I am looking for a bit of help on read/write to PAC Control using groov View on an EPIC controller.
The PAC control uses the Modbus integration kit to read/write data to a heating controller using Modbus RTU RS485.
The Modbus data is all integer format, so if a register for Temperature Setpoint has a value of 200, it actually means 20.0 Degrees!!
We move the data from the Slave into Integer tables in PAC Control. Problem 1
I can’t find a gadget in groov View that will enable me to display the 200 from the Integer table as 20.0.
Am I missing something here or do I need to use PAC Control to convert all these integers into floats and link gadgets to a float table? Problem 2
What is the best way of controlling the writing back to the slave using groov View?
Currently, albeit with an integer value, if we click on a gadget to set a new value, say 200 to 210, the value can get overwritten by the modbus read because we write the new value to the table index but the Modbus read then overwrites it before it is written to the slave.
Any thoughts and help would be greatly appreciated.
For problem 1, yes, you will need to convert the integers to floats.
For problem 2, before you do a new read, you will have to use some logic to compare the current value in the table to the last value that was read (perhaps a secondary table with a name like “last_read_value”). If the value in the table does not equal the last read, skip the read and do a write. Does that make sense?
I guess I was hoping that a gadget in View would enable me to display the value with a decimal point, but maybe that’s asking too much!!! Seems a shame as you can do this in PAC Display. In fact come to think of it there are lots of things in PAC Display that should be added to groov View, if this is the future of Opto’s HMI!!!
If he connects to the Modbus device w/ groov View directly, yes. I’ve been assuming he’s communicating with it via a serial connection from his controller, so groov View wouldn’t be able to help here.
