Micrologix 1200 with PVP 1000 No Bit Access

Good Afternoon All,

I am hoping someone here will have some input to get me past this terrible hump. I have programmed Siemens 200 and now 1200 for years. Had a customer require AB as it was all they have at their facility. And thus my nightmare started.

I have gotten quite a bit of my programming working, but I am utterly stuck at one point. I am trying to use latched and momentary buttons in the PVP to change the state of bits in the PLC. Unfortunately, I cannot get any of these buttons to work.

I know i have comms as I am able to read and write integers back and forth. I just cannot change bits.

I am sure it is a total newbie error, but I am at my witts end and rockwell wont help as project delays pushed commissioning out of the warranty period.

Thanks in advance.

Andrew

One of the weaknesses of the FactoryTalk View ME tag browser is its lack of a "bit picker".

You can browse to and select any Integer or Binary data table word, but to reference a specific bit you have to type it in by hand.

For example, to reference the third bit of N7:1, the direct reference syntax would be

{::[Shortcut]N7:1/02}

So that I understand you correctly:

Even though I have it set up in the tags as AutoBit is digital and has an address of ::[CFS5K]B3:2/4

I still have to put ::[CFS5K]B3:2/4 in the button connection and not Autobit

I have been using the tag selector and not typing each time.

Thanks

Andrew

I think Ken was referring to selecting directly from an online processor, not from the tags.

FactoryTalk View can use HMI Tags or Direct References in a Connection.

A Digital type HMI Tag called "AutoBit" that is referenced to a shortcut and a proper SLC/MicroLogix style bit address can be used in a Connection field for an indicator or pushbutton. The data is read from the SLC/MicroLogix and placed in the HMI Tag Database by RSLinx Enterprise in the background.

Alternately, you can use a Direct Reference to that SLC/MicroLogix address, and not require the data to go through the HMI Tag Database. The data is read from the SLC/MicroLogix and placed directly into the object at the Display update rate.

In my experience, the HMI Tag Database generally updates once a second, and when you combine that with the low throughput of an RS-232 connection, the speed of pushbutton presses might be impractical.

I do not understand from your initial post if your problems are related to error messages in the software, or to a more practical issue with performance.

So what exactly do you mean by "I cannot change bits" ?

Before anything can be done, the bit has to want to change.

I guess a better way of putting it may be that the buttons dont work. I press the button and no matter how long I hold it, the state of the bit doesnt change in the PLC.

No error messages or anything like that. Unfortunately I am looking through the lens of TIA portal or WinCC on how to program and so my understanding of how the buttons work in Factory Talk View is off. I am used to placing a button and setting as many Set/Reset functions as I want from that button. I am struggling without that functionality in FTV and cannot even get it to change the state of a singe bit.