Topics

1

Support Questions / Drivers depend on Controls?

« on: August 03, 2016, 01:28:33 PM »

Hello all,

I am working on an application that uses the communication drivers that AdvancedHMI provides, but not the GUI. However, I noticed that I must include all the following DLLs to have a working console application that does nothing but communicate with a ControlLogix controller:

AdvancedHMIControls.dll
MfgControl.AdvancedHMI.Controls.dll
MfgControl.AdvancedHMI.Drivers.dll (this is the only DLL that the application actually uses)

Interestingly enough, it works just fine with only the last DLL when the application runs from inside Visual Studio's hosting process ("debug mode"). So I am curious as to why this is happening. I noticed that the controls dlls are not present in the bin folder of the AdvancedHMIdrivers project, which indicates that there is no actual dependency.

Ideally, I would like to deploy my application with nothing but MfgControl.AdvancedHMI.Drivers.dll. I am aware that this kind of complaint sounds ridiculous when the whole AdvancedHMI is free to use, but MfgControl.AdvancedHMI.Controls.dll alone adds 6.2 MB to the final release! It would be great if I didn't have to ship it with the application.

I am using AdvancedHMI v399n. That you all for your help,

Leo

2

Support Questions / EthernetIPforCLX Subscribe vs Read and best practices

« on: July 26, 2016, 09:50:45 AM »

Hello all,

First and foremost, I want to thank the authors of this amazing project. I appreciate the effort they are putting on and how they decided to make it mostly open-source and free to use! I am working on a small project to transfer data from a PLC into a SQL server and generate excel reports. I like to think of it as a smaller version of the Rockwell Transaction Manager solution.

I have a few questions that I could not find direct answers to regarding the internal workings of the Ethernet/IP communication driver for CLX controllers. I am using the latest version of AdvancedHMI, released just a few days ago, I believe. And VS Community 2015.

Here are my questions:

1. I know that I should use the Subscribe method to perform periodic readings, and then handle the returned data with a callback, that is fine. However, I noticed that the arguments PollRate and CallBack of that method don't seem to work. I have read (I) that the PollRate argument hasn't been implemented yet, is that the case for CallBack as well? I can still configure and receive data using the attribute PollRateOverride and the event SubscriptionDataReceived, but it would be easier to have one callback per subscription and perhaps different PollRates.

2. I have been thinking of creating my own subscription system, that would use threads and call the simple Read function to grab data each time. I know that the Subscribe method that the driver provides has the advantage of combining multiple read operations into a single message. I want to know if going down this path makes sense or if the lost in efficiency would be too bad. Would it be possible to reimplement these block read operations myself?

3. If I want to subscribe to tags on the same controller but with different PollRates, should I create more EthernetIPforCLX objects pointing to the same controller? I am thinking of creating groups of tags that have the same PollRate, and create EthernetIPforCLX objects accordingly. Is that the way to go?

I will greatly appreciate any help and advices that this community might have! Thank you all,

Leo

(I) http://advancedhmi.com/forum/index.php?topic=839.0