Lookup Table help

enash

Member
Join Date
Aug 2017
Location
Indianapolis
Posts
1
Hello all,
I need to do something and I'm not sure if it's possible.. some aspects I know how to do but not quite on the scale of this project.

A customer wants to be able to scan a barcode, look up this barcode in a table and return an associated part number with this barcode. It will be looking through a table of 150,000 possible records to find this part number though... Then we take the part number and mark it on this reworked part.

I can scan a barcode easy enough and I can even lookup a barcode against a list, but I don't know what to use that is large enough to hold 150,000 records to check against. Excel? SQL Server maybe? Any ideas and a couple steps in the right direction would be appreciated.

Allen-Bradley PLC
Cognex Barcode scanner
Records are currently stored in Excel
 
Hello enash,

I do a similar thing with packages that we manufacture. Each package has a unique barcode, and depending on the stage of the process, I scan this barcode into the PLC. The PLC then sends the data to a PC which then executes an SQL query and returns an array of product data that I then use to continue the process.

The trick is to connect the PC and the PLC to exchange information. For this we use Ignition from Inductive Automation. This list would be cumbersome to maintain in a PLC.

It works for us and is relatively bulletproof.
 
I should also say, we use Ignition for a multitude of tasks at two separate manufacturing sites - two large sawmills. The expense and effort to put it in was worth it for us.

You may be able to make something that works by writing some VBscripts in excel and using RSLinx DDE connections.
 
Ignition SQL bridge is good. You could also use advancedhmi for transactions between plc and database. It could dual as HMI. If you don't want sql, MySQL is good and free on community edition. There is also sqlite, which is nice if you like xcopy and no need for installation.
 
Welcome to the PLCTalk forum community !

Is the Cognex scanner connected to the PLC, or to the computer that holds the records in Excel ?

Do you have any other sort of HMI running ?

The VLOOKUP feature in Excel will happily find your records, but you definitely need some sort of middleware between Excel and its VBA language and the PLC. DDE servers are the classic method, but a lot of folks here on the Forum like to build their own small-scale connections using AdvancedHMI if there's no other HMI software running that can be the basis for this feature.
 
Seems a bit ridiculous to store 150,000 records in Excel. How does this document get manged w/o it being huge hassle for the users?

Personally this is database territory but you have to have all the pieces. Is there and HMI? SCADA? Are you looking for a cheap solution or is this part of something bigger?
 

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