Recipe Plus and Barcode Scanner

Hi all, TL;DR at the end.

Hardware: 1768-L43S Compact GuardLogix, PanelView Plus 6 1000, Sick Barcode Scanner w/Ethernet

I've got an application where the customer wants to select batch recipes based on either a button that's pressed on the HMI, or a barcode being scanned. I have no problems with getting the barcode out of the scanner and searching through a recipe array to match it to it's recipe. But they've also said that "any recipe management must use the in-built recipe functions of the HMI, (i.e. not PLC-based)".

I understand the reasons one might say that, but now I'm a bit stuck. As far as I can tell, the only way to select a recipe in Recipe Plus is to use the Recipe Plus object, and press a Recipe Plus button on the screen to download the selected recipe into the PLC tag structure. I can't find a way to download a recipe based on the PLC changing the state of a tag, let alone a way to have the PLC send the barcode up to the HMI, have the HMI search it's database for that string, and select and load that recipe.

Before I go back to the customer and tell them that they can't have their cake and eat it too, does anyone know of a way to do what they're asking?

FWIW, I've never used Recipe Plus before, I prefer to do it all in the PLC - so I could be overlooking something simple or misunderstanding how it works. Feel free to dumb it down if you think I need it!

TL;DR - can I select and load a recipe in RecipePlus based on a barcode string in the PLC that's unique to the recipe I want?

I try not to say that something cannot be done around here because someone usually jumps in and proves me wrong. That being said, our local Rockwell guys once asked us why we don't use the PanelView's recipe plus for our product database in our machines instead of doing it all in the PLC. When we asked what we would do if the customer requested that we pick recipe's based on a bar code, they said.... do it all in the PLC.

I found Recipe Plus to be mostly unusable. It's flavorless frosting to help sell the cupcake. I ended up building my own recipes screen and writing some VBA to read the recipe from a DB.

Thanks guys. RA tech support have replied with the same thing. There is a recipe Active X control that *might* give me that ability - but then I'm getting away from the original purpose of using HMI-based recipes.

Now I just have to bend this issue into a shape that fits inside a project manager's head

ASF said:

Thanks guys. RA tech support have replied with the same thing. There is a recipe Active X control that *might* give me that ability - but then I'm getting away from the original purpose of using HMI-based recipes.

Now I just have to bend this issue into a shape that fits inside a project manager's head

Click to expand...

I am not expert at all in Allen Bradley, but I did a project where I needed to create more than 200 recipes with a panelview.

The ActivX recipe on the panelview is much better than the horrible recipe plus. I think it can do what you want if the activX is loaded on all the pages of the HMI where the user can be while scanning.

The limitation is no more than 256 recipes on one SD card if I remember correctly.

I was going to reply you earlier about the ActiveX Control but didn't get the time after...

No, I don't think they can have it both ways, if they want the barcode functionality...

Recipe Plus handles all of the recipe controls and only writes the recipe data to the controller tags after the recipe has been selected. The recipe controls are not exposed to the controller. There are no external tags available to select the recipes outside the Selector object.

I would agree that it's a poor substitution and would always prefer to use the controller. Recipe Plus does, however, have the ready made objects, which can save you time, but they do leave a lot to be desired.

If using the Recipe ActiveX Control you have to create CSV files to hold the recipe data on the terminal. You can then call them up from the controller via the CSV files. This "technically" means the recipe data is still being "handled" or "managed" on the HMI.

The fact that the barcode selection must be made via the controller is, I suppose, where you have to convince them it's necessary to use the controller for everything?

The ActiveX Control does not use the Recipe Plus objects, nor does it use the .RPP files. So you have to roll your own graphics, etc., but you can have both the control from the controller and HMI objects. So they can select manually or programmatically via a barcode.

I would try to sell the ActiveX option on the basis that if you cannot use the controller, they cannot have the barcode scanner option. I would also be curious to know why they only want the HMI to control the recipes? I know data corruption is one big fear I've heard in the past.

Regards,
George

Thanks George, as always very informative!

The response I'm getting as to why they want recipe management done in the HMI is "I don't really know...I don't really understand what you mean...perhaps because eventually they want to replace the PVP with a Wonderware screen?" Which doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, because AFAIK you can't just export a RecipePlus database into Wonderware. Having all the recipe management done in the PLC would (I think) make it easier to migrate to Wonderware, as you know your recipes aren't going to break when you do.

I'll hopefully get a less vague response from someone higher up in the client company shortly, I'll keep you all posted...

Recipe Plus Recipe Selection using an HMI button

Hardware: PanelView Plus 7

I'm trying to use an HMI button to load a recipe from Recipe Plus object. Has anyone figured this out or will I need to do all the logic from the PLC to manage recipes? Any help is appreciated. Thanks!