Magelis HMIs and RSLogix 5000

I've heard good things about the Magelis HMI's. I like the looks of them too. I was curious about the steps needed to set up tags with a CompactLogix. Is there a conversion xcel sheet or something of that nature required to import tags? Are there certain types of tags it won't support?

I'd be interested in any thoughts or experiences you guys have had using Magelis with AB.

sacsac said:

I've heard good things about the Magelis HMI's. I like the looks of them too. I was curious about the steps needed to set up tags with a CompactLogix. Is there a conversion xcel sheet or something of that nature required to import tags? Are there certain types of tags it won't support?

I'd be interested in any thoughts or experiences you guys have had using Magelis with AB.

Click to expand...

We have used the Magelis 10" XBTG as a replacement for PV1000+ at half the cost.

With Vijeo designer , you can import a CSV of contrologix tags, including UDTs. The tags MUST be CONTROLLER scoped.

sacsac said:

I've heard good things about the Magelis HMI's. I like the looks of them too. I was curious about the steps needed to set up tags with a CompactLogix. Is there a conversion xcel sheet or something of that nature required to import tags? Are there certain types of tags it won't support?

I'd be interested in any thoughts or experiences you guys have had using Magelis with AB.

Click to expand...

The older Magelis XBTF line I didn't really care for (do they even make it anymore?), but the newer XBTG line is pretty good. Personally I think Vijeo Designer is the best part of the package. Being able to use Javascript for some macros came in pretty handy; I used it for some simple average calcluations and such in the HMI so I wouldn't have to do it in the PLC. From what I recall (it's been a few years), formulas were easier to use in Vijeo designer. Simple things like using ! for a NOT condition made things easier for me.

There was one bug that I couldn't track down before the machine had to ship. The communication to the PLC would occasionally shut off. But my customer was anxious to get it out of his shop, so I couldn't get it fixed. I think the cause was the number of variables. It was on a serial link and there were quite a few tags being transferred.

I think AB's PV+ look better from a operator/user point of view, but the operator isn't the one programming it.

I used an XBTGT2220 with a micrologix 1000 via df1 with the 1747-dps1 splitter to still allow access to the plc with the HMI plugged in.

This was my first ever HMI project and getting to grips with it was not too bad. Biggest difficulty was when I had problems gettings communications between the 2, Telemec support said AB problem and guess what AB said. Managed to sort it out eventually!

Anyway, as a newbie to HMI's managing to get it working and then 6 diagnostic pages for engineering with trending, peak monitors and parameter settings (to save plugging in laptop to alter; I surprised myself!

Overall very impressed; so much so that I am now using a XBTGT4330 on my next project!

I do like the look of the new 3.8" colour with ethernet XBTGT1335 for less than £400! That would pair nicely with an ML1100 for a small project.

I did manage to get the Vidjeo Designer software for free from my local rep, maybe worth a try. Unfortunatly I forgot to ask for a programming lead, that stung me for £130!!!!

The vijeo package has got built in drivers for all major brands off plc's. So the com setup should be very simple. As said before you can import a csv (excel) file with all your tags from the plc. Vijeo is a very very easy and user friendly package. Have used it for about 40 projects and still havent had 1 that packed up in about 6 years. (except once where a cleaner and a pressure hose was involved). You can also download a demo of schneiders website, which will last 21 days

Thanks guys. I'm going to install a demo version and play with it.

I'm in the middle of a project now to install 15 Magelis XBGT 5230 screens at multiple locations. Using the Vijeo Designer (ver. 4.7) software has been pretty simple, except some of the help topics aren't that much help. My project has 37 screens so far (I think that will be all) and they all attach to CompactLogix PLCs except for two, which will be connecting to ControLogix PLCs.

My only issues to date have been two variables that won't display in Float (trying to calculate a percentage) and trying to figure out a way to share the variables through Web Gate (supposedly only Recipe Variables will do this).

Not sure if you are still working on this, but Vijeo Designer 5.0 is released now and seems to allow sharing of any variables in the Webgate.

According to the help file: "Data Sharing enables you to share data between targets in the same project and a Web Gate client. Each target has a set of variables. Other targets can access these variables at run time, as long as the target machines reside on the same network and the targets are set up to share their data."

Might be worth the upgrade.

Also if your project is getting as large as 37 screens you might want to consider putting it into version control to back it up. The steps are very quick and I outlined them in a blog on Vijeo Designer with Tortoise SVN.