Free AdvancedHMI has been Updated - Now with Ethernet/IP driver

Although I haven't done as much testing as I would prefer, I went ahead and posted the latest AdvancedHMI software. The most requested addition is the Ethernet/IP driver for SLC and MicroLogix Controllers. Unfortunately it doesn't currently support ControlLogix platform.

I haven't yet been able to do any videos or documents on using the new driver, so I attached a simple screen shot with some explanations. You can download the software from this link:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/advancedhmi/

There are a number of videos on how to use it on youtube, here is one and it will lead you to more:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-E8NlUNiX4



For those unfamiliar with the project, here is the original thread:

http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?t=42656

Excelent Archie!
Can't wait to try it out!

Very nice, Archie!

Hey Archie, as always, well done!

I think we have a 5/05 around here somewhere, I'll have to give it a shot. I know one of the guys at work has one at home, I'll have him try it out.

Just out of curiosity, do you have any intentions on developing a driver for the Logix platform? If so, would you use your SLC driver and modify it, or would it require starting over?

Would this work with SLC 5/04 processors that have their DH+ hooked to a ControlLogix gateway and a DH/RIO card?

Oo00h

We had looked at the Advanced HMI before but it didn't have any Ethernet driver. I will see how the Advanced HMI works with our controller.

dmroeder said:

Just out of curiosity, do you have any intentions on developing a driver for the Logix platform? If so, would you use your SLC driver and modify it, or would it require starting over?

Click to expand...

Ethernet/IP basically consists of 3 layers..... TCP/IP, Ethernet/IP, CIP. The Ethernet/IP layer has a small number of commands that are common to any task you perform (read data from PLC, communcate with IO device, etc.) I created a reusable class for that layer, so when it is time to make the driver for ControlLogix, it only requires an implentation of the CIP layer (sounds much easier than it really is). To answer the question, I will be able to reuse a chunk of the current code.

Duranthas said:

Would this work with SLC 5/04 processors that have their DH+ hooked to a ControlLogix gateway and a DH/RIO card?

Click to expand...

The current Ethernet/IP driver will not support crossing over to DH+ because it will require DH+ node addresses which I have not yet implemented. The DF1Comm (serial driver) has node address properties (TargetNode and MyNode), so it can bridge onto DH+. I have done this with an Equustek DL3500 to go from RS232 to DH+. I've also done it by connection to the RS232 port on a SLC 5/04 and setting the pass-thru bit in order to access other PLCs on the DH+ using the DF1Comm driver.

Peter Nachtwey said:

We had looked at the Advanced HMI before but it didn't have any Ethernet driver. I will see how the Advanced HMI works with our controller.

Click to expand...

I'm going to guess the Ethernet driver will not work with anything but AB controllers. It uses a CIP-Ethernet/IP command to encapsulate PCCC (SLC/Micro language, sometimes referred to as DF1). So unless a controller mimics the SLC/MicroLogix, it will not be able to work with the current Ethernet driver.
I intend on creating a driver template that can be used as a wrapper to an existing driver. I've done this with the Beckhoff TwinCAT driver that is included in the project.

Archie said:

I'm going to guess the Ethernet driver will not work with anything but AB controllers. It uses a CIP-Ethernet/IP command to encapsulate PCCC (SLC/Micro language, sometimes referred to as DF1). So unless a controller mimics the SLC/MicroLogix, it will not be able to work with the current Ethernet driver.

Click to expand...

Our controller gets an A+ for 'plays well with others'. It looks like a SLC500 on RSLinx. We have our internal registers mapped to SLC500 type of registers so if the Advanced HMI can read and write from F files then it should work.

The most common problem is with HMIs that only read or write one word at a time. This makes it a little more difficult to download a MoveAbs command with a position, velocity, acceleration, deceleration and direction all at once.

I am going to give it a try.

Peter Nachtwey said:

Our controller gets an A+ for 'plays well with others'. It looks like a SLC500 on RSLinx. We have our internal registers mapped to SLC500 type of registers so if the Advanced HMI can read and write from F files then it should work.

Click to expand...

That being the case, there is a good chance it will work. The driver can read/write Float files.

Peter Nachtwey said:

The most common problem is with HMIs that only read or write one word at a time. This makes it a little more difficult to download a MoveAbs command with a position, velocity, acceleration, deceleration and direction all at once.

Click to expand...

If you access the driver directly using VB code, you can use the WriteData method to write an array of values (up to 255). The PCCC packet size limits it to something in the nature of 20 float values all within one packet, so more than that and the driver will break it up in several writes.

Let me know how it works for you. I'm currently cleaning up the code working on an issue I found with gracefully recovering a network interruption.

Slick!

I played with this for a bit and for a non VB user it was very easy to use. I was connecting to a couple of MicroLogix 1400’s that we have on our network and it was simple to get talking.

I will play some more next week, but the only thing I couldn’t figure out yet was displaying ascii strings (always pulled back a number)

Awesome stuff!!!

My Mac video card died so my work on the Advanced HMI is delayed

However, I was also looking at the possibility of or using our own RMCLink.
http://www.deltamotion.com/dloads/downloads.php?category=rmc150&subcategory=ActiveX Controls
This is what most .NET programmers use to access our controller. It works with VB, Excel, NI Labview, etc. and it is optimized to work with 32 bit aligned data. However, I would need to write a wrapper to convert your strings to binary values. I didn't see where one can transfer an array of ANY or floats without first converting to strings.

If this works I am going to bug our ME about making so hydraulic actuator images. I only saw buttons and meters etc.
I think we have images already.

My Mac video card died so my work on the Advanced HMI is delayed

Click to expand...

A "MAC" computer has problems? Tell me it ain't so.

Just tried reading and writing to a ML1400
Works perfectly

Mickey said:

A "MAC" computer has problems? Tell me it ain't so.

Click to expand...

I hope they dont as I now have a mini mac in my bedroom, a mini mac server in my lounge on the tv and have ordered a fully loaded iMac27 which i wont get till 31st dec .

The video (FCE4 and iMovie9) software is awesome, better and more stable than anything i have encountered on windoze and in my opinion a lot easier, more intuitive, very user friendly and fast.

It is fixed now

My video card is a ATI 2600. It was replaced for $100. I got 4GB more of memory so I can run more virtual machines. It cost an addition $200. All together it was a $300 day.

Now back to the Advanced HMI. I am going to download if from home one my gaming PC and see if I can quickly access rmc70.deltamotion.com F56:0.