Question on touchscreen setup

Hi all,
I am currently in the process of setting up a touchscreen on a piece of equipment controlled by a AB micrologix 1200 PLC. I have been able to properly tag the I/O points to make the HMI function properly for the basic commands, but I am trying to set up a status monitoring display to text messages about the process. This message box needs to be tagged to a location to the PLC that can turn the messages off and on. I think I need to use a register like N:7 to build this data. Also Do I have to add a instruction to send data to this for every point I am trying to monitor, or is there a way to link existing points in the ladder to points in this file. I have never worked with these files, and am new to this part of it. I have searched the forum, but have not been able to find tips on this subject.
Any help or tips would be greatly appreciated I am using RS 500 software, and the touchscreen is an AWG EZ-S6M-f
Thanks in advance for the help.
Paul Allen

I'm uncertain about how the AWG works (never used one), but the N7 data file has an integer data type. What I have done in the past is to use a MOV instruction, based on the message conditions being satisfied, to change the value of an the appropriate integer location. For instance, if condition A is true and condition B is true, then MOV (whatever unique value you assign to the message) to N7: (whatever location you decide to use). I'm assuming that the AWG can accept the integer data type and that it has something like a multistate display. If it does, then you can have the touchscreen read the integer location from the plc and correlate it to a value in its multistate display. All that's left to do at that point is have it display text appropriate to the message conditions.

Hope this helps and doesn't confuse the issue further.

Christian

I believe you mean an 'AVG' EZ-Touch screen. The Multi-State Indicator can be linked to the various values of your trigger location in the PLC, one message per value. The value can be triggered by which bit (LSB) is on or the numeric value of the tag. We have written code in the PLC to cycle through messages if more than one state may be on and you wish to inform the operator about all of them.

Thanks for the replies, and yes Bernie that is a AVG touchscreen that I am using, not "AWG". I was trying to use the "look up text"function in the unit to display messages, which has to attach to a single tag I believe, and which caused me to think I need to create a new location in the PLC, such as N7, to send data to and then for the touchscreen to read it and set the machine state on the HMI. The multi-state indicator looks as if it would be a better choice to accomplish the same task. Can I link this to bit addresses (i.e. multiple Tags) in different parts of the PLC,and put them directly into the AVG table, or do I have to change the code in the PLC to obtain that information? You said you have written code for this, so I am assuming there may be additional code involved on the PLC side. Thanks again for the help.
Paul

If your states are now scattered about in the tables then you will have to consolidate them under one register.

You want to use one PLC register to hold a number which will trigger the display of a message. If you have multiple conditions (non-simultaneous) for which you want a separate message just use each condition to MOV a distinct number into that N7 (for example) register.

If you have multiple simultaneous conditions (but it's ok to just show the most important one) then use the 'bit' version and place the more important states in the lower bits.

Thanks for the replies on this. I will set up an input register for this and see what happens. I will let you know how it turns out.Thanks again for the help.
Paul