S7 300 Debug log?

[Werner]

Hi!

In Visual Basic it is possible to print messages on a log window. (Debug.print). I'm wondering if it is possible to log messages in Siemens S7.

Example: When a logic flag is on I want to print a message like "Started belt on level 10". This way I could backtrack any problems. I prefer to log on my laptop and not use printers.

 

[RMA]

I've never tried it, or even looked into it, but maybe you could do it by creating a generic text printer to print to a file. I'm pretty sure S7Guy explained how to do this somewhere, but I can't find it at the moment.

I would think one you've created it and it's in Windows list of available printers, you should be able to select it as the logging printer in ProTool or WinCC.

 

[JesperMP]

If you have Protool RT, Win CC Flexible RT or Win CC then you allready have that functionality.

It is possible to log tags directly to a file, without any messages being displayed on the screen.
Setup an archive, which can be a simple CSV file, or it can be an ODBC database.
Then setup the relevant tags to be logged to the archive when they change state.

You can also set up messages. This means that they will be displayed on the screen (which you may like or not). The messages can also be written to an archive.


If you dont have any of the abovementioned softwares, then you could try the free Virtual Stopwatch utility from Runmode.
I have never tried it. But I would like to know how good it is.

 

[SimonGoldsworthy]

I tried the Virtual stop watch. It's an exe. I couldn't see any use for it. If I want to log information in real time in a plc, I either put user defined events in the diagnostic buffer or create my own DB with a (large) circular buffer of time stamped message entries.

 

[JesperMP]

Simon,

.. or create my own DB with a (large) circular buffer of time stamped message entries

Do you use ALARM-S for that ?
Does it give you an alarm message list with text or symbolic descriptions ?

 

[SimonGoldsworthy]

The DB + code to write messages is my own. The DB consists of (say) a 1000 element array of structures, the structure components are a message string and time and date data. Upon detecting a state change, (typ rising edge of an input), an FC is called with a message string. The string is inserted in the DB along with the current time and date and the index to the next free message area is updated.