AB PLC-5 and HMI

Hello All,

It has been a while since I worked with HMI's. I can't seem to come across the relation of ladder data addresses to the Tags in the HMI. I am coming into a plant with the exisiting systems, but need to know how they work etc. I will have to port this program over to another platform so I need a detailed understanding. The HMI is a AB Panelview 1250. Please point me in the right direction.

Thanks.

I think the addressing is done according to block transfers.

It's been a long time, but I seem to recall that it uses the block transfer number and a word offset for the HMI addressing. You match the block transfers to the PLC addresses according to the length of the block transfer.

Do you have the source code for the PanelView 1250 program?

If you do just do a tag export into a csv file, it will list tagnames and the corresponding PLC address

Block transfers aren't used unless the PanelView is communicating via RIO...seeing as it is a PLC5 this could be the case.


EDIT: TechNote 26611 has some example documentation, check it out if you have access.

EDIT: Check out 25775 as well.

It doesn't have to be block transfers. It depends on what PLC your communicating with and how it's connected. If it's RIO, then yes you'll use BTR/BTW. If it's DH+ or Ethernet, you'll just use the PLC address. We need more information.

I assumed it to be block transfers because of the 'what is the address' question. If it were communicating via DH+ or ethernet, wouldn't the actual PLC addresses be obvious from the PV database?

Correct. That's why we need more information before we can answer the OP's question.