Importing .txt or .csv files

[56flyboy]

I need a completely automated solution for sending a .csv (or .txt) file to a V350 that can then be imported into a Data Table.

This has to happen without human intervention.

 

The .csv file would be in the same format as the Data Table.

 

Ideally the V350 would be able to grab a file from an FTP server and write it to SD Card, then read the file and write it

to a Data Table.

 

I'm surprised that there is not a solution like this, as it would be a common requirement to read in a recipe in

automated fashion for example.

Any ideas?

 

Many thanks ....

Kurt

[Alexander]

If you are looking to transfer a complete file to a V350 it would need to be placed on the SD card. This would require a person to manually perform this action using our SD card suite to remotely connect to the controller, or by copying the files to an SD card installed within a PC then placing it into the V350. Please note that in order for our controllers to be able to read the information from a file on an SD card it must be in data table format (.udt).

 

Unfortunately at this time we do not have a method for transferring an entire file to an SD card without requiring operation action.

 

It is possible to transfer already active information from one PLC’s tables to another in an automated fashion using the Modbus data table functions, however the file must already be contained with the PLC.

 

It is also possible to use Modbus or another accepted protocol to transfer information to one of our controllers and store it within one of the operand vectors. A device or program would need to use this protocol to send the controller any required information. This would also require our controllers being set up to receive the information and then write it into a table row by row sequentially.

 

Another possibility is to use the DLL communication driver to communicate directly with the PLC data tables – write & read directly from a PC application to the PLC. This can be found on our website at:

 

www.unitronics.com > Support Page > Downloads > Communication and Development

 

There are two available communication tools – Active X component DLL (written under VB6) and .NET driver. Both these tools come with detailed, well described examples. 

[56flyboy]

I am not using a PC for this; I am using another PLC - in this case Opto 22.

 

I have tried communicating via PCOM using both binary and ASCII protocols shown in the PCOM manual.
I have not been able to get either to work.

I can see that the two establish a connection (socket 2), but the V350 does not respond to the query.

For the ASCII version, I just tried the simple "Read Real Time Clock", which is "RC".

 

Is there anything else I have to do on the V350 side to prepare it for PCOM communications?

Does this work only over a particular port on ethernet?

 

Thanks for your help

 

Kurt

[mikecbmc]

Any chance Unitronics would develop a direct visologic tool to enable direct imports of excel files into data tables based on PLC triggers?  I am using macros and DDE now to perform this task however I'd like to be able to pull this data without macros or higher level programming. 

 

Thanks.