FNL_ENG (Customer) asked a question.
We are new to Ignition, but have been using P2K for quite a while. Our normal setup is to use the C-More HMI for most applications. We have a larger project where we are going to use Ignition for our HMI and datalogging, etc. it seems that modbus/TCP is the recommended way to go about it.Is there a preferred way to create modbus tags that simplifies the tag creation in the PLC as well as in the HMI. This project employs numerous skid mounted cells, which all have their own PLC. I will have 8 separate PLCs scattered around the plant floor all communicating back to the Ignition PC in the control room. I expect to have 1000 to 2000 tags of most datatypes to read or write between the HMi and the PLCs. I'm not expert with modbus either, but it seems that modbus is indifferent to tag names. What have others done to streamline the tag creation, etc. If I am writing ladder code, and create a tag as I go, the tag creation dialog pops up automatically, but it doesn't allow for modbus addressing. I have to create the tag and then open the tag database, find the tag, and then enter the modbus address. Is there an easier way?
I'll let other users put in their creative ways to streamline tag creation in this scenario as a lot of our users have other methods to do this, but there is an easy shortcut to assign Modbus Start addresses to multiple tags using the Tag Database.
In Tag DB, select all of the tags you'd like to assign with a Modbus Start address, then right-click and select 'Auto Assign Modbus Addresses'. You can do this with any tag and tag data structure.
See the images attached for reference: