Open-source software for PC/CLX Communication?

[bmacattack33]

Hi all,

Has anyone ever heard of any software similar to libnodave, but for use with the AB family of processors?

I'm wanting to experiment with reading/writing values to a ML1100 processor from an Excel spreadsheet, but I don't want to pay for RSLinx Pro for home use.

I looked into http://www.ingearactivex.com/ which seems like a valid alternative to an OPC server, but at $300, is still too steep for my needs. Just wondering if anyone has seen any free-ware for this kind of thing or has written any code on their own to open a connection to a PLC from excel.

Thanks,
Dustin

[jrwb4gbm]

Just a blind guess since I really don't know, maybe there is something in Archies' Open Source AdvancedHMI project that will act as an interface. See this thread if you haven't seen the project.
http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?t=42656
Another thread that may be of interest:
http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?t=68127

[Mark-]

Hi,

We have an OPC DA server for $49 that can communicate with the ML1100.
We have a demo that you can try.

We also have example projects for using Excel as an OPC client. The two examples we have are for MODBUS and Logix. Modifying the example for PCCC will be easy. Contact support if you need some help.

[bmacattack33]

Thanks for the replies.

I've used Archie's AdvancedHMI a little bit and I quite like it. I've learned a little VB.net by messing around with it, but I don't know enough to transfer object values from an AdvancedHMI app to a spreadsheet. Anyone have any links or code on how to do this?

[bmacattack33]

Originally Posted by Mark-

Hi,

We have an OPC DA server for $49 that can communicate with the ML1100.
We have a demo that you can try.

We also have example projects for using Excel as an OPC client. The two examples we have are for MODBUS and Logix. Modifying the example for PCCC will be easy. Contact support if you need some help.

Mark,
I will give the PCCCOPC demo a try and see how it works.
Thanks.

[Archie]

Originally Posted by bmacattack33

I've used Archie's AdvancedHMI a little bit and I quite like it. I've learned a little VB.net by messing around with it, but I don't know enough to transfer object values from an AdvancedHMI app to a spreadsheet. Anyone have any links or code on how to do this?

I recently had to do something very similar. The way I found that worked quite well was to use EPPlus:

http://epplus.codeplex.com/

This DLL was added as a reference to AdvancedHMI, then using the ReadAny methods of the AdvancedHMI drivers, I obtained the data from the PLC, then used EPPlus to create an Excel spreadsheet file where I stored the values. The file can then be opened using Excel.

[dmroeder]

Interesting. I was was working with him a little outside the forum to see if we could come up with a solution. I showed him the Excel COM library that you can reference.

I guess the benefit of the EPPlus library would be that you don't have to have Excel on the the machine collecting the data?

[Archie]

Originally Posted by dmroeder

I guess the benefit of the EPPlus library would be that you don't have to have Excel on the the machine collecting the data?

That is a huge benefit and also it is lighter weight and faster. I did find one issue and that is to make sure your code closes the Excel file, otherwise the file is corrupt. Although I did find that if it corrupts the file, Excel has a recovery feature that works. I discovered this when I stopped the program before it completed the write and close methods.

On the application I recently did, the customer wanted a certain formatting of the spreadsheet. I let them create a blank file with Excel, I then used that as the base file. My code would open, add data, then Save As. That gave them the ability to modify their format by simply modifying the base file.

[dmroeder]

Originally Posted by Archie

That is a huge benefit and also it is lighter weight and faster. I did find one issue and that is to make sure your code closes the Excel file, otherwise the file is corrupt. Although I did find that if it corrupts the file, Excel has a recovery feature that works. I discovered this when I stopped the program before it completed the write and close methods.

On the application I recently did, the customer wanted a certain formatting of the spreadsheet. I let them create a blank file with Excel, I then used that as the base file. My code would open, add data, then Save As. That gave them the ability to modify their format by simply modifying the base file.

Sweet, I'll have to check into it. Just to be clear, I wasn't trying to minimize the benefit of being able to working with Excel files without having Excel installed. I wish I would have known about this a while ago as I reworked a project because the machine that my program was ultimately going on wasn't going to have Excel on it. I ended up doing a text file.

[bmacattack33]

By adapting a piece of code that I got from dmroeder, I was able to set up a simple vb app that transferred a series of integers and floats to an Excel 2010 spreadsheet using the DF1Comm driver.

I do have another question about reading arrays on the CLX driver. On the DF1 driver reading from the ML1100, if I tried to read a block of 10 integers using "DF1Comm1.ReadAny("N7:0", 10)" then it would return only the value in N7:0 and place it in ten consecutive cells. If I want to read an array on a CLX processor, say "DINT_Array[0], L10" will something like this work?

ws.Cells("B2:B11").Value = EthernetIPforCLXComm1.ReadAny("DINT_Array[0]", 10)

Or would I have to use a loop to index through the array, reading and loading one at a time?

Thanks,
Dustin

[bmacattack33]

Originally Posted by Archie

That is a huge benefit and also it is lighter weight and faster. I did find one issue and that is to make sure your code closes the Excel file, otherwise the file is corrupt. Although I did find that if it corrupts the file, Excel has a recovery feature that works. I discovered this when I stopped the program before it completed the write and close methods.

On the application I recently did, the customer wanted a certain formatting of the spreadsheet. I let them create a blank file with Excel, I then used that as the base file. My code would open, add data, then Save As. That gave them the ability to modify their format by simply modifying the base file.

So by downloading the EPPlus file, does that open up another reference that can be used in the AdvancedHMI app? And you're saying that extracting values using EPPlus is more efficient than using the Excel COM library?

Just curious. I have Excel on the machine that I will be using, but it would be interesting to learn another method.

[bmacattack33]

Originally Posted by bmacattack33

I do have another question about reading arrays on the CLX driver. On the DF1 driver reading from the ML1100, if I tried to read a block of 10 integers using "DF1Comm1.ReadAny("N7:0", 10)" then it would return only the value in N7:0 and place it in ten consecutive cells. If I want to read an array on a CLX processor, say "DINT_Array[0], L10" will something like this work?

ws.Cells("B2:B11").Value = EthernetIPforCLXComm1.ReadAny("DINT_Array[0]", 10)

Or would I have to use a loop to index through the array, reading and loading one at a time?

So I tried this today on a L61 processor, and it worked the same way as the DF1 driver. Is there some other method for reading arrays with the CLX driver, or is there something I'm missing here? As I said, I can use a For-Next in the VB sub, but that method is painfully slow...

Cheers,
Dustin

[dmroeder]

Dustin, I can speak confidently regarding the CLX driver: reading arrays is supported. I think things are going wrong on the Excel side. If you were to bring the information to variables in VB you would find the correct data stored in the variables.

You could prove this by bringing the data into an array in VB, then displaying the data back to you via message box or some other means.

[bmacattack33]

Originally Posted by dmroeder

Dustin, I can speak confidently regarding the CLX driver: reading arrays is supported. I think things are going wrong on the Excel side. If you were to bring the information to variables in VB you would find the correct data stored in the variables.

You could prove this by bringing the data into an array in VB, then displaying the data back to you via message box or some other means.

I figured as much. I don't doubt that the CLX driver supports array reads. I'm just trying to achieve the same function as the DDE Request on RSLinx. What I THINK is happening is that the CLX driver is trying to load the entire array of 10 integers into each of the 10 cells.

I'm wondering if I can move the PLC array to a temp vb array, then use the

Ws.Range("B2:B11").Value = Temp_Array

I'm sure there's an easy way to do this, I'm just too green with vb to figure it out. Anyway, thanks again for all the help.

[dmroeder]

That code won't work. I think you will get the first value in your array in all the cells. A For/Next loop will probably be your only option.