Getting Allen-Bradley (A-B) Programmable Controller data into Excel using RSLinx Classic

By
Shawn Tierney
-


RSLinx SplashIf you would like to display data from your Allen-Bradley PLC or PAC in Microsoft Excel, and have a licensed copy RSLinx Classic (aka RSLinx,) it can be accomplished using a few simple steps we’ll cover in this article.

But first, lets identify which copies of RSLinx (aka RSLinx Classic) are licensed by reviewing all the versions below:

  • RSLinx Lite (free download, will not work:) This is the free unlicensed version of RSLinx which comes packaged with RSLogix and PanelBuilder. It is used as a software driver to connect your PC to your Allen-Bradley devices. NOTE: This version is not an OPC or DDE server and can not be used to connect to Microsoft Excel.
  • RSLinx Single Node ($541:) This version is a local OPC and DDE server for one “device” (one PLC or PAC,) and also has all the features of the Lite package
  • RSLinx OEM ($1090:) This version is a local OPC and DDE server for unlimited “devices” (PLC, PAC,) and also has all the features of the Lite package
  • RSLinx Professional ($n/a:) This version was a local OPC and DDE server like OEM, but also included the RSLadder 5 and 500 ActiveX’s. This package is no longer available.
  • RSLinx Gateway ($2,290:) This version is a Local and Network OPC and DDE server, but also includes the ability to use a PC as a network bridge. In the past it was common to have a single PC on both Ethernet (office network) and DH+ (PLC network) and use RSLinx Gateway as a bridge between the two.
  • RSLinx SDK ($n/a:) This version of RSLinx was for the development community and included documentation and examples of connecting to RSLinx from development environments like Microsoft’s VisualStudio. It also included a license for RSLinx OEM so users could test the code they wrote.

With the above in mind, you’ll need a version of RSLinx (Classic) other than the free “Lite” version for the following steps to work:

Getting A-B PLC data into Excel using RSLinx

Step 1: Connect your PC to your PLC and setup RSLinx to communicate to it. In the below picture you can see my setup where I’ve connected my laptop to an Ethernet network which also has a MicroLogix 1100 on it.

RSLinx Classic Topic for Excel 1

Step 2: In the right pane of the RSWho window right click on your PLC and select “Configure New DDE/OPC Topic.”

RSLinx Classic Topic for Excel 2

Step 3: In the DDE/OPC Topic Configuration popup window find your topic on the left side highlighted in blue.

RSLinx Classic Topic for Excel 3

Step 4: Type in a new unique name for your new topic. Here I’ve typed in “MyTopic” as the name of my new topic.

RSLinx Classic Topic for Excel 4

Step 5: Now click on the “Data Collection” tab. Note – If you’re asked if you would like to update your topic, select “Yes.”

RSLinx Classic Topic for Excel 5

Step 6: Change the “Polled Message (mSec)” rate to the rate you would like data from the PLC to update at. Here I’ve chosen 100 milliseconds.

RSLinx Classic Topic for Excel 6

Step 7: Press “Apply,” and then select “Yes” on the confirmation popup.

RSLinx Classic Topic for Excel 7

Step 8: Click “Done” to close the DDE/OPC Topic Configuration popup window.

RSLinx Classic Topic for Excel 8

Step 9: Still inside of RSLinx, select “Edit” from the top menu and then select “Copy DDE/OPC Link…”

RSLinx Classic Topic for Excel 9

Step 10: Browse to a PLC address or tag by expanding your new topic, then the online folder, then select a tag or element and press OK. In the below picture I’ve selected T4:0.ACC.

RSLinx Classic Topic for Excel 10

Step 11: Open a new workbook in Microsoft Excel. Right click on a cell and select “Paste Special.”

RSLinx Classic Topic for Excel 11

Step 12: From the “Paste Special” menu choose “Paste Link”

RSLinx Classic Topic for Excel

At this point in the process you should see live data from your PLC (or PAC) in your Excel workbook.

RSLinx Classic Topic for Excel 13

If you would like to explore additional ways to connect RSLinx and Excel, including button macros to upload and download multiple cells at once, search RSLinx’s help system for “EXCEL.”

I hope the above information on getting data from your A-B Programmable Controller into Microsoft Excel was helpful. If you have any comments or questions on the above please feel free to leave them by filling out the “post a comment or question” link below.

Until next time, Peace ✌️ 

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Shawn M Tierney
Technology Enthusiast & Content Creator

Eliminate commercials and gain access to my weekly full length hands-on, news, and Q&A sessions by becoming a member at The Automation Blog or on YouTube. You'll also find all of my affordable PLC, HMI, and SCADA courses at TheAutomationSchool.com.

