WOnderware to Unity communication

SLC500

Member
Join Date
Dec 2008
Location
Sudbury
Posts
27
Hey guys,

I am working on a project currently and I aam doing the PLC side of it and my partner is doing the HMI side. I have never used Wonderware before and we seem to be in a bit of a bind.

My last project used Factory Talk and I had it set up where I could send a word from a Premium PLC to a Prosoft Card in a Compact Rack which served up info to the Factory talk. ie.
Bit to Word instruction in PLC = HMI_DATA_1a... HMI TAGs created HMI_DATA_1a.7 HMI_DATA_1a.9 etc.

I could quite easily send words to the HMI and then from there break them appart down to the bit level and use them where needed.

Now I am hoping I am missing something really easy here but as it stands now with the new project we are using Quantum PLCs and I am storing information in a %MW900 for example on wonderware when we create a tag the address it looks for in the PLC is what Unity calls a 984 Address with the Value of 400900.

My question is how can we break that 400900 address down to the bit level? It seems to me a waste of %MWs if we need to create single bit tags and store them in the PLC in a memory word just so the HMI can see them individually.

I hope I have explained myself well enough. :unsure:

Software is Unity 6.0 and Wonderware 10.0
 
Hi there,

What is the catalog number of your processor? How exactly is Wonderware talking to the PLC at the moment?

We have 3 sites with Premium PLCs and use Intouch as the HMI. We Use Schneider's OPC Factory Server as the I/O server to talk to the PLC, then Intouch looks at OPC Factory Server (Via FActorySuite Gateway for the OPC to Suitelink conversion) for tags. Phyiscal link to the PLC is via Ethernet. We have remote I/O on the processors primary Ethernet port, and HMI comms on a secondary Ethernet comms module.

OPC Factory Server uses a .XVM Tag Database export from Unity Pro to determine what to query. You don't even have to worry about memory addresses, you just use the variable names as declared in Unity Pro - so it's very easy to set up BOOL / Discrete types.

How many tags do you have? OFS Small has a limit of 300 I think, but it's quite affordable. OFS Large, which we have to use, is bloody expensive. Nice when you only have 2 options there!

Post a little more info about what exactly your system will look like, size and comms method.
 
Thanks for the reply.

We will be using TSX 651 50 processors and more than likely DASMBTCP server for I/O.

I would like to use the OPC Factory and do away with the addressing but it looks like we will be sticking with the DA Server. Not a big deal just a bit more work in Excel.

I had heard about the OPC Factory when I started my last job and wish thye would have chosen it for this one but it is what it is.


Thanks again.
 
You can access the bits similiar to what you did with Factory Talk. Once you got your integer tagname to read your plc address, use the .00, .01, etc. after the tagname.
 
Note that there are significant performance improvements if you use OFS from Schneider. They use a custom protocol which can read a lot more data, per message, than a typical ModbusTCP message (I measured something like 500 registers/message instead of the Modbus limit of 125 registers/message for a Function Code 3 read). If you have a lot of data and/or are hitting the PLC hard, this can be a real performance improvement. This protocol is also what is used to read what is termed unlocated data - data that is not assigned a %MW or %M (or whatever) address.
 
@DaveW

My partner tried using the .00 .01 added to the address but it did not seem to work.

Just for clarification the address of the HMI tag would be something like 401001

Would just adding 401001.04 be enough to grab just that bit from the 401001 tag referance?

If we are just accessing the word incorrectly then being able to use the .01 or .02 woul help greatly.

thanks
 
Are you saying you want to create a discrete tagname in WW and use 401001.04 as the item address? I don't believe you can do it this way. If you create an integer tagname with address 401001 and then use tagname.04, then it should work.
 

Similar Topics

Hello all, I am developing HMI screens for a Wastewater Treatment Plant which is using Modicon M580 PLCs that are running Unity Pro XL version...
Replies
3
Views
3,808
I've been trying for a very long time to get a remote facility with a Quantum 311 Unity processor to communicate with Wonderware via a SA85+ I/O...
Replies
1
Views
2,505
Hi, We are setting up an Aveva Plant SCADA node with the intention to connect it to a Wonderware Historian node. Everywhere I look online I see...
Replies
1
Views
118
Hola chicos. Tengo un problema con el driver de comucicacion dasabcip 5, y un plc controllogix v34, ya realice la comunicacion pero en ciertos...
Replies
2
Views
103
Hi, I am upgrading a Wonderware SCADA form version 9.5 to version 23. I am able to migrate all the graphic, but when to activate the runtime this...
Replies
8
Views
338
Back
Top Bottom