Thank you Hati,

I can do that - but since "the other 15 bits" are not under my control how can I be sure that the "activated bit" is the "Bit 1" used in the Main operator HMI?

I made some VAT's () see screenshot for an example) that might help me in a similar way - but can I get the DBW shown as bits (0101010111100011) instead of DEC or HEX?

xmnj:

Why don't you make a test in the display, by creating 16 squares and add an animation to them. for each square, use the same tag in the visualization and assing a different bit to each square box starting from bit 0. That should give some light to your testing.

xmnj

 Thank you Hati,

I can do that - but since "the other 15 bits" are not under my control how can I be sure that the "activated bit" is the "Bit 1" used in the Main operator HMI?

I made some VAT's () see screenshot for an example) that might help me in a similar way - but can I get the DBW shown as bits (0101010111100011) instead of DEC or HEX?

xmnj:

Why don't you make a test in the display, by creating 16 squares and add an animation to them. for each square, use the same tag in the visualization and assing a different bit to each square box starting from bit 0. That should give some light to your testing.

 

 You can create a test tag just for this,  so that you can manipulate the bits how ever you want.

 Thanks again Hati,

I just tried this - see attached screenshots - but how do I get the "word value" into the WinCC simulator?

When I add tags it seems to be only the Boolean tag that are available.

Hati

 You can create a test tag just for this,  so that you can manipulate the bits how ever you want.

xmnj

 Thanks again Hati,

I just tried this - see attached screenshots - but how do I get the "word value" into the WinCC simulator?

When I add tags it seems to be only the Boolean tag that are available.

Hati

 You can create a test tag just for this,  so that you can manipulate the bits how ever you want.

 

 Why don't you use PLC Watch table? There you can see the PLC tag and it's value  in the desired way (DEC, HEX, BIN...) But i don't understand where you need the value for? If you are only trying to comprehend how the bits of a word tag are organized. One by one you can test with the simulator wich boolean bit of the tag is representing wich bit in the visualization tag.

Thanks you for answering again Hati,

It is very good of you and Jay to assist me in this - I promise I am not being deliberately stupid. :-)

I THINK I have said this previously - but there is a pretty strict policy of when we are allowed to go online on the PLC's on the major machines. To see the values I need to go online - so I need to do as much verification as I can BEFORE going online.

Apart from that - HOW do I get the VAT (watch table) to show the 16 individual bits instead of HEX or DEC?

VAT's does not neet to be downloaded to the PLC to work - right?

Naturally I want to understand how the bits of a word tag are organized BUT at the moment that has a practical use. I NEED to get the "Bit 1" value (see the attached screenshot) of a number (30-35) of 16 bit words where the other 15 bits can also change.

As you know - I HAVE tried using DBX1.1 for DBW0 Bit 1 and this does not seem to be correct. I am going to try DBX1.0 soon - but I WOULD have liked if I could simulate this instead of guessing (like I can with the boolean signals with the "WinCC Advanced Runtime Simulator" I had in the previous screenshots.

Hati

Why don't you use PLC Watch table? There you can see the PLC tag and it's value  in the desired way (DEC, HEX, BIN...) But i don't understand where you need the value for? If you are only trying to comprehend how the bits of a word tag are organized. One by one you can test with the simulator wich boolean bit of the tag is representing wich bit in the visualization tag.

xmnj

Thanks you for answering again Hati,

It is very good of you and Jay to assist me in this - I promise I am not being deliberately stupid. :-)

I THINK I have said this previously - but there is a pretty strict policy of when we are allowed to go online on the PLC's on the major machines. To see the values I need to go online - so I need to do as much verification as I can BEFORE going online.

Apart from that - HOW do I get the VAT (watch table) to show the 16 individual bits instead of HEX or DEC?

VAT's does not neet to be downloaded to the PLC to work - right?

