Reading PLC data in Microsoft Word

I have set up a hyperterminal connection to simulate a printer talking directly to a PLC. This logs all of the alarms on the system. In practice a printer will be connected, providing an endless stream of paper showing all of the alarms.

I see this as a bit of a waste of paper.

Does anyone know how to write the data straight to word rather than the printer?

Hope this makes sense to someone!!!

Can you select a PDF printer?

How much data are you writing and why would you want to use Word, rather than Excel or Access?

What controller are you using?

We have done applications where we are sending out to a printer via our Xmit command which is an ASCII transmission.

Does the PLC you are using have ASCII serial output capability.

With Excel or Access, you will require a DDE driver that will allow you to communicate between the PLC and PC software. I am not familiar with a DDE that works with Word, but that doesn't mean it hasn't been done before.

With Excel or Access, you have more capabilities and options available as to what to do with the data you are obtaining rather than with sending your information to Word.

Hope this helps.

God Bless,

Yes I can select a PDF printer!!!

We are using a SLC 5/04 CPU!!!

I agree excel or access would be better. I am more familiar with excel.

PDF printer = NO paper....

However I agree with Stephen that Access, or Excell would be better so you can use the data in different ways..like finding the average time between faults etc... rather then having to comb through a long long list by hand.

Use PLC Data to Color EXCELL Cells

Found this thread with a search. I am using RSLinx Professional (RSLinx Gateway would work as well) to view PLC information in Excell through a DDE/OPC Topic. I can see Bits, N Files, Timer and Counter ACC's, ect. I can toggle "Text Strings" based on the numeric value of a Cell. I can Download values to a PLC from Excell. All well and good.

But, can anyone tell me if they know how to manipulate Foreground and Background Colors of a Cell based on values?

search for "conditional format" in the Excel online help feature ...

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and welcome to the forum ...

WOW ! Thanks for the immediate response. Worked great.

The above "Roger Wilco" post was indeed from me. Too many forums, too many log in's to remember, didn't bother to put brain in gear this morning. Again thanks for pointing me to Conditional Formatting.

Now I have a non technical question. How common are DDE/OPC Topic links to Excell in industry? We had someone come in to write us a Gate Control Schedule through Excell with RSLinx Pro. There are only two of us here who understand any of this. We took the opportunity to "reverse engineer" their project just to understand how it was done.

Then someone decided we needed PlantMetrics and RSLinx Gateway. What a waste that has been. PlantMetrics is fine, but it just never got the in house support from Engineering and Manufacturing to realize much benefit. What a shame.

Anyhow, now we have Gateway and Pro and the opportunity to play some more. Run our 3 linked PLC 5's and a SLC 500 to a PC with Gateway. Use the company network to communicate to another PC with Pro. Set up some Excell spreadsheets to act like a remote HMI.

This was all done just for our amusement. But how common is this in the rest of the world where it might actually be put to good use?

we do

Hi GPS Explorer
We use dde with excel to monitor the pressure, temp. and all the digital IO
to our Autoclaves. It works ok. On the boilers we monitor makeup water and condensate tank levels. We don`t use it for any kind of control, just to see what`s going on. You can pull alot of data in from different nodes to a single sheet. It`s really alot of fun kind of like a roll your on rsview 32 1/2 package. Since you have it networked into the office all you need is pc anywhere and you won`t even have to go to the office. You can fix it from home. And that works too. Happy Programing beerchug

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