Downloading Allen Bradley PLC Data to a Access Database

bigvicfella

Member
Join Date
Feb 2006
Location
Melbourne
Posts
5
Good Afternoon All.

We have a 5 generator power station at site, with each generator controlled by an Allen Bradley SLC 5/02 PLC. These all connect to the station Master PLC which is an Allen Bradley SLC 5/05. An ethernet output is taken from this PLC and sent to a PC that has RSLinx software on it. This PC allows constant monitoring of the generator parameters.

Seperately, a modem is connected to the comm port on the Master PLC and this is activated each day to provide a seperate and consolidated snapshot of the data collected over 24 hours. This data is fed to a third party monitoring program that takes the Allen Bradley data and converts it into a format that can be imported into a diary run under Microsoft Access.

We wish to get rid of the modem set up and have acquired a Perle IOLAN module to interface between the com port on the PLC and an ethernet connection. What we need now is the software that would (say) interrogate the PLC at a certain time each day, download the data then convert it to a format that could either be dumped to / imported into a Microsoft Access Database. Hopefully, as automated as possible!

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated

Regards,

Vic
 
Last edited:
Hi

AFAIK,there is no free software for that.
we used our own made opc to database software for that.
my boss would sell it for around 500$.
 
If you have a RSLinx version capable of DDE and OPC (not Lite), then you should be able to create a function in MSAccess that requests the data.

You should not need any other software, just someone to write a macro in access that will read the data.

I have done this in MSExcel. In the RSLinx help files there are instructions for copying and pasting DDE links into other applications. OPC is a little different but similar.

I am not expert enough to give you more specifics...You might also try searching this forum and also MrPLC.com. I am sure this subject has been covered before.

Paul
 
Generators, 5, 6, 10, 3 makes no difference really. Power stations SCTT stand alone - been there done that.

I do not normally use AB or RSLinx but rather Omron and Citect. I would think that RSLinx would be able to, in a similar fashion to Citect, extract data from the PLCs and export to Access or Excel via DDE. It is slow but it works.

I have not used OPC in this way as I do not like it and am not sure how this impementation would work in to Access and Excel - if in fact it can. Someone else may be able to answer that. My few experiences with OPC have not been pleasant to date. Hopefully will improve.

Have no knowledge of the Perle IOLAN and it's communications capability - who did you buy it from? Do they have a web site? What is the format of data that can be obtained from this device? More details will help.
big-oldnswfella
 
I have written a program in VB6 that uses OPC (and one with DDE) that pulls data from a compact logix over ethernet. The VB Code acts as an HMI and can record data to Access. After so many records are taken it will back this data into Excel. My program will take the data from the Topic configured in RSLinx. As OkiePC said, you will need a decent version of RSLinx. If this is the way you want to go I could give you samples of what I did (just a warning..my programming abilities are just enough to get me by).
 
I've done similar things with a macro in excel.

I have also used webdock. This has been a good package to work with for the last few years.

$.02
 

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