How to connect to ge 9030

[CJasnoch]

I am having troubles finding any documentation on this. I know we purchased the driver package to connect and it's serial number was entered but I have no idea how to use the OPC drivers or where to even access them in LabVIEW.

Can someone point me in the right direction?

Thank you,

[MehakD]

Hi

I believe that you are trying to connect to your GE 9030 PLC using the OPC server. I am assuming at this point that you are actually using the LabVIEW DSC module. Since you are new to LabVIEW itself, I would first recommend you to get familiar with the programming environment before you start building your Application. There are a lot of tutorials on LabVIEW on the National Instruments website. however, I would recommend you to look at the 'Learn LabVIEW in 3 hours' tutorial to get you started.

I hope this helps!

[CJasnoch]

Actually I am pretty familiar with LabVIEW.... And no I am not using the DSC module. I found some documentation that recomends it for numerous tags so we may have to go that direction but it seems you should not need it if you have the drivers. We had purchased the drivers on their own. No idea how to use them though:(

[MehakD]

I am sorry for the confusion on that end.

The DSC module provides a lot of added features for managing large scale OPC applications. The details for the module can be found under the following link:

https://www.ni.com/en-us/shop/product/labview-datalogging-and-supervisory-control-module.html

However, using the DSC module is not the only way to communicate with your PLC in LabVIEW. You can also use datasockets to communicate with your PLC.

A comprehensive tutorial on using datasockets in LabVIEW for a variety of applications, including OPC and lookout communication, can be found at the following link:

https://www.ni.com/en/shop/labview/datasocket-transfer-protocol--dstp--overview.html

Apart from this there are also other resources that talk about using LabVIEW as an OPC client. The following links will provide you more information on using LabVIEW as an OPC client:

How to use OPC in LabVIEW?
Connecting LabVIEW to an OPC Server through a DataSocket Connection

I hope this helps!

[CJasnoch]

Thank you!

That is exactly the stuff I was looking for:D

[CJasnoch]

I guess I spke to soon. Usefull stuff but still doesn't get me started.

These drivers that we purchased included everything under the sun it seems (s7200, GE 9030 etc). yet I have no idea how to use them where they are or anything about them.

I only know a little about OPC and I know the drivers use them but that really doean't get me anywhere. I am not sure how to set up my app or anything.

I have a 9030 PLC that is all wired up that is basically "dumb" as it has no program. Our intention was to write a small app in the PLC that would handle a 'safe shut down' if communication was lost or some other safety interlocks but the main brains went in the PC and would run a LabVIEW app.

We were told this would not be hard to do using this driver base but I am not getting anywhere:(

[MehakD]

So what are these drivers that you are refering to? Do these include the NI OPC server or any other OPC Server? Could you provide my specific details on what the drivers include?

[CJasnoch]

FYI this is what we got yet we received no documentation on how to use it....

https://www.ni.com/en/support/downloads/software-products/download.opc-servers.html

[MehakD]

That clarifies the drivers part a bit. So I beleive you are using the NI OPC servers. In that case, the help documentation for the software is very extensive and it will provide you detailed information on how to setup your PLC and have it communicate with your OPC Server. Once you install the software on your computer, please browse to Start>>Program Files>>National Instruments>>NI OPC Servers>>NI OPC Servers Help.

Also once you have the help open, then you will be able to find your device specific driver help by expanding on the name of the manufacturer and double clicking on 'Launch Driver Help'. This will provide you detailed information on how to setup tags for your PLC.  The server help also provides step by step instructions on how to design a project in the Designing a Project tab. The Server Help would also provide you basic information on the OPC Communication between the PLC and the server and the different components that are a part of the OPC Application.

One you have the NI OPC server setup and have established communication with your PLC, then you can use LabVIEW with datasockets to access the tags on your PLC and program an application that manipulates the values obtained from the tags.

I hope this is the information that you are looking for!