would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you
Daryl

[Archie]

Where did you see a limit of 8 characters?

Probably the most common problem ran into with the Micro800 series is that you can only access global scope tags with the HMI.

[dkuchay]

Saw it yesterday within the space of the button text. I have three momentary push buttons representing the three colors of a banner light I have connected to outputs 4,5 and 6. When cycling through all the protocols for communication I tried entering "_IO_EM_DI_01" or similar within some fields within properties and saw this verbosity within the button text upon running and pressing one of the buttons. "Green light" disappeared and was replaced with an error message dealing with 11 character max. Wish I remembered which I was using...modbus or other. Then I tried aliases and got more errors of the same basic nature within the button text dealing with "not found".

Rungs are simple, direct contacts aimed at direct coils. If i jumper the input terminals I get the desired results from the light. Should indicate logic is valid.

Global tags are fine. Just not sure how to handshake with the PLC from ADV-HMI. Do I need to configure a panel view in CCW or just leave one out of the project? What information should one put in to PLCAddressClick and PLCAddressVisible? What do these fields do?

[Archie]

You must be using the Modbus driver which does have a limit. If using Modbus, you have to use Modicon style addressing such as 40001. It is much easier to use the Micro800 driver if you are using Ethernet. Then you can use the tag name used in the PLC.

[dkuchay]

Thank you for that information. How and where do I use the tag name?

Do I need to add a panelview in CCW? Specify protocol? Specify IP address?

Spent 14 years in home automation and graduated Cisco academy. IP addresses and protocols are not new items for me. Adv-HMi is and the configuration of a graphic terminal to talk with a plc is also new.

I tried adding the _IO_EM_DI_01 to the tag field under (data bindings) and when I test the app it crashes and VS goes in to debug mode indicating exception at line 143:

                        m_ComComponent.Write(m_PLCAddressClick, 1)

I have  the com component identified as EthernetIPforMicro800Com1. Driver is set to the controllers ip address. There are two other fields within (databindings) that also deal with tag and text. Are these important?

Not sure about Com1 on the end. Do your DLL's aim my ethernet port at com1? In my experience com1 is a serial port in most applications. Or is that a generic title?

It seems that when I cycled through the drivers I put EtherIP driver in for micro800 on second pass but forgot to change IP address. Once I did and aimed at correct address I get an error message in the button text area dealing with Path Destination Unknown. At least app didnt crash this time. With the default address I can understand why it crashed however if I remember looking at the source code I should get an error on wrong IP address no?

So how does one fix a path destination error? If I have the ip address correct is there a way to poll the plc and import all available tags? Do I need to add global variables for ascii, text, strings, real and so forth?

[Archie]

Path destination unknown is a tag name that doesn't exist. So that confirms you are getting communication with the PLC. Double check the tag name and make sure it is global scope.

This is what I would do:

- Create a globalscooe tag in the PLC named test
- Add a BasicLabel to the form
- Set PLCAddressValue to test

[dkuchay]

So the default addresses in the controller are not usable as tags?

Attaching the list of stock global vars from a screen capture. _IO_EM_DI_01 is listed.  I put some aliases on there as well but AHMI doesn't seem to find them.

You had indicated:

Set PLCAddressValue to test

Are you referring to the PLCAddressClick or PLCAddressVisible fields to put "test" within? Or a different location altogether? Or both?

Attaching another screen capture showing the software and where I put the tag. Is this not the correct location?

[dkuchay]

Think I am on the right track now. Found the almost hidden tag editor within CCW. Seems there was no tags by default and addresses are not tags. Adding now .

[dkuchay]

Seems the tag editor I found was within the panelview side of CCW and not part of global variables. While I can see the tags in the cross reference browser they are writable but they are linked to the panelview app within CCW.  If this works it will solve my unanswered question of weather or not we need to configure a panelview within CCW for AHMI to work.  If it doesnt work I am back to the 11 or so unanswered questions that I have asked and not received a reply upon.

I entered the basic label and assigned the PLCAddressValue to "test" and upon loading the text changed to "false". This was after adding a global var of boolian called test.

So you still think that I am talking with the controller? Upon testing buttons after adding the tags to the panelview side of ccw, I am not getting anywhere.

Is there a way to poll the controller to get all tags out of it? Would help validate.

[Phrog30]

You just validated by seeing a value of "False".  If you set "test" to 1 in the PLC you should see "True".  What more do you need to see to be convinced?

[dkuchay]

I see your point. Thought it was a status of being able to read the value. Yes, if I set the value to a check mark on physical value (not in logix) the text changes to true. Thank you very much for helping!

I would really like to see something physical happen in the real world to be convinced that this software will work for my application. What you have pointed out is that I can read from the controller. In order to be convinced I need to be able to write to the controller or change states. CCW is a unique animal and with little control over tags I am just without much information on how to structure the handshake between the two. Hooray I can read from a new variable. Awesome, how do I change the state of an output or controlling input in an 800 series?

This is what prompted me to ask about how the software works. In particular what different fields within properties do. Ive set up a number of 6 digit home automation systems that while not easy did give me a good understanding of handshaking over a network. In CCW I cant seem to map a new variable to an input or output. If you have experience with CCW please feel free to correct me. The only functionality I can find that is close is modbus mapping. I tried this earlier getting different modbus references for the inputs and outputs I was mapping. Calling these references in tags section of properties (databindings) also did not work for toggling an output. 000004, 000005, 000006 are my outputs. 0000001 - 000003 are my inputs. I get no errors from the HMI app. Button presses look to be taking place however the outputs never latch. This was on modbustcp driver. In most life situations there is a log or a dump somewhere I can look through to see what didn't take place correctly. Does AHMI have such a feature? 

Based on your reply you are likely a logix user and probably have years of experience doing this. I do not. If you have experience in CCW feel free to help a newb out with a few setup tips. The other questions I asked deal with this lack of control over tags in CCW. If I could pull the tags I would have a library to use and would no longer guess at what might work. If you have used CCW my questions may appear as a "ive been there" memory. If not then I would assume that my questions look like the stupidest things you have read in recent times. CCW looks like fisher price and might have 10-15 percent of what logix has for functionality. The only tag editor in CCW appears to be linked to the panel view app. Sadly AB does not offer support for third party apps so I am left guessing on weather or not to even touch the panelview section of CCW.

[Phrog30]

Sorry, I have no experience with that platform. I use CCW only if forced to, and so far that hasn't happened. 😀

[BLFTech]

As Archie stated earlier you need to create a Global Variable in the CCW project. Then in the AdvancedHMI software use the Micro800 driver and a Label with the Global Variable. I have used this driver with the CCW and 820 with no problems. DO NOT add a Panelview to the project as you do not need it.

[dkuchay]

Thank you BLFTech! Very much appreciate your experience!

I have been able to do as Archie has suggested with a basic label and I can toggle its status within CCW to show true or false returning to the hmi.

How does one add global variables that can be mapped to inputs or outputs?

[BLFTech]

See the attachment to see how you can use real world I/O and internal Global Variables in the ladder.