Trending Freeware?..compatible with RSLinx Pro

Any comments would be greatly appreciated...here is my situation...

Control Logix communicating with OEM HMI software via RSLinx Pro over Ethernet. Several values are reported as text by the HMI software (no trending built in), but the ability to trend those values would be tremendously useful to the operator.

The HMI is running in a fairly standard and powerful Windows 2000 touch screen panel PC.

Are there any freeware or inexpensive solutions to trend this data that is already being communicated to the HMI?

(I have searched the forum and have found little, but I am afraid that I might be over my head in how to even search for this topic. But I would love to learn more.)

Thanks.

You can use Microsoft Exel as a DDE client to RSLinx Pro to log data and display trending charts, but it will require some VB programming.

http://forums.mrplc.com/index.php?download=432

Good Luck

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Thanks very much for the lead. Any other ideas...i'd prefer to not have to load Excel on the HMI PC just for a couple of trend lines.

If you can load in ActiveX applications into your HMI, you may try and use AB's Trend X ActiveX app. I believe it's a free add-on you can download from AB. I'm just not sure how easy it will be to set up with non-AB HMI software.

Don't think TreadX ActiveX control is free...

You can use Visual Basic. Create a form with a chart control (comes with VB) then just update the date and redraw the form ==> real time thend.