I need to extract data from a PLC with VB

Hi all,

Apologies if this has been asked before. I need to obtain some data from a PLC (Micrologix 1500). A laptop needs to read this data and then to print it. Am I right in saying that I could use say Visual Basic to talk to the PLC and interrogate it via the serial port for the data?

Many Thanks

Welcome to the forum...

Take a look at this thread, it may not be everything you asked for but should get you started.

http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?t=29707&page=1&pp=10&highlight=vb.net

Many thanks for that - That looks like a possibility. I shall have a look now.

There are ActiveX controls out there that allow you to communicate to AB plc's fairly easily. I've used one from http://www.automatedsolutions.com/. Had an OEM machine that had a vb6.0 based HMI, I moddified the HMI quite a bit and got familar with the control.

It's a nice easy way to get the info out without too many problems, plus it eliminates the need for RSlinx and you only have to pay for a development license (serial verison $499), runtime is free.

I did run into a few limitations but overall it works very well.