adccommunitymod (AutomationDirect) asked a question.
Created Date: April 03,2002
Created By: JADAMV
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Hello all- If this has been answered previously, please direct me to the correct forum. Our project goal is to collect information from the PLC's and report it to an SQL database (SQL Server). I am not a PLC guy, but we have a couple people here that do the programming on them. I have read that there is a DDE Server, but it seems like it is more for relaying GUI based input to the PLC for output. We are not interested in controlling the PLC's remotely, and we are opposed to anything that requires the machine or PLC to rely on a network to run. All we want is to basically report how many passes machines A, B, C, & D make per hour. At present time, they are not connected to eachother. I think that we could dive in and "figure it out ", but now just isn't the time for that. My questions are as follows: - What is the "standard recipe " for data collection? (how are most people connecting and reporting) - Is it best to connect one PLC to the network using an ECOM module and daisy chain them (master/slave), or to use one ECOM on each PLC? - Does ODBC exist in the automation world? (If DDE Server had an ODBC driver this would be a done deal) - Is anyone doing this now? Thanks in advance to any and all comments
Created Date: April 05,2002
Created by: JADAMV
Thanks HOSEY
I do appreciate the insight.
You gave me exactly what I needed.
Regards,
JV
Created Date: June 24,2002
Created by: Don Whitbeck
www.hosteng.com has a sample program for "report by exception " I have a Delphi program collecting data from a series of PLC's. I am trying to implement it using their "report by Exception " method. I have a rather trivial Delphi program to collect the data Which I have tested out using only one PLC. My problem is that I have not been able to send acknowledgement to the PLC. I am also using a Delphi program to feed data to an Oracle database. I started out using DDE which I dislike intensely. Presently I am using some DLL's I got from Host but this still involves polling the PLCs. Driving the process from the PLCs will be much better.
If you do not need to send data to the PLCs but just collect it and put it in to a database I would say it almost certainly can be done. I use Delphi as a programming language, an INDY component to get the UDP packets and Direct Oracle Access components to send the data to our database. There is no magic here.
Created Date: April 03,2002
Created by: JADAMV
Hello all-
If this has been answered previously, please direct me to the correct forum.
Our project goal is to collect information from the PLC's and report it to an SQL database (SQL Server). I am not a PLC guy, but we have a couple people here that do the programming on them. I have read that there is a DDE Server, but it seems like it is more for relaying GUI based input to the PLC for output. We are not interested in controlling the PLC's remotely, and we are opposed to anything that requires the machine or PLC to rely on a network to run. All we want is to basically report how many passes machines A, B, C, & D make per hour. At present time, they are not connected to eachother. I think that we could dive in and "figure it out ", but now just isn't the time for that. My questions are as follows:
- What is the "standard recipe " for data collection? (how are most people connecting and reporting)
- Is it best to connect one PLC to the network using an ECOM module and daisy chain them (master/slave), or to use one ECOM on each PLC?
- Does ODBC exist in the automation world? (If DDE Server had an ODBC driver this would be a done deal)
- Is anyone doing this now?
Thanks in advance to any and all comments