Capturing End of Run Data

[gdsteele]

I have a SLC 5/05 that is talking to FactoryTalk ME. I am making large blocks of plastic. After the block of plastic is cast, I want to capture process data such as temperature, time, date, mold size, operator, and batch ticket number. I want to store this in an Excel spreadsheet. The customer has committed to having a PC just run this spreadsheet and nothing else.

I looked at the Data Logging function of FactoryTalk and it doesn't look like it will do what I want. I also don't see how I can ever get back to the data. Can anyone suggest other ways of doing this? I would hate to have to purchase a copy of RSLinx Classic just to do this. I don't think the lite version will support dde.

Thanks for you help

 

[dmroeder]

If you don't want to use RSLinx and DDE, see this thread:

http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?t=42656&highlight=free+advanced+hmi

edit: and maybe my post in this thread:

http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?t=58084

 

[jimfun71]

As for Linx,
Single Node will support DDE but only one node at a time so you would have to make sure all data was comming from one processor. You would not be able to capture data from multipul plc's. I think single node is around $400.00
As for the data capture in excel I've never had any real luck with it. We hold data in a cell then have acess capture at time intervalls to it's data base. That starts to get really hairy to. The easiest way I have found to do data tracking of any kind is to do the tracking in the processor in Ye Old N:file then download the file in to Excel at the end of a run.

 

[gdsteele]

I downloaded the HMI software. WOW, what a great piece of software. I got it to connect to the PLC and was able to go through the many examples.

But.... I can't find any examples of how to get Excel to talk to the PLC using the drivers. Can anyone point me in the right direction, a hint, anything?

I'm willing to write code to make it work, I guess I'm just not that proficient with vb to know how to use his drivers to make Excel do what I want it to do.

Thanks,