Created Date: July 08,2019

Created by: xtal_01

OK ... so lets start with a statement ... I have no idea what I am doing.

I am not even sure if this is where I should place this question on the forum or ????

I have programmed PLC's (AB and GE) for about 20 years ... but have not touched one in about 5 years.

I have never touched a HMI panel.

I have built industrial control panels for about 25 years.

A good client asked me to put together a panel for a remote location to turn 12 pumps on and off .. monitor them for problems and to report back with an e-mail each day the total flow (4-20 ma from a flow meter) of the previous day.

So I did a bunch of homework and choose a EA9-T15CL-R and a BX-DM1E-M-D (and a hand full of modules to go with it).

I also needed an internet connection (they don't have one on site) so I got a cellular modem (had to pick a third part to supply this as their company uses Verizon).

So, I have the modem up and running.

Unpacked the HMI yesterday ... programming was straight forward .... uploaded the program to the panel ... so far so good.

Put together the PLC today ... made a simple program ... uploaded it to the PLC ... put it into run ... so far so good.

Now the problem ... I connected the PLC and the HMI together using an Ethernet cable (just put a dumb switch between them so I can tie the modem into it).

I keep getting an error "PLC-001:PLC Communication Timeout "

I am sure I have the IP or something totally wrong as I really don't know much about this.

I looked at the PLC ... said it has an IP of 255.255.255.255 ... so I put this into the panel program under Panel Manager and uploaded the program ... still nothing.

So I could have anything from the wrong PLC name to the IP to ????

I can't seem to find anything in the manuals or online on a video that shows how to get these two things to talk to each other.

Any advice ???????

Thanks .... Mike

Created Date: July 09,2019

Created by: xtal_01

OK ... tried to learn networking in 4 hours. I do see the IP for the PLC must be unique.

So I set the IP to 192.168.0.110

Then I set the subnet to 255.255.255.0

I put the module ID to 110

I then put the new plc IP into the c-more

Still Nothing ... same error ...

Any suggestions ????

Created Date: July 09,2019

Created by: BobO

OK ... tried to learn networking in 4 hours. I do see the IP for the PLC must be unique.

So I set the IP to 192.168.0.110

Then I set the subnet to 255.255.255.0

I put the module ID to 110

I then put the new plc IP into the c-more

Still Nothing ... same error ...

Any suggestions ????

C-more’s IP must be different than the PLC, but on the same subnet.

Created Date: July 09,2019

Created by: akahammer

go to setup tab click panel manager on left of screen should show ethernet port below that should be a device name, the same name as in your tag database. if not, right click on etehrnet port select new and create device name, change all tags to that device name, not internal tags all the other ones you made and plan on using, then on right portion of screen setup protocol, ip address etc. transfer this to the panel.

Created Date: July 09,2019

Created by: xtal_01

OK .... I called Automation direct ... super helpful as always.

Had my communicating in just 5 min ... biggest problem is I picked the wrong protocall

So ... still one problem that they could not fix .....

I exported the CSV file from the PLC software and tried to import into the Do more software.

We kept getting a 185 error ... file open or corrupt

They could not figure out what was going on and suggested taking off the programs an re-installing.

I am going to try that right now but wondered if anyone else had this problem and knew how to fix it.

Thanks so very much !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mike

Created Date: July 09,2019

Created by: BobT65

" I exported the CSV file from the PLC software and tried to import into the Do more software.

If you are going from one PLC to a different make of PLC then it is a formatting issue.

If you meant from the C-more to the Do-more, then there is an extensive helpfile subject about this in the C-more software. Make sure you read that thoroughly.

Created Date: July 09,2019

Created by: xtal_01

Got it ... Yes, the guy at Automation Direct (super helpful .. communicating in 5 min) told me to write the program in the Do-more first then export ... then import the CSV file to the c-more.

The only problem was, he could not get it to happen on my computer (we tried step by step a few times). We kept getting the 185 error. His only suggestion was to reinstall the software ... he said maybe my anti-virus was giving me issues or that I just had a corrupt installation.

I was hoping someone might have an idea of why I am getting this error. The tech help ran out of ideas.

Thanks ... Mike

Created Date: July 09,2019

Created by: kewakl

Got it ... Yes, the guy at Automation Direct (super helpful .. communicating in 5 min) told me to write the program in the Do-more first then export ... then import the CSV file to the c-more.

That is the simplest way (not to be interpreted as bad) to build the tag database, but the majority of my programs have multiple hundreds of tags and tend to make the project huge.

Simply importing a empty PxK projkect's tag database will result in a file with about 180 tags.

As you get more practice and learn from others, you may begin to edit your HMI tag database files. Excel is a great external tool for this.