Micro820

[John_R]

Hey All,

Pretty much a noob with AHMI, although I did play around with it a year or so ago, and had no problem setting up forms to talk to a couple different MicroLogix PLCs.
That was just some experimenting after a friend showed me what it could do, not really a need at that time.

Now I have a situation where AHMI looks like it would be the ideal solution, and of course, now I can't seem to make it work...

The big difference between then and now is that I'm trying to talk to a Micro820, and I've seen several posts on this forum from users with similar issues.

I have a Micro820 sitting next to me on my bench that I can talk to with RSLinx/CCW via ethernetIP, so I know my comms work there.
In AHMI, I have built a simple form using;
the EthernetIPforMicro800Com1 with the IP set to that of my target PLC.
and a PilotLight with the PLCAddressValue set to the alias names of an output that I can control in the Micro820.

I run the application and the PilotLight label flashes "No Response From PLC"

Seems simple and straightforward enough, but why doesn't it work?

Regards,
John_R

[Archie]

I never work with the Micro820 controllers, but the easiest way for me to troubleshoot is through a Wireshark capture. If you can start a Wireshark capture, then start the application until it shows the error. Save the capture and post it. Be sure RSLinx is not running during the capture otherwise it will flood the capture with traffic.

[John_R]

Update.....

I found in another post that the PLC addresses in the Micro have to be defined as Global Variables (which I would assume real I/O to be).
but I added a coil in parallel with the output coil, and defined it as global, and now it works.
then I made a StackLight with the red/amber/green pointed to some global coils that I just made with logic that steps through them in 1 sec intervals, and that works.

This little test was just to prove to myself that I could talk to the Micro820.

What I really want to do is log some data using BasicDataLogger2.

We'll see what kind of hurdles I will have to jump to get that to work....

Regards, John_R

[dmroeder]

I was about to post about local vs global variables but you got it!

BasicDataLogger2 is super easy to use.

 -Add a driver (you have already added the Micro800 driver)
 -Set your driver IP address (you already have)
 -Add a BasicDataLogger2
 -Find the PLCAddressValueItems property, click the "..."
 -In the Collection Editor, click Add.  Define the tag you want to log in the PLCAddress property
 -Add more tags if you like

When you run it, by default the it will log every 1 second to a file named PLCDataLog.log saved at C:.  You can change the name and location in the BasicDataLogger2 properties.

[John_R]

Cool...

Sounds simple enough....

I'll have to go through the tags I want and make sure they are global.

A couple more questions....

Can I change the logging from every second to every minute?

Can I output the log file in an Excel format?

Does the host PC that I run AHMI from need to have RSLinx, or does the AHMI PLC driver take care of that?

John_R

[dmroeder]

Cool...

Sounds simple enough....

I'll have to go through the tags I want and make sure they are global.

A couple more questions....

Can I change the logging from every second to every minute?

Can I output the log file in an Excel format?

Does the host PC that I run AHMI from need to have RSLinx, or does the AHMI PLC driver take care of that?

John_R

You should be able to log every minute by changing the BasicDataLogger2 property LogInterval from 1000 to 60000.

If you want to view the log with excel, then you would log as CSV.  Change the log file name to PLCDataLog.csv (for example).

You do not need RSLinx.  The beauty of AHMI is that it has its own communication drivers built in.  When you are running it, it is not using RSLinx to communicate to the PLC.

[John_R]

Alright, I had already figured out the time interval part...

Didn't figure changing the file type would be as easy as changing the extension.

And I assume there is a way to create a new log file daily?

JohnR

[John_R]

New Issue....
If I close the VB project, the next time I try to open it I get this error;

The designer cannot process the code at line 36: Me.EthernetIPforMicro800Com1 = New AdvancedHMIDrivers.EthernetIPforMicro800Com(Me.components) The code within the method 'InitializeComponent' is generated by the designer and should not be manually modified. Please remove any changes and try opening the designer again.


What is this telling me?

JohnR

[Archie]

https://www.advancedhmi.com/forum/index.php?topic=2445

[John_R]

Thanks Archie,

That was the issue, all works well after unchecking that option.

I would like to create a new log file daily, and I see reference to "CreateNewLogFileDaily",
apparently in the 399y beta, any idea when that will be released stable?

Regards,
 JohnR

[Archie]

I have no good time frame for 3.99y being out of Beta. I personally use 3.99y beta for all new projects.

You can also probably use the BasicDataLogger2 from 3.99y in a 3.99x project.

Also Godra has contributed a lot to those components and posted his variations, such as this:

https://www.advancedhmi.com/forum/index.php?topic=2242.msg12985#msg12985

[John_R]

I just downloaded the latest beta, I set up BasicDataLogger2 with the "CreateNewLogFileDaily" set to true, I'll let it run through the weekend and check my results next week.

[John_R]

Things seem to be shaping up on my little project, and now I've come to another How-Do-I-Do-This situation.
This is probably covered somewhere, but scrolling through all the forum topics, I did not see a topic directly related...

Once I have my project running the way I want, I am going to move it from my development PC, to a PC whose soul purpose is data collection.

I understand that I have to copy the entire project folder to the new PC and obviously have to install VB.

But is there a way to have a shortcut on the desktop that will open my project AND make the application run?

Regards
JohnR

[Archie]

I understand that I have to copy the entire project folder to the new PC and obviously have to install VB.

It is not necessary to install VB on the target PC.

https://www.advancedhmi.com/forum/index.php?topic=14.msg37#msg37

[John_R]

Oh, Okay, I was somehow under the understanding that VB had to be on there.

Now, can I have two different Complete Solutions saved to this computer and have the .exe's running concurrently?

JohnR