Studio 5000 Large AOI Data Type Array Values Import/Export

[RockyLeafs]

Hello,

I'm digging all over the internet to find a solution for this but haven't come up with anything yet.

We have 3 nearly identical machines (only difference is sizing for 4", 6" and 8") with a AOI (PartType) and the customer wants all their possible part types in each machine. So they will share a large array of 200 part type variants.

So when you look at the PartTypes Array is set as:
PartType[200]
Description (40Char String)
PartNumber (8Char String)
WallType (SINT)
Welds4 (SINT, number of 4" welds)
Welds6 (SINT, number of 6" welds)
Welds8 (SINT, number of 8" welds)


I have the customer part list already in excel with the part number, description, number of each weld, etc (there is 178 unique parts...)... ready to go...
What I was hoping to do was to create an excel file where I can import all the values of the part list into the array in the PLC program offline.
I do have the machines powered up on the shop floor, and I have read about using RSLinx and the tag upload/download tool, but I am wondering if there is a way to get import/export the tag VALUES.

 

[joseph_e2]

Since the machine is running...
I'm sure there's a way to create a duplicate tag of the correct structure and export to L5K, then make changes using whatever scripting/VBA language you like and then re-import it. I'm pretty sure that there are instructions for that on here somewhere.

I had to do something very similar once, but didn't have the programming-fu to make something like the above work...but I did have some C experience and was neck-deep in Red Lion Crimson programming, so I got the data into a format the Red Lion could read from its CF card, and then wrote some code in the Red Lion to copy the data into a copy of the PLC's recipe tags. Once I validated the recipes were correct in the PLC, I had the PLC copy it over to the live tags and it was done. It was a tedious slog, but it worked and ended up faster/cleaner/more accurate than trying to enter the values manually. It would be more of an uphill climb for me right now since I haven't been doing the Red Lion programming nearly as much since they're currently unobtainium. Right now, I would probably use AdvancedHMI and Visual Studio to do something similar.

 

[cwal61]

Here's an example of using RSLINX DDE Poke. It uses VBA to write Tag Value to tags. Just enter the OPC Topic name, Tag Name and Tag Value. It's not set up for a UDT tag structure but you should be able to enter each tag element individually.
Just note you must have a full version of RSLINX. Lite will not work for OPC Topics.