Write loaded application name to HMI tag

[iammonkie]

I am using FactoryTalk View Studio ME to create an application for an allen-bradley panelview plus7. I am attempting to get the loaded application name (Terminal Settings/Startup Options/Application Name), to display in a tag on one of the HMI screens. Would anyone happen to know if this is possible to do?

 

[hardaysknight]

It's been a while, but I'm pretty sure you can get the screen number from the panelview to the PLC, then just have it use that number to move a fixed string into the string you'll use for the panelview tag.

 

[Operaghost]

But, the application name is another matter. The OP is after the name of the loaded application. Not the screen. Unless I am misunderstanding.

...I am attempting to get the loaded application name (Terminal Settings/Startup Options/Application Name), to display in a tag on one of the HMI screens...

I am not aware of any way to display the name of the loaded application, or store it into a tag to then be displayed.

OG

 

[hardaysknight]

But, the application name is another matter. The OP is after the name of the loaded application. Not the screen. Unless I am misunderstanding.

I am not aware of any way to display the name of the loaded application, or store it into a tag to then be displayed.

OG

Ah yes I misunderstood.


I don't believe there is a way to do that OP.

 

[Cheeseface]

Rockwell provides network and terminal info ActiveX controls. You'll have to get it from there.

https://imgur.com/a/fsfBQeb

It only has DeviceName though. But you might be able to use that or part of the IP address with a multi-state control to achieve your result.

 

[Operaghost]

Rockwell provides network and terminal info ActiveX controls. You'll have to get it from there.

https://imgur.com/a/fsfBQeb

It only has DeviceName though. But you might be able to use that or part of the IP address with a multi-state control to achieve your result.

The DeviceName is the name assigned to the Ethernet interface. It does not have the application name. I looked through this ActiveX and others. None seem to give access to the loaded application name.

OG

 

[iammonkie]

well that's unfortunate that info can't be accessed but thanks for all the help.

 

[Cheeseface]

All you need is something that's different between devices and you can create a static map using a multi-state control.

For example: if you use the last octet of the IP address (1-254) you fill the multi-state captions with application names.

 

[dmroeder]

If anyone has a PanelView Plus handy, I'm interested in a file on it, \Windows\RemoteHelper.dll. Long shot I know, I'll get it Monday nobody bites. I haven't given up on getting the loaded application name to the PLC, a few people have asked about this lately.

 

[dmroeder]

I believe I have a solution, I've tested on a series A and Series B PanelView Plus. Looking for one more person to test. You will need a PLC that you can add logic to, a PanelView Plus and a Github account.

Edit: It's not a perfect solution, it gets the file that is configured to run at startup. If an application is not configured to run at startup, or someone shuts down the application and then loads another, it would still report what is configured to load at startup. I guess if you can rely on "run at startup" application as the one that *should* be running, then my solution works. I'll keep when I have time...

 

[aawilliams85]

If anyone has a PanelView Plus handy, I'm interested in a file on it, \Windows\RemoteHelper.dll. Long shot I know, I'll get it Monday nobody bites. I haven't given up on getting the loaded application name to the PLC, a few people have asked about this lately.

Did you ever manage to extract a copy of RemoteHelper.DLL? I couldn't figure out how to access it, since it is in use while the PanelView is at runtime. I have been working on a Python ME Utility and wondering what other undocumented features it might help enable.

GitHub - aawilliams85/pymeu: Python ME Utility

Python ME Utility. Contribute to aawilliams85/pymeu development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

 

[dmroeder]

No, but I did figure out how to utilize it remotely to get all of the MER files located on the terminal. In fact, you could use it to list file in any directory.

Edit: I see you got it too:

pymeu/pymeu/terminal.py at main · aawilliams85/pymeu

Python ME Utility. Contribute to aawilliams85/pymeu development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Edit: you can use SFTP to poke around at the file system on a running terminal if SSH is enabled on series B terminals, it wouldn't let me copy that particular file off of it though. I do have a older terminal, but have been busy.

 

[aawilliams85]

Unfortunately, all of the methods I had tried so far including S/FTP, result in either errors due to the file being in use OR create a 0 byte copy of the file. In all honesty, I don't know if getting a copy of the file is really necessary since my needs are fairly simple (downloading *.MER files), but maybe there are some other nuggets hidden in there.

I'd thought maybe the *.FUP could be unpacked to obtain the file but since it wasn't immediately apparent to me how to get the underlying *.IMG file unpacked, I didn't poke any further.

I added a function to get the startup file based on the discussion here - thanks for the idea. Other feedback welcome.

 

[dmroeder]

I was also able to get into the unpacked MER directory and get the name of the MED file in it, which would be the original project name. Downside is that someone could have renamed the MER. The MED file doesn't have to match the MER name.

I also wanted to see if there was any other things that DLL could be used for.

 

[aawilliams85]

Yep unfortunately that is one of the exact scenarios I have been testing against in PyMEU, I have some different copies of the same project just named differently. The \Temp\~MER.00 directory seemed to be a dead end for that.

\Windows\UnpackMer.log doesn't seem to contain anything useful either.

Feels like there must be some way.