RSLinx and Excel

I have a system that has RSLinx on it running RSView ME. My customer wants a DDE Link from excel to RSLinx to gather data. Has anyone done this and will it cause issues between RSView ME and RSLinx.. Any suggestions would be helpful

Thanks

We do that where I work for daily production/downtime reports. It's better than nothing, but it requires RSLinx Gateway to address more than 1 PLC

Question - are you wanting data from RSView ME or from the PLC network?

plcengineer said:

I have a system that has RSLinx on it running RSView ME. My customer wants a DDE Link from excel to RSLinx to gather data. Has anyone done this and will it cause issues between RSView ME and RSLinx.. Any suggestions would be helpful

Thanks

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Rsview Me works together with Rslinx enterprise, Rslinx enterprise is different from Rslinx classic this one is an OPC server but Rslinx enterprise is not. So if you need to gather info from your plcs into excel you've got to use rslinx classic.
I've been using this option for several years with success with a package called XLreporter from www.sytech.com
My 2 cents.

Do a search - this exact topic comes up at least monthly.

It shouldn't cause issues with ME. RSLinx (assuming "Classic" not "Enterprise") is an OPC server. This acts as another connection.

DDE calls through Excel can be a useful tool for a technical user. It absolutely sucks as a permanent means of "gathering data".

It's a better idea to use a database as opposed to a spreadsheet for what you're looking for. Excel is a very useful tool to analyze data from that database, but not gathering it - or storing much for that matter.

The next thing is that DDE links in Excel are pretty tacky. You find yourself: putting spreadsheets in the "startup" folder, writing weird macros, and depending on a hoaky setup that wasn't designed for it. As an integrator, I received many a random call because that scheme "was broken" (often mysteriously just requiring a reboot). It's much nicer when your datalogging application is a program that runs as a service that doesn't require user interaction.

My advice would be this - if you want to use Excel to "gather data" get a program like wideIto suggested. Microsoft dropped support for the technologies that this relies on years ago, for good reason. At least let an application designed for it deal with the clunkiness.

plcengineer said:

I have a system that has RSLinx on it running RSView ME. My customer wants a DDE Link from excel to RSLinx to gather data. Has anyone done this and will it cause issues between RSView ME and RSLinx.. Any suggestions would be helpful

Thanks

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G'Day, Check out the AB Knowledge-base you will find an ActiveX control available that behaves like the Datalog model in SE. The control once added to the page add your tags that require logging and it will log it to a .csv file. Then in excel create a new file and link the data to the .csv that ME is writing to, when the Excel file is opened it will ask you to update links and collect the raw data from .csv (this way preserves your raw data). You then do not have to use DDE.

What packages can you run it inside? How much does it cost?

Macca said:

G'Day, Check out the AB Knowledge-base you will find an ActiveX control available that behaves like the Datalog model in SE. The control once added to the page add your tags that require logging and it will log it to a .csv file. Then in excel create a new file and link the data to the .csv that ME is writing to, when the Excel file is opened it will ask you to update links and collect the raw data from .csv (this way preserves your raw data). You then do not have to use DDE.

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G'Day

I have only used in in RSView ME, doesnt cost anything. Go to Rockwell Knowledgebase (from www.ab.com) then tech note 35155 - and download file.

Macca said:

G'Day

I have only used in in RSView ME, doesnt cost anything. Go to Rockwell Knowledgebase (from www.ab.com) then tech note 35155 - and download file.

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This logs data only correct. You cant use it to read?

surferb has been in the middle of all these topics. What is the best way to send and recive data. OPC, SCADA ???

Macca, I did not know that option, i´m gonna try it next time i install ME. Tks for the info.

My (biased) recommendation is to use FactorySQL (I was involved in designing the software and still do some contract work for Inductive Automation) and log data to an SQL database. Kepware, Matrikon, and Software toolbox offer similar products. All are OPC clients. Advantages using a database over a spreadsheet are:

1. Designed for lots of data - Excel supports 64k rows, I think
2. Can query the data and have indexes (including getting a .CSV dump to open in Excel). It's particularly hard to do analysis across files in spreadsheets.
3. Support backing up/maintaining the data
4. Scalable.

The bigger problem than the storage format is the fact that Excel sucks as a program to do the datalogging (if you expect it to always run). A program that runs as a windows service and is designed to always log works much more seamlessly. The DDE link in between is worse yet.

So an application designed to log to spreadsheets could be fine. If your requirements are minimal, not likely to expand, or only for legal requirements, then spreadsheets are ok.

Inductive Automation is currently developing a free, datalogging version of FactorySQL. I don't know what kind of limitations to expect, maybe 30 tags or so. FactorySQL currently doesn't log to .CSV, but they're programming in support since customers ask for it. I think it's a bad idea in most cases, but that's beside the point.

SMOKE said:

This logs data only correct. You cant use it to read?

surferb has been in the middle of all these topics. What is the best way to send and recive data. OPC, SCADA ???

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