Messages

31

Open Discussion / Re: Profinet project/driver with similar ease as Advanced HMI?

« on: January 06, 2020, 10:12:21 AM »

After a short break (breaks are always short, aren't they?), back to work.

I have not used Ingear drivers with my projects, but a developer we hired to create an application for recipe management and store result data did used it. Seems to work fine on most of the machines but for some reason fails to write a bit from time to time in some machines (very specific ones) that is used as an acknowledge. Nobody from Ingear or the application developer has been able to fix it or find the cause, but is a random issue and just happens once or twice a week. Besides that, it seems to work properly.

On the other side, I used libnodave for some small projects and hadn't used it anymore, but I kept looking for something better or easier to develop and found Snap7. It does have some differences that makes it easier than libnodave, the first thing is that I can read strings without having to create loops or decode manually characters, which is a feature I was looking for. It is very versatile, it can even kind of emulate a PLC communication (you can connect a HMI to your app!). I think it uses background workers to communicate with PLCs so it does not lock the UI. I will try to use it on my next project, and see how it goes.

In case you are interested here is the official site:
http://snap7.sourceforge.net/

By the way, the developer has done a great job with documentation, and there is a forum like this one to get help and support.
https://sourceforge.net/p/snap7/discussion/general/

How about Ingear driver?
http://ehelp.ingeardrivers.com/s7link3/help/NET.S7LINK_Help.htm#Array_Example.htm

32

Support Questions / Re: Unknow error 275 using RTA Automation 515RTAENI

« on: December 18, 2019, 05:21:37 PM »

I can report that the solution provided by Archie has been working fine since January, I just had to use two adapters (one Net-Eni and one RTA-Eni) to balance the connections load.

I am using the AB Net-Eni with the Ingear drivers to communicate the .NET app we use for data collection with a database, and the RTA-ENI for all the other devices (PC as HMI with factory talk and another app with AHMI, programming interfase, RFID badge reader through Ethernet/Ip to TCP gateway).

Update AHMI to latest beta version, as Archie said. Provide more details on what devices/drivers are you trying to connect through RTA-ENI.

33

Open Discussion / Re: Local Database / Service based Database in Community 2019

« on: September 11, 2019, 08:43:03 AM »

If you only want to store settings, there is a couple of simple options that does not require installing any software.

You could use my.settings variables, to store locally your settings. The downside is that if you move the application they are not going to move with it, as they are saved in the user profile folder, I do not know exactly where.

Another option is to use a datatable for settings, and store it in an xml file. Saving it and loading it is very easy, just google and you'll find plenty of examples. And this will be kept in the same folder of your application, unless you specify otherwise.

If you really want to store a lot of data with the database functionality but not having to install anything at your PC end, SQLite is good option, or also an Access database could be used using ADO.

34

Open Discussion / Re: Profinet project/driver with similar ease as Advanced HMI?

« on: August 30, 2019, 11:55:40 AM »

Thank you. I've tested with Matrikon OPC, but to be honest it really falls short from AHMI features and specially, the integration with VB.net.

I have the same problem, the only thing I have come up with is an OPC server. If using TIA, the datablocks have to be unoptimized so that they use absolute addressing to be able to read them. If using Classic (v5.x) they pull right in. It does add cost, then you have to get around DCOM issues if you use one remote server to host all your applications which you can do.

Hope this helps put you on a useful track.

35

Open Discussion / Profinet project/driver with similar ease as Advanced HMI?

« on: August 29, 2019, 03:53:42 PM »

I know Advanced HMI pretty well now. But now I am struggling with Profinet as all our new machines, because a new policy from management, has to have Siemens controllers.

I'd been developing small applications to communicate with Siemens, using Libnodave, but always get to the same point that after certain amount of variables being read, my UI start becomes sluggish or locking up for a brief moment. This is due I call the read variable subs based on a timer, so I can constantly refresh their read values. I've tried  to use background workers or threads, with no success. Still not giving up on this, but does someone knows any open source project or comercial driver that has a similar functionality than AHMI that does use multithreading?

AHMI does have a modbus TCP driver to communicate with Siemens (already tried that), but this solution is not what we need, it has to use Profinet.

I need to stop wasting time trying to find a way how to do something that has been already developed, and dedicate my time into my main task which is programming an application.

Sorry if all this sounds confusing, but with all my work load I have not been sleeping very well and now is starting to really affect me.

Just want to hear some recommendations on what to do with Siemens, as in a matter of months we received and launched more than 40 machines with it (with all that implies), and we lost the great development ease intended by Archie with AHMI. Now I can really appreciate the simplicity implied, like just drag and drop a basic label and do not have to worry for other things than developing your app.

