The ### indicates that there is no proper data exchange or the number has too many digits to display.

Are there any of the PLC tags that are shown anywhere on the HMI? Have you excluded the case where the HMI and PLC is not properly communicating with each other? Are you making a connection between physical PLC and HMI?

I also observe that you are using M-bit memory. Are you sure you do not have overlapped memory? %MD4 occupies addresses %MB4 to %MB7 (or %M4.0 to %M7.7).

Then.. there are some security settings between HMI and PLC that came into play since TIA Portal V17. You did not mention what hardware and software you use.

qwazee

The ### indicates that there is no proper data exchange or the number has too many digits to display.

Are there any of the PLC tags that are shown anywhere on the HMI? Have you excluded the case where the HMI and PLC is not properly communicating with each other? Are you making a connection between physical PLC and HMI?

I also observe that you are using M-bit memory. Are you sure you do not have overlapped memory? %MD4 occupies addresses %MB4 to %MB7 (or %M4.0 to %M7.7).

Then.. there are some security settings between HMI and PLC that came into play since TIA Portal V17. You did not mention what hardware and software you use.

 My apologizes yes I am working on TIA Portal V17 with my HMI up to version 17 as well. I increased the number of digits still did not display.

I tried to select another PLC tag and add it to the HMI: A stopper sensor that if it has a Bool of 1 a motor would begin to turn something I can physically do. However, when switching the button from Off to On the event did not change the PLC tag value and therefore the motor did not turn. I think this must mean the connection between HMI and CPU is not happening correctly. Any ideas why?

My HMI is physically connected to my CPU 1215C DC/DC/DC through Ethernet cord. I also checked my Memory addresses. Some were overlapping namely the clock / system bit memory and another tag that were not related to the tags I was trying to put into the HMI. 

Thank you for your quick response!

For a test -
Modify the hardware configuration of the Step7 program. Change the firmware version of the PLC from V4.5 to V4.4 (or earlier). Change only the project; do not change the firmware loaded in the PLC. That means there will be a mismatch between the project and the actual firmware -- which is for the moment not a problem.

Thereafter make a study of:
Why is it not possible to establish a connection to a CPU with firmware version 2.9/4.5 from an HMI panel (Basic, Comfort or Unified) or WinCC Runtime Advanced V17 or lower?