PanelBuilder General Questions

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Thread Starter

Eric Aos

I am familiar with RS View, but this is my first PanelBuilder Experience.
I need a recipe system, that allows users to create new recipes while running. Then be able to choose them by name from a list.
I also need a way to control the display of some options based on the recipe chosen.
 
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Brian P. Romano

Hi Eric:

I have programmed a few systems exactly you described and although there may several ways to accomplish the task, there really is no easy, direct way. What I did is to use indexed addressing and used the list selector to
reference a recipe name and number. The number then looked up the data that was stored in an integer table. For example recipe 1 was stored in
N101 and recipe 2 was stored in N102. The name for the recipe was stored in the a string file using the same indexed addressing method. After the recipe name and corresponding number was selected from the Panel view, the data was retrieved from the proper integer table and stored in a "current recipe selected integer table" (something like N100 or ??). Storing it was with a similar method. Each recipe data point was stored temporarily in discrete memory words, like N200:1 and N200:2 as the operator typed them into the panelview. Once the operator typed the name with the reference number and accepted the recipe, the data was stored using the indexed addressing to the proper integer table.

The down side to this is the amount of memory needed (you have to allocate and entire table to a single recipe - if your recipe contains 4 data points, you've just wasted 252 words), limited memory tables limits number of recipes and the amount of time necessary to program the panelview and PLC interface.

Although I have done 4 such programs, I dislike doing it this way. If you can convince your customer to use an industrial PC, many packages like Wonderware and RSView have recipe modules that are much cleaner to use and more operator friendly. You can even write a simple VB program that takes data from an Excel spreadsheet and writes it to a single run integer table in the PLC using an Active X control that allows communication to the processor.

Good Luck,
Brian Romano
PACsys, LLC
 
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George Robertson

I don't think you can use ASCII from the PLC in a control list selector text field.

You can hide items from view at run time by selecting object view off. This feature is only found on selectors, to the best of my knowledge.

[email protected]
George G. Robertson, P.E.
Manager of Engineering
Saulsbury Engineering and Construction
 
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Laydiyanto Karsa

> You can hide items from view at run time by selecting object view off. This feature is only found on selectors, to the best of my knowledge. Another way to hide object is to make the object foreground and background the same color. Regards, Laydiyanto Karsa PT. Abdhi Bina Suryamas, Indonesia
 
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