I ask in this forum and not in other PLC specialized ones, as I've seen this place where people come to learn PLC and VB.NET programming, rather than just each one apart.

Any comments?

36

Tips & Tricks / Re: Printing to a Zebra Printer from AdvancedHMI

« on: August 15, 2019, 09:31:39 AM »

Sprungmonkey,

Try the attached solution in VS 2013.
Make sure to install Net Framework 4.7.1 Developer Pack first (if you don't have it already installed).

Thanks Godra! I will give a try as soon as I can.

37

Tips & Tricks / Re: Printing to a Zebra Printer from AdvancedHMI

« on: August 12, 2019, 01:44:46 PM »

If you download the zip, open the sln w/ notepad, you can read the version from there.

I see you used 2015. I was trying to use it with 2013 with no sucess, it throws stack errors. I am going to install 2015 and see what happens. Thanks!

38

Support Questions / Re: Mark a map and get the coordinates from your mark

« on: August 12, 2019, 01:41:48 PM »

This goes in the open discussion section, not the support questions.

39

Tips & Tricks / Re: Printing to a Zebra Printer from AdvancedHMI

« on: August 09, 2019, 10:01:30 AM »

Bachphi, what VS version did you used?

Attached is a complete working code with VB version.
it allows to print over TCP, USB as well as Async methods. it also has error checking status, like out of paper, etc.

You need to grab the DLL files and put it in manually, because of upload file size limit.

40

Tips & Tricks / Re: Printing to a Zebra Printer from AdvancedHMI

« on: July 19, 2019, 02:59:49 PM »

In case some one wants the mentioned DLLs but does not want to install the whole SDK, see attached files.

I dig a little further into Zebra's LinkOS SDK. Their SDK can be downloaded directly or use Nuget Package.
I currently have a very good working CSharp solution. It use .NET 4.7 framework.
Basically, I added 3 DLL references (SdkApi_Core, SdkApi_Desktop, SdkApi_Desktop_Usb) and a PrintHelper.cs class

Now, I need to convert the PrintHelper cs class to VB class to use with AAHMI, the online converter converted all of them except one liner. See below



Attached is working CSharp sln and non-working vb class. TIA

41

Open Discussion / Re: KepwareServerEX 6.4 remote access

« on: June 25, 2019, 02:22:16 PM »

Thanks Godra, I will check it out.

42

Open Discussion / KepwareServerEX 6.4 remote access

« on: June 20, 2019, 06:24:09 PM »

I am new to OPC, but been reading a lot here and there about how they work. This is my first attempt to use an already installed functional Kepware server, that has tags available from a Siemens PLC by Profinet. I ran Matrikon OPC Explorer directly on the Siemens IPC where the server is installed and I was able to connect with no issue. Now trying replicate this from my laptop connected directly to the machine LAN, same client, correct IP address (I am controlling the IPC with Team Viewer), but no luck, everytime the Matrikon OPC Explorer would tell me there is no OPC server installed in the remote host.

I've changed the Kepware setting to allow remote connections, but I cannot find other configuration or manual that could make it work.

Is there any configuration or procedure I am missing to become the server available to remote clients? Anyone here with some experience with Kepware?

43

Support Questions / Re: Reading Network Drive

« on: June 13, 2019, 09:31:00 AM »

You have your file explorer set to hide extensions, and your file name is "MachUpdate.txt", with the extension txt. At least this is what I experienced before with similar cases.

44

Support Questions / Re: Setting File Path

« on: June 13, 2019, 09:28:51 AM »

After making sure the path is completely correct, try with a different path. One that you are sure it has no permission or system protection, like your "My Documents" folder or even a test with a USB drive. It depends on your IT policies for file access.

45

Support Questions / Re: Ethernet.Write error when writing large numbers to a DINT

« on: June 04, 2019, 06:46:11 PM »

Cannot find anything that addresses this problem.

Using CompactLogix PLC ...
Application requires writing 12 ASCII characters into a DINT array. (4 characters per DINT) Why ask why?

When HMI (VB / AdvancedHMI) writes a number > 10,000,000 to PLC, then 1 or 2 right most digits are incorrect. and sometimes, left digits change in what appears to be a round-up. I have not discovered any pattern it goes through as the number becomes larger. Tho, If the right 2 digits of the incoming number are '00' then there is no error.

FYI: I discovered the 10,000,000 limit by repetitive testing.

This error does not happen when writing from PanelView.

Any clues?

At this point, I'll code a work around in the PLC. I sure would like to know why or whats happening with the AdvHMI PLC driver.

Thank you
GF

Maybe if you write those ASCII into a string in PLC, then convert the string into DINT. I know is not the best solution, but it should solve the rounding problem if you are in a hurry while Archie can take a look at the issue, when he has some time to.