A Free HMI with Eye Catching Graphics is Now Available

[Archie]

When I copy the .exe file to my PLC and try to run it from there it can not open the file and windows encounters an error. I've installed .NET framework V4 on my PLC as well.
Am I doing something wrong here?

The AdvancedHMI driver will not work when on the same PC as TwinCAT. The driver uses the TCP/IP stack directly and not the AMS router. This causes a conflict with the router. Beckhoff (nor CodeSys) will not release the details on how to directly interface to the AMS Router nor will they allow distribution of their DLL with the software. This was the reason the TwinCAT driver was removed from the project prior to this latest release.

 

[aspen]

If I understand correctly this means I can not use this wonderful tool to create HMI interface for my projects on Beckhoff PLcs! Except if I run it from another system which does not really make sense! (I have to pay for another system just to run HMI on it)

Thanks for the information.

 

[Archie]

If I understand correctly this means I can not use this wonderful tool to create HMI interface for my projects on Beckhoff PLcs! Except if I run it from another system which does not really make sense! (I have to pay for another system just to run HMI on it)

Unfortunately that is the case. I have gone through every connection and channel I had to get the information from Beckhoff, but always ended up at a dead end of "That is proprietary information".

Whenever I do a Beckhoff system I always use a CX controller with Windows CE and a separate Panel PC to run the HMI. I find this to be a better configuration because Windows CE boots much faster and if you have to reboot the HMI, it doesn't stop the controller. The cost difference between WinCE and WinXP/7 is about the same as the difference between a panel mount monitor and a full Panel PC.

 

[BooY]

Hi, I've only recently found this advanced HMI it have got it working on RSemulate and it works great thanks

I have a question though, couldn't find if it was already answered earlier through the posts, but are there any quick guides to creating your own components. Or even just adding your own custom graphics to existing component templates?

Regards
Dave

 

[Archie]

I have a question though, couldn't find if it was already answered earlier through the posts, but are there any quick guides to creating your own components. Or even just adding your own custom graphics to existing component templates?

Depending on how complex they are, creating components from scratch can get quite involved. They start out with a .NET windows form control and gets inherited into a new control that adds the AdvancedHMI functionality. This is an advanced topic that we only cover in training classes.

However, many times you can achieve what you want with the GraphicIndicator. That control can function as a button and also toggle between images based on a value in the PLC. For example, let's say you have two images of a button. One of them up and the other down. Set GraphicAllOff and GraphicSelect to those two images. Set PLCAddressClick and PLCAddressSelect1 to the same value. When you click the GraphicIndicator, it will set the bit in the PLC, which in turn will change the image.

 

[BooY]

Do you offer any training documentation on the creation of components that one could purchase as being in Australia can't take one of you training courses

 

[Archie]

Do you offer any training documentation on the creation of components that one could purchase as being in Australia can't take one of you training courses

Gradually as the documents are updated, they will be made available on the web site. I have also been working on setting up a video studio for live training over the web.

Here are a couple resources that can get you started with creating the windows form control:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/4yf3whkx(v=vs.90).aspx

http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/dotnet/2002/06/03/custom.html

Since AdvancedHMI is based on the .NET framework, you can find a lot of information on creating custom controls. Once you have a custom control, it's a matter of copying the code from one of the existing controls in the project, changing the "inherits", then making any other changes to match the properties of the base windows control.

I have even found a few open source controls that I have been able to bring into AdvancedHMI with just a few minutes of effort.

 

[Archie]

New Release

Version 3.5.1 is now available. This version has some major changes in the driver interface which means if you have a project in a previous version and used VB code to access data, an upgrade will not be as easy as it has been in the past. These changes were made to greatly improve the speed and reliability of the drivers. With such a major overhaul, a few bumps are expected as it is used in various scenarios, but I will work as quickly as possible to get them ironed out. Here are some of the changes:

Synchronous reading using ReadAny with AsyncMode or ReadSynchronous is replaced with a Read method and AsyncMode no longer exists. Asynchronous reading is now done with the BeginRead method. This was chosen to follow the .NET patterns closer.

Subscription callback signatures have changed. The new version now includes more information than just the value returned, such as the PLC address. This allows multiple subscriptions to use the same call back. A new component called DataSubscriber will make subscriptions a breeze. Simply add the component to the form, double click and you will be taken to a callback routine where you can write the code to process the value.

A lot of attention has been given to the ControlLogix driver to make it more stable and faster. It is now using a background thread to process subscription updates and throttles the messages sent to the PLC. This should eliminate the ignored requests which causes the "No Response -20" error.

 

[gscure]

Great Job

Archie,
I just wanted to say thank you for all of your great work! I have been using your communication drivers for various projects and they work great. I have downloaded your latest update and the controllogix driver works great. I have had no error messages and the application does seem to run faster with less hangups.

Thanks again.

Gene

 

[iant]

bumping to frnt page

 

[Ingis]

Archie,

first of all, you are a hero to make this free and support this in such an active way.

Is the HMI possible to use with the compactlogix series from AB? (over ethernet? (but from what I already understand is tcp/ip not a problem). Can I access the variables through their names/tags in vb.net?

So basically I want to read out several parameters every second to a datatable. (So I don't need the HMI controls, only connection and read out)

 

[Ingis]

Archie, I succeed in starting communication between the HMI vb.net project and my plc. (with the tags and over ethernet). This seems to be working fine, great job on managing this. However I can now only get my data in the predefined controls. Is is possible to dump the values of my tags in a datagridview?

 

[Archie]

Archie, I succeed in starting communication between the HMI vb.net project and my plc. (with the tags and over ethernet). This seems to be working fine, great job on managing this. However I can now only get my data in the predefined controls. Is is possible to dump the values of my tags in a datagridview?

There are a couple ways you can do this. The quickest would be to add a DataSubscriber to the form, set the PLCAddressValue property, then double click the DataSubscriber to get back to the code.

DataGridView1.Rows(0).Cells(0).Value = e.Values(0)


Another way is to add a timer to the form, set the interval and set Enabled to True. Double click the timer to get back to code:

DataGridView1.Rows(0).Cells(0).Value =EthernetIPforCLXCom1.Read("MyTag")

 

[Ingis]

Nice you can use the read from EthernetIPforCLXCom1 without the need of using a control. Will program a thread that retrieves the data. Beautiful written piece of software.

 

[danjogarrison]

Archie, Hello
I'm working on converting my project over to version 3.5.6. Right now I'm working on the basics. I'm pretty much doing it from scratch using my old stuff as examples to go from.
I'm having a problem with the basic label displaying data values from my PLC.(AB Micrologix 1100) I can get the data from N9:0 but when I try N14:0 it displays the value that is in the properties box for PLCAddressValue. If i leave it blank then it displays nothing. If I change the address of the working one to N14:0 it doesn't work but if I change it back to N9:0 it works again. Any suggestions or thoughts?
Thanks.