plc data logging using Labview

[mber]

I am trying to communicate with PACSystem RX3i using Labview in order to log
data from PLC. Is this possible?
If it is possible, how could I implement it?

[amezam]

Hi mber,

Thanks for posting at NI forums. I looked into the supported device & driver plug-in list for NI OPC Servers, and the PACSystem RX3i is supported. To configure the OPC server to communicate with this PLC, you can follow the steps given in this article. In the LabVIEW side, you can configure an I/O server as an OPC client to communicate with the server.

In order to configure the I/O server you will require the Datalogging and Supervisory Control (DSC) module installed for LabVIEW. In the article I just referenced, it shows how to configure bound variables to communicate with the PLC tags to retrieve data. The DSC module installs a Citadel database, so when you are configuring the bound variable, you can choose to log data depending on events, alarms or a historical log. This article describes the data logging options using the DSC module. You can also choose to read and display the data in a VI by dragging the bound variables to the block diagram and then log to a file using logging functions.

Best Regards,

Alina M

Applications Engineering

National Instruments

[sophia3]

Labview cannot work as an opc server without installing DSC module?

[mber]

Hi Alina,

Thank you for your reply.

Besides using OPC server, is it possible to record data using modbus TCP or EGD? Also, I'd like to use the software I am

currently have which is Labview 2011 SP1.

[amezam]

The DSC module is installed to add LabVIEW support for these features, if you don’t wish to use for OPC communication, you could still use Data Socket to establish this communication, which is included in LabVIEW by default. Once you read the data from the OPC tag, then you can log it using any of the logging VIs, as Write to Measurement File, Write to Text File, etc... You can find examples on how to log data in the Example Finder (Help>>Find Examples).

[amezam]

Sorry, wrong link, this the correct link for connecting to an OPC Server through DataSocket.

[pincpanter]

Beware that DataSocket is not supported under LabVIEW 64 bit.

[mber]

Hi Amezam,

I am tryinig to get access to the bulk memory which references to the modbus 6yxxxx.

[amezam]

For Modbus, besides DataSocket and the DSC module, there’s a free LabVIEW API. You can downloaded and try it, however, it’s only supported through the API community.