A-B MicroLogix1100 upload logged data (Newbie)

Hi Everyone,

I tried to do some searching and was unable to find what I'm looking for. sorry if this is not the appropriate place to post.

I have a A-B ML 1100 PLC that I hope is logging data that I need to extract.

I've never worked with a PLC prior to this encounter. I've inherated a piece of equipment that has a sensor I am required to monitor and record every 10mins. My hopes are that my PLC is currently set up to monitor and log this sensor data and that I can some how extract the data into excel. I do not need to read the data live but at least extract the last 30 days of values.

below is a summary of what I've done thus far and the issues I'm having.

I downloaded RSLinx Classix Lite and RSLogix Micro Lite and established communication with my PLC (A-B ML 1100). The ladder logic has one tag that I believe is my sensor. I'm not sure if the ladder logic is set up with data logging on this particular tag...It should be since this is the only reason the PLC was originally installed but I don't now for sure.

Is there any way to extract the data with free software or some other means?

Apologies if this does not make sense, I've learned everything I know in the last 24hrs.

If there are other threads that address this issue please provide link or thread titles if possible..

Thank you in advance.

Guy24 said:

Is there any way to extract the data with free software or some other means?

Click to expand...

Welcome to the forum!


Free to eXcel? No, probably not out of the box.


ODE/DDC will not work with RSLinx Classic, so direct to eXcel ain't gonna happen without someone loosening the purse strings.


Here are a few freebie (as in beer, all will cost a lot of your time) options that come immediately to (my) mind (there are certainly others):

• You could write an application in AdvancedHMI that could do this; if you are familiar with Visual Studio/Visual Basic this could be a long-term, automated solution.
• Use the ML1100's web server, if enabled, to browse the data; good luck scraping it though
• If you want the last 2560 minutes* of data
  • In RSLogix Micro Starter Lite
    • Upload the data in RSL Micro Starter Lite (RSLMSL)
    • Go offline in RSLMSL
    • Print a full report to a PDF file
  • In LibreOffice Draw
    • [File] => [Export ...] => [Export as HTML, single file]
  • Write a script, e.g. Python, to parse the HTMO data you want, write it to eXcel, CSV, whatever.

As I said, all of those will take significant investment of your time. If you are interested in proving if the latter solution can work, write the PDF report (ensure you configure the report to print everything), post the PDF here, and say which array contains the sensor data of interest. I can probably turn that around in short order (a few dozen minutes or so).


* A bit over a day and a half; I expect that, due to inherent limitations of the ML 1100, there are at most 256 samples saved, but it could easily be more.

The ML1100 does have a data logging feature. See link

https://www.theautomationstore.com/rslogix-500-allen-bradley-micrologix-data-logging/

If you post the program (zip it first )someone can take a look.

^ Very cool, never knew that!

Thanks for the replies,

I tried to download the data logging utility but was unsuccessful in getting it to run...

I also tried to post the program file (.zip) to this thread but the forum wont allow me to post an attachment at the moment.

I may be in over my head at this point..

I don't see any data logging in the file you posted.
Also it does not show the "Data Logging" feature being used. We would have to see the .RSS file. Try again to zip the .RSS file and post if you can.

I agree with Mickey: there is no long-term logging going on in that PLC code. Let us know what you find, and definitely put the .RSS in the .ZIP and post it here.


Random thoughts are below.



Best regards.



Logging speculation



It is possible that a remote machine, with a SCADA-ish process, is monitoring (pulling) the temperatures and keeping a log; if so, there are some hints but not enough information in the PDF to tell for sure; if not, it would would be straightforward to create one.



Details


Thanks for posting the PDF.


There are three temperature inputs to the 1762-IT4 thermocouple card on the [ML 1100 Revision A]: I:1.0; I:1.1; I:1.3. All are configured for Raw/Proportional Data and scaled for Type K thermocouples, per https://literature.rockwellautomati.../documents/um/1762-um002_-en-p.pdf#G6.1032018; the [Input Min.] is off a bit but close enough.