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31 COMMENTS

  1. I had this working on my current computer about 7 years ago with a PLC-5.
    Since that time, our IT Department has upgraded our Office suite to Microsoft 365 for business. I now cannot seem to find a way to get a valid connection – just a #REF! message.
    I assume this has something to do with the Trust Center settings. I’ve tried messing around with many of the settings (loosening the security) and have, so far, not been successful.
    Do you have any ideas or suggestions?

  2. So I had gotten this working on my controls laptop using a single-license copy of RSLinx, but that license is shared and it needed to go back to the operations workstation. I have a gateway license on the server, so I loaded up Excel there and tried the same file that was already working. My problem: On the laptop, it was reporting the boolean data as 1 or 0, but when I run it on the server it shows the word value. Any idea why it would work differently between the 2 machines?

        • Good afternoon Oleg,

          By default the display updates at the update rate, not based on an action.

          You may want to try triggering a ViewME macro with a button, the macro can be used to set internal memory tags to the value of PLC tags.

          Then you display the memory tags on your graphic.

          Sincerely,

          Shawn Tierney

          Join my free community to follow along! You can also become a member and support our work at: Automation.Locals.com

  4. Hey Shawn – like a challenge? Ok, maybe not for you. Here’s what I have.
    Wanting to upgrade from a SLC 500 CAT1747-L30C, Ser C (18 24DC inputs; 12 outputs) to a MicroLogix something. I picked a 1200 (20 24DC inputs; 16 outputs) and went by the article you sent me, but doesn’t have to be. I bring up the SLC 500 program in RS Logix500 Starter, and open Controller Properties. I select the Micro 1200 Ser C. It says I may lose data or I/O configuration. I can check/uncheck Resize Data Tables and Clear I/O. No matter what I do, when I select Apply, my Memory Used is a hash mark, whereas it previously showed Instruction words used and data table words. What am I doing wrong? Next, I change all the OSR to ONS. When I verify the project, I get a Compiler Error 7003 in a rung with a MCR in it. Will the program now work in a 1200? Can I get it to work in any Micro? Cheers and God bless

    • Good Evening Mastenbrook,

      The 1200 does support the MCR, so I’m not sure why you are getting an error? Are you using the latest conveter from Rockwell? (I believe they are on v3 now.)

      If you would like to hire me for an hour or two I would be more than happy to help with the conversion, otherwise my hands are full recording addition PLC training courses,

      Sincerely,

      Shawn Tierney

  5. Hello Shawn – been awhile, hope you are well, I have to upgrade an AB SLC 500 CAT#1747-L30C, Ser C and I have to interface it with a Pro-Face QPKSTDN0000 touch screen. How would you do it to minimize program rewrite? Many thanks and God bless

    • Good morning Jesse,

      You can, but you would need to write vba code to do it, or add an “offset” tag in the PLC to represent the row.

      Another way to do it is to record all the data in a PLC data file like N7:0-255, and then read the entire data file into Excel.

      But I have to admit those who want really detailed Excel reports usually go with something like SyTech’s XLReporter or Ocean Data’s Dream Report.

      Sincerely,

      Shawn Tierney

      Join my free community to follow along! You can also become a member and support our work at: Automation.Locals.com

      • This rudimentary code may help as a seed for customizing your own. This example will log 7 tags every 3 seconds until a stop trigger is activated. The DDE/OPC links are on Sheet 2/Row 2 for live monitoring. The log data will be on sheet 1 with headers in the first row. Copy from “Public” to the end and paste it into the editor. I assigned macro buttons to the Start_Logging and End_Logging macros. Another option is to assign a tag to a cell and assign the cell value to the stop_log Integer.

        Public eTime As Date
        Dim stop_log As Integer
        Dim count As Integer

        Sub Logging()

        eTime = Now + TimeValue(“00:00:03”)
        Application.OnTime eTime, “Logging”, , True
        Sheets(“Sheet1”).Range(“A2:F2”).Offset(count).Value = Sheets(“Sheet2”).Range(“A2:F2”).Value
        count = count + 1

        ‘stop the procedure:
        If stop_log = 1 Then
        Application.OnTime eTime, “Logging”, , False
        count = 0

        End If

        End Sub

        Sub Start_Logging()

        stop_log = 0
        count = 0

        ‘ Clear data for next cycle
        Range(“A2:I30000”).ClearContents

        ‘ Jump to Logging macro
        Call Logging

        End Sub
        Sub End_Logging()

        stop_log = 1

        End Sub