messaging display

Hello all,

i have been asked to see if we can come up with a messaging scheme for our ab micrologix 1500 plcs and pv 600 terminals.
some of our machines has only a few faults while others has quite a few.
we are currently pushing buttons to reach the faulT(s) and its a pain sometimes.

what we would like to do is have a message display window with numerous messages programmed in.

does anyone already use such a scheme and would you mind sharing what you have.

thanks in advance,
james

Let me rephrase my last statement.

would anyone care to share with me how they would do it?

thanks,
james

Are you talking about a network of multiple PLCs and multiple panelviews?

Or just looking for a general way of doing things for standalone HMIs each connected to a single machine?

Can you explain better what you mean by "pushing buttons to reach the fault" and why "it is a pain"?

Paul

If alarms are set up correctly, they should appear on your PV without pressing any key, you just have to acknowledge and that´s all. Acknowledge can be optional if you want it.

widelto said:

If alarms are set up correctly, they should appear on your PV without pressing any key, you just have to acknowledge and that´s all. Acknowledge can be optional if you want it.

Click to expand...

To add some more to the above, you could use Alarm History and all alarms will be displayed (you may have to scroll down)but you get the point.
You could also password protect the Alarm history screen or allow certain users to access it and acknowledge/delete whatever the contents of the history screen may be so you create some sort of a log for you or other authorized users to have a look at if need be.

Do you have a standard PV? If so the alarm summary will show multiple
alarms. See picture below for typical alarm summary screen. The 6" screen and buttons may limit the amount of alarms you can see.

we currently have multiple screens programmed into our panelview.
we have to press the next screen / previous screen buttons to change screens and find the fault.

the boss toured a plant last month and was inpressed by one of their machines.

the automatic screen has some type of message display on the panelview 600 that would display normal messages, and faults. a total of 179 if i heard him right.
each message would display for a specified time and then goto the next message or fault if there was a problem.

i have found the message display screen for the multiple messages and alarms. the plc logic is already there for the messages and faults.

my problem is, how do you get the plc program to control multiple messages?

regards,
james

Use a Message Display Object or a Multistate Indicator Object.
Trigger the display with a value. Programm your PLC to change the value of an integer controlled by which fault is active. See PDF below for more on the PV objects.

Mickey said:

Use a Message Display Object or a Multistate Indicator Object.
Trigger the display with a value. Programm your PLC to change the value of an integer controlled by which fault is active. See PDF below for more on the PV objects.

Click to expand...

I do as Mickey suggested, makes life a whole lot easier, plus, to kick it up a notch, write logic to compare your values, if more than one fault/alarm is active at any given time, use the logic to index through all active alarms (via a time delay so each active alarm can be displayed for a certain amount of time prior to switching to the next active alarm)
Same concept.
You can also create a "Message display" and use it to display machine status such as "Running in Auto", "Stopped", "Manual Mode Selected", up to you, you can be as creative as you want.

thanks,

use a for - next loop in the program to look for the errors that are turned on.

i just thought about a bit shift instruction. would that work as well?

thanks again,
james

File bit compare probably easiest way of doing this, i set up an inview system before this way. with the fbc it only finds the alarms that are live.

hope this helps.