I:1.0, I:1.1, and I:1.3 are scaled into degrees Fahrenheit in Integers N7:0, N7:1 and, N7:6, displayed on an LCD, and the Integers are MOVed to F8:0, F8:1 and F8:3, respectively.



F8:0 and F8:1 are used in several compares to Latch various bits (B3:x.y), probably alarms, which alarms are Unlatched by discrete input I:0.1.


N7:3 is a counter that increments at the top of the hour, and resets to 0 when it reaches 32ki (~3.7y); its value is also displayed on the LCD.



None of the data are logged within the PLC; there are no messages being sent by the PLC via the MSG intruction. That said, there is a one-element message file (MG10) is configured and contains soem non-zero values, though not used in an MSG instruction

The temperature F8:3 is not being used for anything within the PLC, which makes me think there may be a remote host doing the logging, because otherwise the MOVe to F8:3 has no purpose. Would some produce/consume protocol pulling data from an external system use an MG file element, but leave no other footprint in the PDF?


Setting up a remote host to do logging will typically cost more in labor than software or hardware, but that strongly depends on the hardware path chosen; there is always the old saw "you can't afford free software ." For example, I suspect an AdvancedHMI app could be cobbled together for minimum of, say, 2k$ in labor (1d = 8h @ 250$/h) and several hundred dollars in parts, not including your own time to install it. Building the AdvancedHMI app would take less than an hour to put together, but that is by far the smallest part of the effort required.

Mickey said:

The ML1100 does have a data logging feature. See link

https://www.theautomationstore.com/rslogix-500-allen-bradley-micrologix-data-logging/

If you post the program (zip it first )someone can take a look.

Click to expand...

Attached is the .CSV and .RSS project files

Data logging has not been configured in the file you posted.

What is connected to the serial port or the Ethernet port?

The serial port configured for DF1 Half Duplex Slave is a little different . Something polling it? (see drbitboy's post)

Mickey said:

Data logging has not been configured in the file you posted.

What is connected to the serial port or the Ethernet port?

The serial port configured for DF1 Half Duplex Slave is a little different . Something polling it? (see drbitboy's post)

Click to expand...

I was able to connect to the PLC via Ethernet using RSlinx.

There is a ZEDi 400 gateway plugged into the PLC that was previously in use. I was hoping to avoid have to use a third party for remote logging and scada capabilities but that may be the easiest oath forward it sounds like.

Guy24 said:

I was able to connect to the PLC via Ethernet using RSlinx.

There is a ZEDi 400 gateway plugged into the PLC that was previously in use. I was hoping to avoid have to use a third party for remote logging and scada capabilities but that may be the easiest oath forward it sounds like.

Click to expand...

Is the ZEDi talking to the PLC, or is it monitoring its own analog inputs and logging them somewhere?



It's Linux-based, so minimal script in a language that has an E/IP library (e.g. Python) could do what you want, even writing the eXcel workbook on the fly.

drbitboy said:

Is the ZEDi talking to the PLC, or is it monitoring its own analog inputs and logging them somewhere?

Click to expand...

I believe The Zedi gateway is simply monitoring the PLC and then recording the data elsewhere. Zedi set up this system/hardware and I was told it was working, however the company went through a few splits and mergers before i was every set up to access their system.

Guy24 said:

I believe The Zedi gateway is simply monitoring the PLC and then recording the data elsewhere. Zedi set up this system/hardware and I was told it was working, however the company went through a few splits and mergers before i was every set up to access their system.

Click to expand...

Since the ZEDi uses a Linux kernel, maybe it has a web server and it keeps the data in local storage.


Barring that, use wireshark or tcpdump to see what IP addresses that ZEDi system is communicating with; that may lead to the repository for history data.


Assuming it is using Ethernet/IP, it will contact port 44818 on the PLC to get the data, but that is only to get the data, not archive it.



Of course, it will happen maybe once every 10 minutes to get the data, and possibly once an hour or once a day to archive the data, so it will be painful, but that is wiresharks's problem.