adccommunitymod (AutomationDirect) asked a question.
Multi-State Button
Created Date: December 12,2017
Created By: whmeade
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I am converting from a EATON HMI to the EA9. The EATON had a multi-state button that had states of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. The closest thing I can find in the EA9 is the radio button, but it outputs binary, 1, 2, 4, 8. Is there a multi-state button I am missing? I see there is a multi-state bitmap but I don't think that will work for what I am trying to do. Thanks!
Created Date: December 12,2017
Created by: whmeade
I am converting from a EATON HMI to the EA9. The EATON had a multi-state button that had states of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. The closest thing I can find in the EA9 is the radio button, but it outputs binary, 1, 2, 4, 8. Is there a multi-state button I am missing? I see there is a multi-state bitmap but I don't think that will work for what I am trying to do. Thanks!
Created Date: December 12,2017
Created by: Mike Nash
You could "build " your own. Use an Increment Button with rollover selected and range of 0 to 4 (or whatever). Make the read and write the the same. Now put a Lookup Text on top of that and you can have the fonts and fore and back colors whatever you want for each step. But you only have one Message Database so multiple different buttons would be an issue. You could have the indication value be different than the Increment tags and use the PLC to select the message, or use the Event Manager to do the message selection after adding an offset.
Maybe others have better solutions. I did just try this and it works in the simulator, but I have never used it before. But I have needed to be able to do this, so thanks for the mental challenge!
Created Date: December 12,2017
Created by: whmeade
Thanks Mike. It would be great if the message number started at 0, then I wouldn't need to offset the value. I will check on that next.
Created Date: December 12,2017
Created by: Mike Nash
I totally agree that message numbers should start at zero. But alas.
Created Date: December 12,2017
Created by: Mike Nash
You could have the indication value be different than the Increment tags and use the PLC to select the message, or use the Event Manager to do the message selection after adding an offset.
Wow, I forget how limited the Event Manager is. I am finding no easy way to do the addition since it is so difficult to trigger an event. I can put a momentary PB behind the Increment PB but it won't actuate behind another entry object.
That and C-more software crashes with various messages on this computer at quasi-random times and that gets old really fast. The Jet Database re-register FAQ "fix " works a little bit for a little while (minutes sometimes) then it's back to crashing. Click too. Do-more Designer and DirectLOGIC are both solid.
Created Date: December 12,2017
Created by: kewakl
Wow, I forget how limited the Event Manager is. I am finding no easy way to do the addition since it is so difficult to trigger an event. I can put a momentary PB behind the Increment PB but it won't actuate behind another entry object.
That and C-more software crashes with various messages on this computer at quasi-random times and that gets old really fast. The Jet Database re-register FAQ "fix " works a little bit for a little while (minutes sometimes) then it's back to crashing. Click too. Do-more Designer and DirectLOGIC are both solid.
What OS?
10 characters to appease the forum overlords
Created Date: December 13,2017
Created by: Mike Nash
OS in this particular case is XP SP2. Yes it is old, I am far older and more decrepit still. It's a far sight prettier than anything newer. Windows 10 makes me want to break out the old giant school pencils, chalkboards and construction paper - gag. But my XP looks more like 98, which was prettier still.
It's just irksome that C-more software worked fine until 6.x and now even 2.78 crashes. I should mention RSLogix 5000 and FactoryTalk View still work fine along with a bunch of other software.
Back on topic, I did manage to get a functional multistate PB emulation with a simple Set On pushbutton with a Lookup Text covering it. It requires an Event Manager entry to initialize. SYS BIT ON triggers setting MESSAGENUMBER = VALUE + 10 (turn off PB tag and arbitrarily put messages 10 numbers higher than VALUE.) and BUTTONPRESSED off.
Then another event is triggered by BUTTONPRESSED On, which sets VALUE = (VALUE +1 ) MOD 6, sets MESSAGENUMBER = VALUE + 10 and sets BUTTONPRESSED off. (VALUE is a range of zero to five.)
While it works, there really ought to be a better way.
Created Date: December 13,2017
Created by: kewakl
OS in this particular case is XP SP2. Yes it is old, I am far older and more decrepit still. It's a far sight prettier than anything newer. Windows 10 makes me want to break out the old giant school pencils, chalkboards and construction paper - gag. But my XP looks more like 98, which was prettier still.
It's just irksome that C-more software worked fine until 6.x and now even 2.78 crashes. I should mention RSLogix 5000 and FactoryTalk View still work fine along with a bunch of other software.
Back on topic, I did manage to get a functional multistate PB emulation with a simple Set On pushbutton with a Lookup Text covering it. It requires an Event Manager entry to initialize. SYS BIT ON triggers setting MESSAGENUMBER = VALUE + 10 (turn off PB tag and arbitrarily put messages 10 numbers higher than VALUE.) and BUTTONPRESSED off.
Then another event is triggered by BUTTONPRESSED On, which sets VALUE = (VALUE +1 ) MOD 6, sets MESSAGENUMBER = VALUE + 10 and sets BUTTONPRESSED off. (VALUE is a range of zero to five.)
While it works, there really ought to be a better way.
I have shelved my XP machine -- for those times when a SLC 5/03 needs attention! I had WinXP looking just like Win98........................................ simple, clean, no fancy --anything!
Yes, things in 2.78 need addressing like CLICK ETHERNET DRIVER! WHY not a SP release??
Ahhh, third grade remainder division (MOD). If only the 3rd grade teacher had shown me a programming example --- SIGH