excel advice needed

stu

Member
Join Date
Aug 2005
Location
England
Posts
773
Hi
I have a potential project , we have 5 lines with all Allen bradley 2 lines with compactlogix and 3 x slc plc , I have been asked to look into getting data of the machines into a excel spreadsheet
Data such as runtime hours , temperatures , may be if we are having a good run record the settings/save?
I have never had to do this before ,I know it can be done but where to start ?
On the pc that the excel sheet is do I have to put rslinx on ? What do I need to do to create this excel?
Would like to do this quite cheap
Thanks stu
 
The RSLinx help file has VBA code examples. Pretty much copy/paste but you do have to specify a workbook name and OPC path you've configured in RSLinx.

I don't recommend excel being the repository for a lot of data, however if you want to have a user open a spreadsheet, get the data from the PLC and move/analyze it elsewhere it works well. Plus a decent way to prove out your needs w/little effort.
 
Another (free) option is AdvancedHMI - there are code examples of how to do this. I played about with it a few years ago but now use A.HMI to log to MySQL not excel... much better.

Or not free but cheap... 1 Ignition client. Yes you wanted excel but with 5 lines and multiple processors my go to would be Ignition. The money spent on the licence will be saved in development time.

What model are the SLC's?
 
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The slc are 505, my sql is that The software?
So you datalog from a Hmi ( pvp ) to a mysql software on a computer say in the office?
Is the software expensive?
Do you still need rslinx on the data Pc (in the office )
 
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MySQL has a community version that is free. It is created by Oracle.
https://www.mysql.com/products/community/

If using Excel then why not log the data to an Access Database. This would come with the Office package. AdvancedHMI to Access Database. Here is an example:
http://accautomation.ca/creating-a-hmi-login-screen-on-advancedhmi/

Another Database to consider is SQL Express. This is the free version with a 10 G limit of data vs the 2 G limit in Access. SQL Express 2016 is out but hardware and software requirements are restrictive. SQL Express 2014 can be run on Windows 7 or higher.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/download/details.aspx?id=42299

Hope this helps you out.
Regards,
 
The slc are 505, my sql is that The software?
So you datalog from a Hmi ( pvp ) to a mysql software on a computer say in the office?
Is the software expensive?
Do you still need rslinx on the data Pc (in the office )

You do not need RsLinx installed on the PC for either A_HMI or Ignition. The data comes from the PLC, not the HMI, and gets inserted to your preferred choice.

As stated I have done all 3: a_hmi-> excel, a_hmi -> SQL, Ignition. From personal experience, once you start showing management data from the floor they want more; more data, more analysis, more features, more autonomously. Therefore, I recommend a solution that is modular and scalable. If you are the sole developer then you are responsible not just for the implementation but the long term support. Any software package is just a tool. We have a machine shop in work capable of milling a spanner to span-on specs, but do we? No, we buy them in (that's as good as an analogy as I can think of now). The toolset in Ignition has many features there that for me, save me time, money, headaches and grief. This is the return on investment for the licence. Note that they have a demo capable of running for 2 hours, reset as many times as you want. My advice is download all suggestions from this thread and get tinkering.

I have attached some additional information, an excerpt from a paper I submitted yesterday. Because it's an excerpt the body text doesn't align with the figures number. Had to remove some info. Have sent you a PM if you want that info.
 
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Just thought ,our IT department use SQL software for collecting data of a machine , I should find out what software they are using and see if I could use that ??
 
By "use that" do you mean; to use the same software, on the PC you mentioned in post 5, so that the syntax will be the same, they can help you install it and with SQL queries - or do you mean write your data to their server?

If the latter, you will still need to install a local instance (on your laptop/desktop) as it is easier to create tables using the GUI of SQL than through pure SQL code... so, in my opinion, you would be better having full control over your own instance. IT may give you an account that is access restricted, so you may not be able to execute some commands such as 'delete from', 'drop table', etc. I would ask for your own database, not just one table, residing in their SQL server if you do down for this option. I would use IT server if this is mission critical data and therefore needs redundant servers and SQL database replication to an off-site backup.
 
No I meant use the software on a separate pc and create a engineering network and server connected to each machine ?
 
Yes good idea, have a separate control network and let the SCADA server* be the bridge between the corporate and control network.

*Doesn't have to be a powerful computer, minimum requirements are on the IA website. An i7 quad-core with hyper-threading and >8GB ram works well for me.
 

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