Wincc not finding PLC station in step7 project.

Hello People.

Me and a couple of other people are having some difficulty getting WinCC working. We have created a project in step7 controlled by simatic manager. Integrated into the project is Wincc from which we are to set the bits that control the different tasks our program are suppose to do.
The setup is as follows:
- We are linked to the plc via a PC USB adapter, which is connected on top of a profibus cable, which is inserted into the MPI slot on the CPU. The profibus cable is connected to a Simatic Panel(tp17b0 colour), but is not used.
- We have a rack which is connected via a profibus cable to the the DP port.

The PC has been given the address 1 in the PC/PG interface and is set to MPI. The MPI connection on the cpu has been set to 2.

So now we want to create a WinCC flexible Runtime panel to control the program as we have been unable get the simatic panel to register with the plc.
In simatic manager we then created a HMI station and entered WinCC. In the connections part of winCC we set the HMI station to address 3 and the cpu to 2. But when we try to select a station, the field is blank.

Any surgestions what I should do?

Also can anyone clarify what the toggleable option "Address is the only Master" means?(Might sound a little different as I'm typing this only from memory).

Thanks in advance
Thomas M.

Hej Thomas.

Your programming PC is MPI node 1
The PLC is MPI node 2
What is the HMI panel ?
Maybe your problem is that the default node numbers are PC=0, HMI=1, PLC=2.

About the WinCC Flexible RT HMI, is it the same as the programming PC, or is it another PC ?

JesperMP said:

Hej Thomas.

Your programming PC is MPI node 1
The PLC is MPI node 2
What is the HMI panel ?
Maybe your problem is that the default node numbers are PC=0, HMI=1, PLC=2.

About the WinCC Flexible RT HMI, is it the same as the programming PC, or is it another PC ?

Click to expand...

its node 3. and yes the WinCC flex. RT HMI is the same as the programming HMI, are you surgesting that HMI station should have the same node as the programming PC.

I think that your programming PC ("PG") should be node 0.
The HMI panel should be node 1.
The S7 PLC should be node 2.
If your WinCC Flexible RT is on the programming PC, then it will have node 0. If it is another PC, then it should be node 3.

I am wondering if you have a problem with using the PC adapter USB for the WinCC Flexible RT.
I know that with the old serial PC adapters there were separate versions for programming ("PG" connections) and for HMI ("OP" connections).
Maybe you can investigate if the USB adapter supports both PG and OP connections.

JesperMP said:

I think that your programming PC ("PG") should be node 0.
The HMI panel should be node 1.
The S7 PLC should be node 2.
If your WinCC Flexible RT is on the programming PC, then it will have node 0. If it is another PC, then it should be node 3.

I am wondering if you have a problem with using the PC adapter USB for the WinCC Flexible RT.
I know that with the old serial PC adapters there were separate versions for programming ("PG" connections) and for HMI ("OP" connections).
Maybe you can investigate if the USB adapter supports both PG and OP connections.

Click to expand...

Thank you Jesper.
I will check it out monday and report back. Have a nice weekend.

Regards
Thomas M.

Well we are back from the weekend and have come to the following conclusion.
WinCC does work. But we have to create the tags ourselves, we can't use the ones already made in the symbol list of our project.
Why we have suddenly lost the ability we can't figure out, but this will just have to do.
Of course, If someone have any surgestions please reply.

Thank you Jesper, we did as you said and set the project to the following.

PG, WinCC flex = node 0
CPU = Node 2

HMI, we still haven't played with. We will do that when we have completed the programming and user interface, just in case we run out of time.

WinCC does work. But we have to create the tags ourselves, we can't use the ones already made in the symbol list of our project.
Why we have suddenly lost the ability we can't figure out, but this will just have to do.

Click to expand...

The reason is that you are using a PC adapter as the interface to the PLC. And because of this you have to define the online connection via the S7ONLINE access point. And this again means there is no definition of the path from HMI to PLC.
Like I said before, I am not even sure that a USB PC adapter will work. Would like to know that myself though.

To get symbols in your WinCC Flex PC RT will require some steps. One is to use a CP5611 or similar as the hardware for getting online with the PLC.

Try to create a new project, copy and paste your blocks, symbols from the old project into the new one. create (integrate) your HMI and do the link to your CPU before carrying on. Check if you have your symbols now in WinCC Flex. If you do you can simply copy and paste your (already) screens into the new WinCC project.

Had this problem before, and this was the only way to get around it.

Best Regards

Henk Decaluwe

I hate to be a thread necromancer, but was there ever a sucessful application of the USB/DP adabter to allow a computer to run time and access a profibus network?

Rick

Live from the Emptiness of the Bowels called the Empty Quarter.