FactoryTalk View ME multiple PLCs?

Bbarnett

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Join Date
Jul 2013
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United States
Posts
77
Can the Machine Edition of FactoryTalk use tags from multiple PLCs? I've never actually tried it and can't find anything in the manuals about it.
 
Most of the PV+ models can talk with multiple PLCs. You'll want to research the specific model you are going to be using. The software FTViewME has no limit to how many PLCs it can talk to that I know of, the limit is in the Panelviews themselves.
 
All that being said, you should avoid talking to multiple PLCs from a single HMI. I've always seen and practiced aggregating all the PLC data into a single PLC (through MSG or produced/consumed tags for critical operations) and then setting up a single link PLC - HMI. This way it's much easier to troubleshoot (at least in my opinion)

Good luck...
 
All that being said, you should avoid talking to multiple PLCs from a single HMI. I've always seen and practiced aggregating all the PLC data into a single PLC (through MSG or produced/consumed tags for critical operations) and then setting up a single link PLC - HMI. This way it's much easier to troubleshoot (at least in my opinion)


That can have it's drawbacks as well - if the "master" PLC goes offline for any reason, you lose data from all PLC's. Depending on the application that may be fine - but there are plenty of applications where you may need/want to see data from/control one PLC while another is offline.


As to the original question, FTView ME itself doesn't have a limit, but certain models of hardware do.


Panelview Plus 7 Standard can talk to only one PLC
Panelview Plus 7 Performance can talk to multiple PLCs


Prior to Panelview Plus 7, the Panelview Plus Components could only talk to one PLC. As far as I'm aware all other models of Panelview Plus could talk to multiple PLCs.
 
Really you get more of an issue with multiple Panelviews communicating with the same PLC, it bogs the traffic down unless you make some changes to the PV settings. I've never had an issue communicating with multiple PLCs from one PanelView...
 

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