Factory talk se

Hi To All
Currently in our plant we are ruuning a NAIS PLC whitch controlls our refrigeration system, room temperature. It basicly opens or closed solnoid valves on the roof top. It also controls defrost times.
The Plc interfaces with our office thru wonder ware, where we are able to change the teperature settings and control defrost time settings. Also we are collecting temperature data for all production room and printing reports for QA uses.

Problem: Our printer hp-dekjet 940c is acting up at times and not printing clearly. We wated to replace with a new printer but realized that with Wonder ware this is the only type of printer we can use.
We want to upgrade the system with a Slc 5/05 processor and possibly use Factory Talk to iterface with processor. This would require us to build a new logic for the processor as well as the interfacing device.

I wanted to ask if Factory talk would be an proper software to do the job, and able us to printthe data on day basis. Also would I be able to control (on,off) the evaporating units from the pc in our office, as we will not be using a actual HMI but running the application from our pc.
Baisicly i would like to control the plant temperature defrost timesrs etc. just like tru an HMI but running on a PC.
Thank You

Hi.
I would only use a 5/05 if you had one spare or it is the factory standard.
In the AB range you will get a ML1100, ML1400 or a Compactlogix at a significant saving over a 5/05.
If you didn't want to log and print reports than you could use "RSView ME Station". It is the cheapest of the packages and will run on a PC.

Factory Talk View SE comes in two variants "Local" and "Network".
If it is only for one computer then the local version will have a cost saving.
I can't see a reason that SE standalone (the local version) can't do what you want. If I am wrong I am sure I will be corrected quickly.
Regards Alan Case

What makes you think that an HP 940c is the only printer you can use with WonderWare? WonderWare just uses your Windows printer settings -- doesn't care WHAT printer it is, as long as it has a Windows driver...

OZEE
I do not know any thing about wonderWare software and how it uses exel to print the reports. all i know is that it sends the data to another software called InTouch and from there it makes its way to the excel to be printed. Our computer administrator has been contacted to replace the printer, unfortunetly he had told my supervisor about the problem of replacing the printer. So i'm only going based of what he sayed, and my boss telling me to upgrade. I will try to contact the WonderWare tech to try to solve the problem prior to us upgrading the system. Unless someone helping me do this on PLC.net
Thanks for all your help.

I agree with OZEE, INTOUCH is Wonderware. (see link)
The printer is a windows thing not Wonderware. Any windows compatible printer should work.

I'm not a Factory Talk user.

http://global.wonderware.com/EN/Pages/WonderwareInTouchHMI.aspx

Mickey said:

. . .I'm not a Factory Talk user.

Click to expand...

That is either very lucky for you, or a very wise decision...

[rant]
I would never ever consider changing from Wonderware to FactoryBalk View an upgrade. It is the crappiest software I have ever been forced to use. I $pent five solid days getting the 5.0 version to install and run correctly, breaking .net framework and autocad in the process. And, yes, I did follow all of the instructions to the letter, including running their stupid registry hack batch files to "lie" to my system about my .net version (we are running .net 3.5, but fuctorytalk wants to install .net 1.1). Now, with some help from my IT guys and the use of about 25 of the 7075 FactoryTalk technotes at ab.com, it actually runs, but locks up frequently, and is a general all around PITA. It is slow to open and load projects, and in the past two days since I have everything working okay, I have spent about 6 hours using it, and it has frozen three times. I never could get version 5.0 to run but finally downloaded version 5.10 and FTSP 2.10 plus the patches and it is almost fully functional for now.

I would highly recommend keeping Wonderware, but if you must change, look at iFix, or anything else, but steer clear of FactoryTalk View and all of its madness if you can.

Just my opinion, some people might disagree...
[end rant]

Agree with all of the above. Wonderware doesn't care what printer is attached, unless it specifically looks for one by name in scripts, in which case, you might need to edit references to it.

And if you have a working WonderWare application, it would be incredibly foolish to make the switch to FTView, which is getting worse and worse each revision rather then better. Probably Rockwell's strategy to get out of the HMI software business.

I agree with everything OkiePC says about FTView. But I on the other hand recommend that everyone goes out and buys the FTView package so that Rockwell can generate the revenue necessary to hire some good programmers and correct all of their problems!