Welcome to the The Automation Q & A Podcast from The Automation Blog,
My name is Shawn Tierney, and in this my weekly Q&A podcast I answer several of the week’s questions answer that I’ve received at The Automation Blog, Forums and School.
In today’s episode we’ll talk about
– Logix programming naming conventions
– The disappearance of Power Prgramming
– Which Programmable Controller language is the most popular
– If it is possible to get data from a Micro800 to Excel
– If the PanelView Plus 6 supports release 10
– And how to send data from one PLC to Another
Listen to the Podcast:
Question) One of my ControlLogix students asked where he could find information about naming conventions for Studio 5000?
Answer) I would typically reference Rockwell’s “Power Programming” webpage when asked this question but curiosly they have all been taken down, even thoug several of Rockwell’s own online PDFs still link to them.
Fortunately after much searching I found that those naming conventions can still be found in Rockwell’s Logix5000 Controllers Design Considerations, with you can get to by going to http://TheAutomationBlog.com/LogixDesignMan
Question) One of my PLC Students asked me what is used more in Industry for programming: Ladder Logic or Function Block?
Answer) In my experience Ladder Logic still dominates the installed base of Programmable Controllers. But I’ve also found that most new systems use a mix of languages based on which language is the most suitable to the task. That said, over the last ten years I’d say Ladder still holds a lead over FDB, with Structured Text coming in third.
Question) A Micro800 student asked me if it was possible to send data from a Micro800 series PLC to Excel?
Answer) While I haven’t tried it myself, I do know that the Micro800 is supported in RSLinx Classic, and any licensed version of RSLinx Classic can serve that data to Excel, as I show in my article here. In addition to that, the Micro820 also has built-in data logging, and details about that can be found in the Micro820 manual on page 36 does dataloggigng page 106 in manual which you can find by going to http://TheAutomationBlog.com/Micro820Man
Question) A reader posted a question over at Automation.Locals.com asking is the Panelview Plus 6 supported the new “Automatic Alarm History to CSV” feature in FactoryTalk version 10?
Answer) The PanelView Plus 6 does support version 10 firmware, and the PVP6 v10 release notes do state that feature is supported.
Question) Another reader asked how he could send data from one SLC-500 to another SLC-500.
Answer) Previously on The Automation Minute I covered how to use the MSG instruction with the CompactLogix, which is very similar to the SLC-500. For details about the SLC-500 check out the SLC-500 Instruction Set Reference Manual which I link to at TheAutomationBlog.com/SLC500MAN
And that’s all the questions I wanted to share this week, now let’s talk about What’s New and Coming?
- The Automation Minute Seasons and Bundles for just 9.99 on Vimeo! Links to all the collections can be found at TheAutomationMinute.com/videos
- ViewSE Basics early access sale! New lessons on RSLinx Classic and Enterprise including directly reference as well as importing tags.
- On Monday Guest Blog by Oleksandr Husiev, the Lead Automation Engineer at Azov Controls on sharing data between S7 PLCs.
- Wednesday The Automation Podcast Demo Show is featuring a SkyCAD demo by the president of SkyCAD Systems.
Until next time, Peace ✌️
Shawn M Tierney
Technology Enthusiast & Content Creator
Have a question? Join my community of automation professionals and take part in the discussion! You'll also find my PLC, HMI, and SCADA courses at TheAutomationSchool.com.
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