AB 5/20 to desktop excel output.

Hello,
I have the fun (actually I am looking forward to this) job of being the guiness pig (hehe)for recording temperature deviation.
What I currently have is this.... the plc 5/20 is currently storing the average temperature (in 3 hour blocks) for an entire week (which I also have a weekly counter in there somewhere ). At the conclusion of the week the data will then be moved to another location. In total 3 weeks of data can be stored in words while the 4th is being recorded.
Tied to this is an online/offline bit array (4 words long, though only 56 bits are being used). This will mirror the temperature in that 3 weeks can be stored with a 4th being recorded.
Now for the fun part.
I wrote up the averaging and storing parts, but not this... I was given a desktop computer, printer and the following software (with NO Documentation)...
RS View32 Works
RS View32 Runtime
RS View import and export wizard.

I need to be able to take the 3 hour average temperature readings and dump them into an excel spreadsheet (along with the online/offline status and eventually any faults as they occur). I purposely stored a few weeks worth of data onto the plc as I am not onsite everyday (maybe 1 to 2x week). If the desktop crashes the data can stay on the plc (using the weekly counter as a possible reference). I figured I would use 1 sheet per week (52 sheets for the year).
But I have no idea where to start.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.



Regards,
Russ

the rockwell technician said that I can export the data to an excel file..but I'm not looking to save a graph as a excel file.. but to take the numbers and put them in my own file...
Is this possible???




Thanks in advance,
Russ

Get yourself a copy of RSLinx OEM or Higher and use the DDE function to link Excel cells to your PLC Data.

It would be great if I could get a copy of RS Linx.. but unfortunately I don't know if that is possible.
This has been dumped in my lap, and it doesn't seem that I can get any other software. (Great budget eh?)

Since you are using RSView, you might be able to have Excel read the RSView tag database via ODBC. I know I've done this to use Excel to manipulate the RSView tag database itself (reading and changing scaled ranges, PLC addresses, and the like), and I'm fairly sure that you can get the .CurrentValue (or whatever the field name is called) as well.

You might have to create an ODBC call to the database (although one is created by RSView, RSView takes exclusive control of that one). Check out the Rockwell Knowledge base for some details and hints. (It's been a while since I've worked with RSView, so some things have changed (by Rockwell), and some things have been forgotten (by me). You might have to log into the server. The user name is MMIUser. The password is MMHPass (I think).

When I was manipulating the database parameters, the one thing I remember what that I had to have RSView running (so that the Watcom driver ws running), but had to have a different RSView project open (because of the exclusive use thing).

I'm not sure how helpful any of this is, but here it is, FWIW. Play with it and see what you can get.

(Don't you just love how companies won't spend a $1000 to allow you to accomplish the task, but let you spend a week (which costs more than $1000) spinning your wheels, trying to do the impossible?)

Assuming I figure out how to access ODBC and can get the data points I'm looking for (which would be 4 groups of 58 words and 8 groups of 4 words)..
Would it be possible to write a standalone exe program that I can send to someone who has a similar setup (plc-wise) with them just keying in the plc addresses? Or is it something that needs to be written in an excel spreadsheet?



Sorry for the stupid questions..


Thanks,
Russ

I finally got a chance to play with RSView and ODBC. Although I can access every field in the tag database through ODBC, I haven't found how to get the one that you need - the current value.

It's easy enough to do the ODBC call - just have RSView running on the same computer as Excel. In Excel, select Data >> External Data >> Create New Query. The Data Source folder may vary depending on your operating system and setup (mine's C:\Program Files\Common Files\ODBC\Data Sources), and select the one that corresponds to the RSView project database.

But as I said, I can see the tag's name, description, type, scaling factors, PLC address,... everything but the current value.

I've been poking around with the DDE stuff, and that seems to be the way to go, but I'm having trouble setting up RSView as a DDE client (it's intended to be run as a DDE server, with Excel as the client. RSView wants to be doing the reading/writing to Excel, not the other way around.

I think it's time to call Rockwell, or your local distributer for some help.

It helps to think of the RSView database as having two parts - static and dynamic. The static part contains all the tag definitions and is kept on disk. That is what you can access through ODBC. The dynamic part only exists at run time and is maintained in RAM. It contains the current values of tags.

You can write VB programs to access the dynamic data through the RSView object model or you can (I think) set up RSView to act as a DDE or OPC server. In the past I have used RSView's VBA to put data into a MSAccess database - I presume it could also be used to put data into a spreadsheet.

That's it!

Gerry - that's the answer.

Russ should do the project in Excel's VBA environment, and include RSView as a Resource. That will give him access to the RSView data model, which will allow him to read the RSView tags in Excel, and have Excel put them where he wants them.

A simple AutoStart macro, or Button on an Excel spreadsheet can start the macro.

The macro can be developed in the RSView environment (which includes some wizards, I think) to make the tag calls easier, and then copied and pasted into Excel.

The Excel macro can even set a tag in RSView (which will write to the PLC) to have the PLC clear the stored register and reset the pointer once Excel has grabbed the data. With this, neither RSView nor Excel need to be active to get the data, and you don't wind up with duplicate data. Nice and clean.

Now why didn't I think of all this before? banghead

And now for something completely different.

Russ,

Does the xl application need the data "real time"? Or do you just want to write and save the files to look at them later? If you want to see the files later, you could use the rsview datalogger. You can get all the tags you want, when you want, how you want, and store the old files as long as (almost) you want. Rsview stores the data to .dbf files, which can be opened and manipulated in excel. We gather data from some of our machines in this fashion. Rsview tosses the .dbf files when they are 3 months old, but this is configurable. One of our six sigma guys asks me for files all the time. I just copy them from the Rsview pc and zap them to hip. Easy.

Also, you said you don't have rslinx. Was rsview, etc already loaded on the pc when you got it? If so, Linx should be there, too. rsview, by default, is sold with rslinx--won't work without it--I don't think you can talk to an AB PLC at all without linx. If you don't have it, call rockwell with your SN and see if they'll give it to you (fat chance). They should if the rsview package is still under support--somebody bought it, sometime--perhaps that's the guy you need to find and get some answers about what's where and why.

anyhow, keep us posted.

Thanks for all the help guys!!!! I'm gonna try this out tomorrow and hopefully have a working model by Monday.
The data doesn't have to be captured in real time. From what I'm getting (this is being altered on the fly, as I now need to capture the 30 values that go into one of the averages once a week). Once a month I'll need to burn the data to cd and give to the client. With three weeks that can be saved at one time in the plc the computer doesn't even need to be online all the time. Though I will set it up initially to be online with the processor all the time (but to also look at the other locations for previous weeks and compare what it has to them). Yeah this thing is getting bigger and bigger all the time... LOL...
Though I think it might be easier just to start from scratch and do as much of the programming on the pc as possible.
Once I get a working model I'll upload the code and everything in case someone else could use it.

Thanks again everyone!!




Regards,
Russ