Factory Talk display historical data??

I have a compactlogix L32E and a PanelView Plus 1000.

FactoryTalk View Studio release 6, build 16.
RSLogix 5000 V17.

I have only used Siemens PLCs and HMIs before so am having a few teething problems here and there as expected. also promised some things that would be simple to provide on a siemens setup but whech seem not so simple with allen bradley.

I am doing a small enough CIP system. I need to create a screen on the HMI which will display some data for previously run cycles:

Time & date started
Time & date finished
Vessel number
Wash type
Wash (un)successful

is there a way of doing this without buying more software.
what is the easiest way to do this.

i will probably need to display data for the preious 50 washes.

On the older version (RSView32) it is easy to set up historical trend charts, and put any data from any tag in the system on a named chart. Once started, the chart will record the status of each tag and plot a trend graph for all times that the PLC is running. You can open a trend graph and scroll through the historical charts by date and time.

Thanks Lancie1, but i am not looking for a trend. i understand that any data can be trended but customer would not be happy with data shown that way.

i am looking for something more along the lines of a report/table format.

ideally they also want to be able to store the info on a compact flash card in the HMI so that it can be removed and read from a separate PC.

If you just need the last 50 cycles it would be best to store them in the plc and after 50 ovewrite. Then make a display to show the last 50 cycles.

You could use the trend as Lancie1 said and use the end of wash as you trigger. The PV has the abilty to export the trend files to CF.

You can still have a table of 50 washes with data on a trend.

You could use the trend as Lancie1 said and use the end of wash as you trigger. The PV has the abilty to export the trend files to CF.

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Of course. A trend is easily made to look like a table. Or you can make a real table like this one in RSView, which displayed the last 7 batch runs. The operators were required to copy the data for each batch to the official state paper form.

how is a trend made to look like a table? i am scouting through software and the manual but it aint obvious to me.

i will need to log only 4 tags - finish time and date, vessel number, success/fail, wash type.

would it be possible to use an event log to do this?

ideally i will have a table with 5 columns, each new row being a new wash, each wash numbered as they occur.

Would it be possible to use an event log to do this?

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Yes. You can write a Visual Basic macro program that works within Factory Talk to open an external CSV-type file and write any desired data at any time or based on an Event (switch closing or tag value). A CSV file can be read by a spreadsheet program, and also imported into a Database program such as Microsoft Access.

How is a trend made to look like a table? I am scouting through software and the manual but it aint obvious to me.

Click to expand...

I doubt if there is anything about that in your manuals. You use digital on/off tags, and set your pen "range" so that the data appears as vertical On/Off blocks. If you need something that appears to be an acutal table, then a trend will still be a poor substitute, showing the data but not in the form you want.

I know nothing about Factory Talk, so someone else will have to help you with the details.

i discovered that a datalog is the best way to go. it can be exported to the compact flash card but it wont allow for displaying of the data. think i'll have to do some hodge podge messy display of the last 5 batches on some diy table.

promises promises....

davedel, here's a couple of screenshots for a pasteuriser's daily water usage and time spent doing nothing. It's just a handmade table and some indirect addressing to store the data. It may help.

IMHO the "easiest" way is to create a UDT for the wash data, and create a Report[xxx] array tag of that UDT.

There are many ways to skin this cat, but I prefer the "rolling" type of array, where the oldest data simply "falls out".

The sample code I have pictured does just that... The current wash data is stored in the last element of the Report array. At the start of each wash, the array is shifted upwards ([50] to [49], [n] to [n-1]) so that array index 50 is the most recent/current wash. If we shifted the array the other way [0] to [1], [n] to [n+1], we actually fill the array with the data from [0]

The HMI can then display the data easily, since the "history" is always [50], [49], [48], etc.

The Report[xxx] tag can be up to 2MBytes. The controller is therefore capable of storing the data for thousands of wash cycles (In my example UDT, a single report tag could hold the data for in excess of 30,000 washes).

Daba, that is great idea.
Any chance you could attach larger photo or even that piece of code.
Even if you don't thanx anyway

Wash.ACD

nice one. that'll do the job rightly. its kind of a laborious way of recording the time and date though isnt it. DINT required for year, month, date, hour and minute. is that the only way or is there a date-time data type like in siemens?

No pre-defined Date/Time data-type, but you can create your own ...

The WallClock data is delivered by the GSV as 7 DINTs, and the help says to use a DINT[7] array as the destination, but you will see that I have created a User-Defined Type called RTC that has named elements, Year, Month, Day etc. This is a neat "trick", and works for any data delivered by the GSV instruction, so long as the destination is the same "shape and size" as the specified destination structure.