Implementation Support

[jlbcontrols]

Moved here from the intro issue

Currently I have the Flintium gateway on my server. I am working on how to get my tags to show up correctly. I have my virtual PLC up and running and I can see some tags in the gateway but the designer doesn’t seem to be updating correctly.

I am still doing the Inductive University to help improve my knowledge. I was asked to give a “budgetary” amount of hours that it would take to convert the system over to Ignition, that is why I am trying to dual task implementing this portion as well.

[jlbcontrols]

Currently I have the Flintium gateway on my server. I am working on how to get my tags to show up correctly. I have my virtual PLC up and running and I can see some tags in the gateway but the designer doesn’t seem to be updating correctly.

@AdamBurns23 Were you able to follow the instructions for basic setup? Can you post some screenshots of the tags on your gateway/designer?

I am still doing the Inductive University to help improve my knowledge. I was asked to give a “budgetary” amount of hours that it would take to convert the system over to Ignition, that is why I am trying to dual task implementing this portion as well.

This is a pretty nuanced question, can you tell me a bit more about the conversion project that you're working on?

[AdamBurns23]

I was able to follow the basic setup. I found that the tags do not auto populate in the project. You need to bring them in to each project. I will add some screen shots when I get a chance. The dev server is currently down from some weekend work. I do not have a mySQL on my server yet. Does the mySQL have to be running for the Flintium to work?

My conversion project is of a current processing plant that purchased an old system that they would like to get up and running utilizing the Ignition HMI and historian. The old system was built mainly on PlantPAx. I do not have to use this format in the conversion but thought it might save me a bit of time if there were functions already built in the Ignition platform.

[jlbcontrols]

Does the mySQL have to be running for the Flintium to work?

A database is only required for historical trending, everything else will work without it. Also, it does not need to be MySQL, any database that Ignition supports may be used.

My conversion project is of a current processing plant that purchased an old system that they would like to get up and running utilizing the Ignition HMI and historian. The old system was built mainly on PlantPAx.

What version of PlantPAx is used on the old system? Flintium is based on version 4 (tested with v4.10.01) Roughly how many process objects (Motors, Valves, PIDs, Analog Inputs, etc) does the old system have? Does the current system use Ignition? Will you be migrating the old system to the current system's gateway?

[AdamBurns23]

It looks like it is using v3.5. The PLC will be rewritten as well as the HMI. I probably should have stated that as well in the beginning. Our process has 8 drives, 11 valves, 52 analog inputs, 5 PIDs. The current and old system will not be combined. There is a central server that is connecting to the server that I will have at the plant. I believe it was referenced as a hub and spoke structure.

Here is an image of what I see when I open the Reactor101. I can't seem to get rid of the red boxes even when I try to either add a tag or test run the designer.

[AdamBurns23]

Definitely having a sample program to go along with this would help. I figured out that I needed to have the ExampleTags in my PLC and then I got rid of the red boxes.

I will have to convert over the PLC tags to the PlantPax 4.1 AOI's. That shouldn't be an issue.

My next question would be how to I get all of these examples into my other server that I will be using for the customer? Can I just export all of these individually and then import them on the other server?

[jlbcontrols]

From your screenshot, it looks like you may have imported a lot of tags from your PLC "Controller:Global" and "Program:MainProgram". You should make sure to delete those folders or Ignition could get bogged down reading all those tags.

My next question would be how to I get all of these examples into my other server that I will be using for the customer? Can I just export all of these individually and then import them on the other server?

If your customer server is a clean Ignition gateway (nothing needs to be preserved) you can take a gateway backup and restore it on the customer server. Otherwise the easiest way is:

• Using the designer on the example server, export the Tags, UDT Definitions, and Tag Groups. Import using the designer on the customer server.
• Using the gateway webpage (or designer) on the example server, export the project. Import into the customer server.
• Setup your PLC
• Setup your Database (for historian functionality)
• Create an internal user source using the Ignition gateway webpage, called FlintiumUserSource. Add all the roles and users that are in the FlintiumUserSource on the example server.

[AdamBurns23]

The server is a clean Ignition gateway as far as I know. I believe that it is a new server for the plant but the parent company might put some of their stuff on it before I get a chance to add anything.

If I would like to just use the UDT definitions and functions Do I need to pull everything over? I don't believe I need the page examples just the blocks that make them. My thoughts were to take the Templates over to the new server with the UDT Definitions.

Is there security risk with having the FlintiumUserSource on the customer server? Are they needed if I am not using the example windows?

Thank you again for all the help. I really like how you guys have made all of this. Saving so many of us work.

[jlbcontrols]

If I would like to just use the UDT definitions and functions Do I need to pull everything over? I don't believe I need the page examples just the blocks that make them. My thoughts were to take the Templates over to the new server with the UDT Definitions.

The only parts that aren't needed are the example windows and FlintiumInst tags. You can just delete those if you don't need them. Most everything else is needed (or a replacement is needed).

Is there security risk with having the FlintiumUserSource on the customer server? Are they needed if I am not using the example windows?

Its just a regular user source that uses Ignition's internal database (default type of user source). It can be replaced with another user source, just make sure the project is configured to use the correct user source. The user source should have the same role names (or some work is needed). The templates themselves depend on the user source, not just the example windows.

Thank you again for all the help. I really like how you guys have made all of this. Saving so many of us work.

Thanks, happy to help! It works out well for me too. Its a great way to build contacts and find new business - just remember me when you find yourself with more work than you can handle :smile:

[AdamBurns23]

I am trying to add some new tags to see how I can create my own screens utilizing the blocks that are available. Entering tags does not seem to be working as well as I had anticipated. I am currently just coping the "example tags" and renaming them which is at least letting me not get the "error_configuration" message.

Is there a easy way to see the tag that is associated with the block? How do I know that the correct tag is mapped to the block? Here is an image of a motor that I put on my test screen. I think that it is mapped correctly to a P_VSD tag. Is the instancepath in the property window where I see the tag reference? When I try to change this I get an error.

[AdamBurns23]

If I hand enter the tag path to the instancePath then I get the values to come through. Is there a better way to do this so that you are not hand entering all the data?

[jlbcontrols]

Not sure how you tried setting it up, but heres a couple ways to do it.

• After you drop a template instance on your screen, right click on the tag tree, copy tag path, and paste into instancePath on the instance.
• Set up drop targets that allow you to just drag from the tag tree and pick the template type you want.

[AdamBurns23]

When I try the drop target function, I do not get the templates to come up.

I was able to use the "copy tag path" option to label the instance. That will save a bit.

Currently I am manually adding tags by hand in which I have to change the data types to string before I can enter the values in.

[jlbcontrols]

When I try the drop target function, I do not get the templates to come up.

They would need to be set up

Currently I am manually adding tags by hand in which I have to change the data types to string before I can enter the values in.

UDT instances are a separate concept from template instances. Here's a couple tips for UDT instances:

• First, the "Data Type" column should all be String by default. There may have been an issue importing the UDT definitions. You can edit the UDT definitions so the correct default types show up.
• The braced references in the "Value" column allow nested UDTs to inherit from their parents. That's why those defaults are in there. However, if you know ahead of time exactly what these parameters should be, and they won't change/don't need to be inherited, you can edit the UDT definitions to add your default values. Personally, I would just make one instance of each process object type, then copy/paste and change the plcTag parameter when you need to make a new one.
• There are more advanced ways that you can automatically generate UDT instances, but they don't buy you much.