Topics

1

Feature Request / DDE or Excel Driver for read/write to Windows application or Excel

« on: August 21, 2023, 09:43:24 AM »

I know DDE is ancient and there are a lot of reasons NOT to use it, but I need to AHMI to communicate
(send data and receive data) via DDE to a specific application or non DDE communication (read/write) to Excel.

More info
There are multiple Bronkhorst liquid flow meters that are networked together via proprietary protocol called FlowBus. 

A device sits on that network and provides two way (read / write communication) to each flow meter
though a window application.
That windows application (FlowDDE or FlowDDE2)  is used to share data between the device and any windows app that can communicate via DDE
I'd like to use DDE to link AHMI with that FLowDEE to communicate with each flow meter as needed
DDE format is as follows (standard DDE format)
Server "FlowDDE" or "FlowDDE2" application running on Windows
Topic: Node # of specific to each flow meter
Item: paramater your requesting or writing for a specific topic 9(ie Flow, Temperature, Density, Set-point,
Process Variable ,etc)

I'd like a component or driver that can
1) read values from a DDE server (from Server,Topic,Item)  and display them on an AHMI screen via Analog Display,  Panel Meter, etc
2) wrtie values to a DDE server (to Server,Topic,Item) to be written to the corresponding  flow meter fields - mostly set-point
changes, but could be PID parameters, alarm values, resets, etc.

If that's not possible
Can I have the above that can do the same with an excel spreadsheet as I have the DDE data (from flow meters) reading
perfectly into excel cells at an acceptable refresh rate of a few times/sec. I just need to get the data from excel cells
to the AHMI screen.

So either a DDE "driver' or Excel "driver" or link to facilitate two way data exchange

Thanks
Rich

2

Support Questions / Simple DDE Access to display values from (and possibly write to) a DDE device

« on: August 14, 2023, 11:02:18 PM »

I know that DDE is ancient and not used that often, but I need to display data that is only available though a DDE interface

Here's some text from the manual...

BASIC PARAMETER COMMUNICATION
Client applications communicate to the FlowDDE server by using DDE messages. Before messages can be exchanged, a
DDE link had to be made. A DDE link consists of three parts: the server, the topic and an item. For separation the
characters '|' and '!' may be used, so a DDE link in e.g. Microsoft Excel becomes Server|Topic!Item.
For standard instrument parameters and the FlowDDE server, these are:

it looks like my question got cut off - so here it is
How to I poll, access and display the DDE Data with advanced HMI

Thanks
Rich

3

Support Questions / Datalogger2 not creating file or logging

« on: January 20, 2019, 03:46:28 PM »

Hi
I'm a lite user of AdvancedHMI and wanted to start logging some value(s) (up to 10 per timestamp from a AB SLC 500 addresses N7:xx or F8:xx) to a local text file periodically.
I tried Datalogger2 - could not get it to create or  write to a file - tried manipulating a lots of the properties.. file name in quotes, not it quotes, etc
I did get Datalogger1 to write a singe value per timestamp to file with minimal set-up
Tried Datalogger2 with exact same property values, did not work
Any ideas what may be preventing Datalogger2 from working (ie creating/writing data to file)?
Are there any instructions or a set-up guide for datalogger 1 or 2
Datalogger 1 would be ok for me, but I can't  see how to log more than one value per timestamp.
Thanks

4

Support Questions / Tag limit per screen, blinking/cycling of toggles and pilots

« on: November 25, 2013, 04:15:39 PM »

Hi
It seems like I can build a screen that accesses say 10 plc addresses or tags and everything is fine
Say I have 5 toggle switches that toggle motors on/off and then 5 pilot lights that indicate the that the motors are running..all good
Then I add, say some text or other toggles or something that controls or depends on a PLC integer or bit values to that same screen and I will get a constant blinking/cycling of all pilot lights and toggle switches when I activate that screen.  Is there a limit to the amount of tags any one screen can access or is there a way to eliminate this blinking/cycling.
Thanks

5

Support Questions / Data Exchange Limit per Screen??

« on: July 26, 2013, 12:22:41 PM »

Hi
I have a pretty busy screen - >15 I/O and data point being displayed/controlled
when I add another button to toggle a bit  and run in bebug mode,  all the bit values start to turn on and off randomly. There is no activity in the PLC bit data tables I am accessing.  I'm trying to figure out why adding one more data point or bit field to this screen would cause this kind of reaction in Advanced HMI - is there some kind of limit to the amount of data that can be exchanged in any one screen
Can you think of anything else that may be causing this
Thanks

6

Support Questions / System.Net.ComNetOS exception error

« on: July 12, 2013, 02:13:33 PM »

Hi. I got the following error(s) when trying to run a project... any help or guidance would be appreciated.
Please see attached screenshots which I could not place in this message box
Thanks in advance