V350-35-R34

[SteveC]

Hello all, I am new to the Unitronics experience, I am standarziing on the V350-35-R34 HMI/PLC. I have a Lift Station application where I run 2 pumps alternate on each sequence and utilize 4 floats, well I want to build a control panel interface via html and don't quite understand how to integrate with the internal webserver? How do I create my own custom webpages, then how to display the data I am getting from the I/O within the HMI/PLC to the webpage? How can I then display this remotely?? IE: can I connect a standard Ethernet cable from the onboad RS-485 port to a 5-port switch then connect it to a laptop and be able to access the remote webserver from within the plc via the Ethernet connection??

Make sense??

Things I am wanting to do is create webpage, be able to display data from plc to the custom webpage, then be able to access it thru a laptop into the internal web server of the plc and be able to browse the HMI/PLC via Internet Explorer or Firefox, etc and be able to manipulate my lift station in real time??

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Steve

[Joe Tauser]

One step at a time. Write your logic and get your pumps running with basic screens for local control. You do not need to think about the webserver (although I know you will) while you are doing this; it will work just fine when you are ready to add it.

First, you're going to have to buy a V100-17-ET2 Ethernet card and install it in your PLC. The RS232/485 port does not have magical powers. Then read the Help about initializing the card and giving it an IP address. You can then program the PLC over Ethernet.

Next, understand that there is a difference between the "built-in" webserver and the "advanced" webserver.

Start by reading the Help on the built-in webserver, and add it to your application. It's much simpler and will do what you're asking for in your post. Basically, you click on the little globe in the toolbar and fill out a row in a table for each data point you want to broadcast. You initialize one of the sockets to HTTP protocol and port 80 and you're done.

After you get Ethernet figured out and configure the built-in webserver, you will decide that it is boring and want to move up to the advanced webserver.

The advanced webserver requires that you start with a Unitronics locked application available for download from the support page. You make your own pages and load them onto an SD card that gets inserted into the PLC. The documentation that comes with the advanced download zip file does a good job of describing how to make it work.

Joe T.

[pascal]

hello Steve,

Like you can read what Joe is saying, you must 1st make the application without the advanced webserver, and then make the program again with the advanced webserver "locked" routines.

So I suggest that you make your 1st program already with the advanced webserver routines, otherwise I think you'll have some extra work doing this later, because you can't import or export the advance webserver routines because they're protected.

Don't get me wrong : make your program with the advanced routines in it, but just don't use them.

After your program is working, then you can go to the next step and implement the advanced webserver.

That's the way I'm doing it.

best regards,

Pascal

Why doing it easy if you can do it the hard way ?

[Joe Tauser]

Good point, Pascal. Your suggestion is definitely a better way to go about developing the application for use with the webserver, but the locked subroutines and data tables also add complexity for someone new to the brand. Without knowing Steve's background, I think it's more important that he focus on learning the memory structure and getting the control program working first. If all the logic is written in subroutines, it's easy enough to export them and the displays to the webserver app when he's ready.

Joe T.

[Simon]

Just following up on Pascal's comment:

I think you'll have some extra work doing this later, because you can't import or export the advance webserver routines because they're protected.

You can of course go the other way and export your own code from your initial program and imort it into a new Advanced Webserver project.

Just another option...

[Joe Tauser]

I'd like to update my reply to Pascal regarding starting with the webserver-

I've done some more examination of the webserver app and found that it uses MB's and MI's in the low range. The user will probably appropriate these addresses for other things in his own application. When you bring your logic into the webserver, there is a high possibility that you will stomp on webserver memory locations and wind up having to move addresses in your own logic.

To the Creators - please move all the MB's and MI's used for the webserver to somewhere above address 1000. This will lower this possibility to almost zero.

I therefore change my position to completely agree with Pascal that you should start with the webserver app if you plan on using the functionality in the future. New users will just have to suck it up and deal with the slight confusion of existing locked subroutines and data tables.

Joe T.