Allen Bradley to excel.

Hello everyone,

Have a question regarding using excel as a scada system. I have recently discovered that I can pull data from a plc into a excel file. Was wondering if anyone has used this to create there own scada system for data logging and if It can be done? I would want to eventually create live graphs for amp loads and auto manual state(s). For troubleshooting purposes. Thanks for any knowledge on this topic.

Care to share how you did this ?
As far a a scada is concerned it sounds like a lot of code to do

I am monitoring data from my machines in excel. You need to have a version of
RSLinx (not lite) running and set up an OPC shortcut to the PLC's I actually send all
my data from each PLC through messaging to one Micrologix and then set my OPC Server shortcut to it to collect the data needed for an excel spreadsheet.

I have done this on some projects using AdvancedHMI with the EPPS add-on.

It can log any tag from the PLC every time a WriteData bit is turned on, or by a timer in the HMI itself.

I have them logging batch cycle setpoints and process values throughout each cycle, with the Excel file named: Date-StartTime-job#-machineID

I have successfully gotten data out of a CompactLogix and into Excel before. Google "rslogix to excel" and you will find lots of tips on this. This was a few years ago. As far as I remember, we did try to use it to log data but the issue is that there is no good way to log the data vs time. We ended up using Rockwell's FileViewer utility (free download from Rockwell) instead.

I log the time with the data from the PLC into excel whenever a condition occurs that I want to capture all the set points on the machine. I also run the clock update tool on the PC that is monitoring all of the PLC's so I know everything is synchronized.

I have more than 80 daily reports , some are based on events , others are based on time, shift ,etc.
So I decided to automate the whole thing more than 12 years ago, and keep on using XLReporter from www.sytech.com.


Nowadays is cheaper to buy OPCgateway from Rockwell than using RSlinx professional price is five times less, and OPCGateway complies with OPCUA and OPCDA.

Just to clarify, you can't actually do full SCADA with Excel. You can use a DDE link (it's not OPC) to paste links to Excel but I don't believe you can write data from Excel to the PLC. To be SCADA it would have to have the ability to control the PLC.
Having said that, I've used Excel for data monitoring many times over the years (for demonstration only) but I've found that purpose built HHI's are far more flexible and capable and typically don't need a stand alone version of RSLinx running in the background that you need with Excel. This isn't to say that you shouldn't do it just that HMI's are better at it.
P.S. If you haven't tried AdvancedHMI, do so. It's a great Freeware program that's fairly easy to use.

You got some good suggestions in these posts. I would like to add a warning that an Excel worksheet is limited in how many cells it can contain, so you need to consider the amount of data you are looking to store. I have had to use Axcess and SQL (in newer projects) to save data to databases rather than Excel due to this limitation (the limitation is pretty large now - 1,048,576 rows by 16,384 columns - but over the course of years, it may fill up on you).



Back when I did this with SQL, I had used RS-SQL (separate software that monitors configurable data registers in a PLC, via RSLinx, so you would need RSLinx gateway). I'm pretty sure it is outdated now and replaced by some Factory Talk software (like Historian or something like that).


I also had used RSView32 to write data to a file using its add-on program (the name of it escapes me). We then created a batch file that would save the file at the end of the day, move it to another folder, and clear out the current data storage page (we used Excel in that application). FactoryTalkView has this same feature, so it can be used.


What SCADA software are you running? Many of them offer the ability to store the data in such ways.

I hate to be the one to burst your bubble but I was using RSLinxPro of HMI's and SCADA over 30 years ago it works well enough but the down side is you need a license for RSLinxPro on each computer it's running on and they are expensive with multipuls system that can add up fast
I have been and recommend InGear.net it's runtime license free so you can install it on as many systems as you want. It works very well
you can use it to do a full SCDA if you want

My 2 cents, why re-invent the wheel. Just buy a SCADA and be done with it. If it's anything that's going to be controlling production or giving reports that are needed even when your not there, get an actual SCADA or your going to be chained to it. Just not worth it.

JaxGTO said:

My 2 cents, why re-invent the wheel. Just buy a SCADA and be done with it. If it's anything that's going to be controlling production or giving reports that are needed even when you're not there, get an actual SCADA or your going to be chained to it. Just not worth it.

Click to expand...

I agree! Why re-invent the wheel? (I use Ignition and I thought it was expensive until I made the purchase.)

What you can do with Ignition and the money it will save you will more than pay for its cost!!!!

Hands-down the best SCADA software on the planet.

Brendenator, please no!
In this day and age there are much nicer solutions.
In my experience excel programming is the sort of thing that gets lost or abandonned when the person that programmed it moves on to a different role or company. It also gets bogged down when you use all of the rows and all of the sheets. And then excel updates to excel 365 (not to be used on Feb 29), and it only works if you [insert witchdoctor like solution].
I think grabbing yourself a free visual studio .net and a free Advanced HMI is going to serve you better for things like 'display the amps for troubleshooting.' it can even log to SQL or excel, or CSV. Good old CSV. Also works when you add a new machine that's not Rockwell!

And when your boss wants to run your excel on her computer and she doesn't have linx installed, or she does but hasn't configured DDE, or she has but there's a firewall that disables DDE...
</RANT>

Good automating!
Ian