Naturally I want to understand how the bits of a word tag are organized BUT at the moment that has a practical use. I NEED to get the "Bit 1" value (see the attached screenshot) of a number (30-35) of 16 bit words where the other 15 bits can also change.

As you know - I HAVE tried using DBX1.1 for DBW0 Bit 1 and this does not seem to be correct. I am going to try DBX1.0 soon - but I WOULD have liked if I could simulate this instead of guessing (like I can with the boolean signals with the "WinCC Advanced Runtime Simulator" I had in the previous screenshots.

 Have you heard of PLCSIM? With that additional software to TIA Portal, you can simulate the PLC program without real hardware.

About the watch table, you can write to each row an absolute address like:

%DB500.DBX480.0

%DB500.DBX480.1

%DB500.DBX480.2

...

%DB500.DBX481.7

And after this, you can start playing around.

 Thank again Hati,

I have only tried using PLCSIM in the TIA Portal only a little bit there.

In this case I need to use it in Simantic Manager (classic S7) since that is where the PLC is programmed. 

PLCSIM IS however installed for both TIA and Simatic Manager so I guess I can find out how to use it - do you have any hints and/or links to a good "for dummies" manual?

As I have also shown previously - I understand that I can add the Boolean signals and even the words (and much more) to the VAT (see screenshot again) but I don't know how to get the word(s) in other formats than DEC or HEX?

Hati

 Have you heard of PLCSIM? With that additional software to TIA Portal, you can simulate the PLC program without real hardware.

About the watch table, you can write to each row an absolute address like:

%DB500.DBX480.0

%DB500.DBX480.1

%DB500.DBX480.2

...

%DB500.DBX481.7

And after this, you can start playing around.

xmnj

As I have also shown previously - I understand that I can add the Boolean signals and even the words (and much more) to the VAT (see screenshot again) but I don't know how to get the word(s) in other formats than DEC or HEX?

 

 I don't understand why do you want to get the word tag to a different format? You don't need to, to be able to test this.

Don't you have any colleagues who you can ask advice from? I really like to exchange experiences with colleagues and ask for advice from the if i don't find the "answer" by my self.

Thanks again Hati,

I know what you mean - I like that too. But it is available in general not so much and not at all in the next 2 weeks.

Normally there is my boss (but he has not worked much with the PLC's or HMI's the last many years - most of his experience is from S5. There is also my coworker but his experience with Siemens S7 and especially TIA is limited, And they also both have a lot of other tasks to handle.And for the next 2 weeks they are both on vacation.

Then we have a vendor (a certified Siemens integrator) that handles the major programming tasks but they do these things from their office and it is not easy to ask many questions (of this nature) from them.

But I understand that you also need to take care of your own job and I thank you for the help so far.

Hati

I don't understand why do you want to get the word tag to a different format? You don't need to, to be able to test this.

Don't you have any colleagues who you can ask advice from? I really like to exchange experiences with colleagues and ask for advice from the if i don't find the "answer" by my self.

 When you test it, you will get the exact thing. Without testing it is always a guess work. Might be this might be that might be something else. So better start testing to get the result you need.

Thanks,

Jay

xmnj

Thanks again Hati,

I know what you mean - I like that too. But it is available in general not so much and not at all in the next 2 weeks.

Normally there is my boss (but he has not worked much was the PLC's or HMI's the last many years - most of his experience is from S5. There is also my coworker but his experience with Siemens S7 and especially TIA is limited, And they also both have a lot of other tasks to handle.And for the next 2 weeks they are both on vacation.

Then we have a vendor (a certified Siemens integrator) that handles the major programming tasks but they do these things from their office and it is not easy to ask many questions (of this nature) from them.

But I understand that you also need to take care of your own job and I thank you for the help so far.

Hati

I don't understand why do you want to get the word tag to a different format? You don't need to, to be able to test this.

Don't you have any colleagues who you can ask advice from? I really like to exchange experiences with colleagues and ask for advice from the if i don't find the "answer" by my self.