I am working on a dashboard (in Ignition Perspective on Ignition Edge, with the gateway running on a Groov EPIC) to track which lots are running on which lines in our clean room.
The idea is that there would be 1 barcode scanner per line, and an operator would scan the barcode on an assembly record before beginning a lot (then scan the barcode at the end of the lot to indicate that it is complete). The barcode would be generated at the same time as the assembly record and would contain the lot number and lot quantity.
What would be the best way to get data from the barcode scanner into Ignition Edge tags? I was thinking maybe a PAC control program to read the COM ports from the serial to ethernet converter (the converter is allegedly designed so that the COM ports are visible as if they were connected via RS-232), but I’m not sure if there’s a more straightforward way to do this. The production lines aren’t in close enough proximity to the EPIC to use a serial module and connect the RS-232 cable directly.
I like your plan, looks like the Advantech device has a server and client mode so you can poll from PAC Control if you prefer, or setup PAC Control to listen (where the Advantech is a client).
Another possibility would be to use a RS-232 to RS-485 converter to make the distance to where the EPIC is.
I have not used that exact Advantech box, but similar with PAC Control, in my case I ran the box in UDP mode and just opened a UDP listener in PAC Control and did some string handling in the chart as needed.
Once it’s in a tag name in the strategy, Ignition will pick it up easily.
By the way, the converter uses software that allows a Windows PC software to see the Ethernet connection as a virtual serial port so that any old-time software that needs to see serial data from the barcode can see it. You won’t need that feature in your case. (That software won’t run on the EPIC anyway.)
I’d stay away from pure serial; too many advantages to Ethernet. I know there are some Wifi scanners, but wifi and battery charging are things to carefully weigh up. I’ve not used them so am unsure they would present their data to the network.
Right now I have my EPIC connected to our company’s network through one of the EPIC’s ethernet ports (Ethernet 0).
If I have my Advantech device hooked up to our company’s network too, will I be able to listen to it in PAC? Or do I need to have my Advantech device connected to the EPIC’s other ethernet port?
As long as its on the same subnet, PAC Control will be able to open a comm handle to its IP and be able to connect with it.
That’s the beauty of Ethernet; no direct connection is needed; both devices just need to be on a reachable (routable) network.
EDIT, to test, use the PING tool in groov Manage to ensure the EPIC can ‘see’ the Adventech IP address.
Have you come across any examples in this forum or elsewhere of someone setting up a UDP listener in PAC Control?
I think I have everything set up on the Advantech side, and I have my PAC Control variables showing up in Ignition, but I’m not quite sure where to start in PAC control.
