Intouch addressing analog tags

Hi,

In InTouch (I'm using v9.5) you can address bits of a tag like this:

tagname.01 = 0;

This has the advantages of only having to set up one tag and the whole item is transferred from the PLC (assuming its an I/O integer) in one lump. You can then address the bits you need in scripts etc.

I've got an application where intouch is pulling data from an S5 PLC. In the datablock I'm interested in, the data is arranged in bytes. So at the moment, I'm pulling data up as DB200 DL3 for one tag, DR3 for another tag.

I've got a lot of data to retrieve. Not only is the current method going to take ages, but it seems an inefficient way to transfer the data. If I could transfer up from the PLC as a whole word (or even double) and then address the data in intouch accordingly, then this would greatly reduce the number of transfers.

Any ideas how I might do this please? I do hate the Intouch documentation for it's lack of transparency.

Thanks,

Martin

I did not know that a PLC5 had a BYTE type data file.

In any case, why not move the bytes to another data file and then read that file. You can move bytes to words or longs.

But in reality, I would not worry about in unless I did a test run and found it was taking too long as IIRC, the I/O driver does optimize blocks of reads vs a single read for each item.

ps. If I were the one to maintain / trouble shoot your InTouch app, I would hate you for using .01 type addressing and not knowing what actual data / coil / function was being used.

How many bits are we taking about ? With an hour or so work you can use Excel and define all the bits / addressees and import into the DB. I've written quick basic programs to generate this type of tag for over 2,000 tags vs had enter each one.

theDave2 said:

I did not know that a PLC5 had a BYTE type data file.

Click to expand...

It's a Siemens Step5 PLC. The data types are very flexible, e.g. you can move data around as double words regardless of whether you intend to use them as bits, byte or words.

I take your point regarding the lack of clarity. I am reasonably new to Intouch and so far I've tried to balance readability with efficiency. It's not too much trouble to work back from "MyWord.08" to this being bit 0 of that particular IW/DW etc. But it's not as easy to read as having a tagname which describes that bit's function. Also if you're trying to keep tag numbers down, single-bit tags are a problem!

I try to {comment} tags, even in simple expression windows, to make it clear what's going on.

Plus I'm the poor sap who has to maintain it! No one else touches it!