Hi everyone,

I’d like to know if it’s realistic to use a Siemens S7-1200 with WinCC Advanced to log around 50 different values every 500 ms for about 10 minutes and save them in a CSV file with timestamps.

Can this be done reliably without slowing down the PLC or losing data? I’m curious if anyone here has experience with this kind of fast data collection and whether it’s better to use CPU DataLogs, HMI archives, or another approach. Any feedback, tips, or examples from your projects would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks !

Murof

Hello AutoGen_2558162

The WinCC Advanced RT has a limit for a tag logging archive for 500.000 values

so 50*500ms*10 min -> are only 60.000 values, so should work at least with one archive (and you would also be able to use more archives)

So the Advanced RT should work for this requirement

Bye Murof

Hi Murof,

Thanks a lot for your reply! That’s reassuring to hear.

I have a follow-up question: do you think it’s better to implement the data collection logic in the PLC (so that the PLC controls the HMI to generate the CSV file), or would it be feasible to handle everything directly in the HMI with a single script?

What I mean is a script running on the HMI that manages the entire data collection: creating a table over time with a fixed sampling interval (e.g., 0.5 s) and storing up to ~50,000 data points in real time all of this in one CSV file.

In your opinion, would this approach be realistic and reliable?

Thanks again for your insights!