Data Acquisition SW to use w/ Rockwell PLCs

Hi,

Does anyone know of any good Data Acquisition Systems for use with Rockwell PLCs?

I am looking for the sw to run on a computer and be getting and logging data from the PLC every 30 seconds or so.

I also need to allow users to use the software to see graphs with the data over any specified range.

I searched on this site and found a few but they were not quite what I was looking for. Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks.

FNC

AdvancedHMI (Search forum) is free.

Ignition by Inductive Automation is not free (there is a 2hr demo), but would be my recommendation for AB PLC's.

Good Morning

I have had a little experience with LabView. They offer a 45 trial period with all the bells and whistles ( the program is loaded). If you like it and want it, be prepared. LabView is costly, You also have to purchase the the Application Manager. otherwise it will only work on the computer you design on.

Good luck

I use LabView, Ignition, and AB PLC/PAC's everyday. With LabView you will need OPC servers and the DSC (data logging and supervisory control) module, on top of the development module. I did a project earlier this year with all 3, and would choose Ignition any day over LabView for logging and displaying data. NI don't even recommend LabView for detailed data analysis, they have a program called DiaDem, which is further cost again.

+1 for Ignition by Inductive Automation.
Wait until next week for V7.8.0 general release. Starting with V7.8 you can build your own configuration which can greatly reduce the base cost. All you would need is :

1 Vision Client
Tag Historian Module
AB Driver suite

https://inductiveautomation.com/pricing/ignition/packages

You can easily log data to a text file with AdvancedHMI using the BasicDataLogger component. Based on some testing that I have done, AdvancedHMI has the fastest AB drivers on the market and can actually sample several tags at a rate as fast as 5ms.

A user on the forum had contributed a charting program that would read the data file and plot it on a chart.

If you need to log to a Database, it will require a few lines of code, but can be done without too much effort.

Do not use LabVIEW for this. I have been using Specview for 15 years. It is easy to use and not expensive. The Rockwell drivers are limited to DF1 serial or an OPC server.