Network status screen on SCADA

Guys,

I am sure this has been done many many times before but I just cant seem to find a good solution to my problem of creating a network status screen on SCADA.

We mostly use Cimplicity, iFix and RSView32 as OPC clients and RSLinx as the OPC server. Networks usually comprise of AB PLCs over Ethernet.

What I am basically trying to implement is to originate some form of "ping" from the SCADA and record the response into a discrete point/tag. I would then like to use this tag to fire alarms and graphically display comm status of different PLCs on a SCADA screen. Many of the PLCs on the network are programmed by others and so I do not have the luxury of adding tags or logic to them.

Another option would be to get status information from RSLinx over OPC. I do not know if RSLinx provides any OPC items that indicate device/topic status. I can monitor the health of the OPC server from the client but is there a way to get status of individual devices/topics?

Appreciate all help.
Thanks.

You might be able to modify the following script (from Tek-tips) to do what you want with VBA in RSView.

I'm sure this isn't what you want to hear, but I think Kepware has built in status tags and I know how to easily implement what you're looking for with FactorySQL.


edit - the way to run a shell command may be a little different, but the idea is to parse the result then do whatever you need to with the result. I doubt RSView has an available ping library function.

RSView32 has some system tags that may do what you want, e.g.

system\ComStatusString1
system\ComErrorString1

Can't help with the other systems, but I would assume they have something similar.