RSLogix 5000 Tips and Tricks: Part 1

RSLogix 5000 Tips and Tricks: Part 1 In this lab we will examine some tips and tricks in RSLogix5000. Some of these are brand new. Others have been around a while, but have been virtually unknown by the masses. Any RSLogix5000 user will realize productivity gains by using these tips and tricks. Key Topics Covered in this Lab: Tag filters Viewing routines: split window vs. new window Critical keyboard shortcuts Tag Filters Commented [JC1]: A couple more items I thought of 1. Printing. There is a lot of flexibility with printing that I ve discovered most users are completely unaware of. It is so context-sensitive that it is difficult for the user to grasp. We re providing a simplified interface in v13 but the context sensitive printing will still remain in tact. Let me know if you d like to discuss this more. 2. The String Browser. It is available from the Data Monitor for a String tag. I can elaborate if you want but you might already cover it in one of your existing labs. It s a pretty slick little browser. Even though these have been around for a while, many are not familiar with tag filters. 1. Double click the Tips_and_Tricks.acd file in the HOT2003 folder on your desktop, close the Tip of the Day. 2. Press the Alt key, which will highlight File in the 5000 main menu. 3. Use the Right Arrow key over to Communications and press the Down Arrow. 4. Who Active is selected, because it is at the top of the list. Press enter to bring up the Who Active window. 5. Down Arrow to the AB_KTC driver and press the Right Arrow to expand it. 6. Down Arrow to the CNB at node 6, press the Right Arrow to expand it. 7. Continue using those arrows until you have selected the controller in slot 1 of your 10 slot ControlLogix chassis. 8. Use the Tab key to tab over to the Download button, and press enter. 9. Press enter at the Download dialog box in order to download. As with any dialog, the Tab key works here to move from button to button. Page 1 07/19/16

10. Put the controller into RUN (you don t need the mouse, you can use Alt type the letter C type the letter R Enter). 11. At this point, you could right click on Controller tags and click on Monitor Tags in order to monitor the tags. But did you know there is a Right Mouse Click Equivalent key on most keyboards nowadays? On the right hand side of the keyboard, find the long SHIFT key. Directly underneath it are two keys. One is the Ctrl key, the other has a pointer and a menu on it. That key is the Right Mouse Click Equivalent. This key works great with RSLogix5000. It works just about anywhere in most software where a Right Mouse Click is required. If your keyboard doesn t have this key, Shift+F10 does the same thing. You should still have Controller tips_and_tricks selected in the Controller Organizer. Arrow down to Controller Tags press the Right Mouse Click Equivalent key arrow down to Monitor Tags press Enter. Notice, no mouse was needed for any of these steps. However, the intent of this lab is to minimize use of the mouse, not to eliminate it completely! From here on out, whenever the instructions say right click, that means with the mouse, OR with the special right click key, OR with Shift+F10. 12. Notice that there are four timers in the Controller tags (not too easy to find, are they?). We want to see how the values of these timers relate to each other. Expand each of the timers so that you can see their accumulated values. Using this method of expanding the tags, you wouldn t be able to see all the pertinent tags at one time. If only 5000 could give that nice list that RSLogix5 and 500 gives when you look at a Timer Data File. Collapse the timers so that you see all the controller tags. 13. Click on the Show: dropdown in the top middle of the tags screen: Page 2 07/19/16

14. Using another neat RSLogix 5000 trick, hit the t on your keyboard. This will take you to the t s in the list. This trick works in most places in Windows (Explorer, Select Data Type as you are creating a new tag, etc) 15. Since tank is the first t in the list, hit t again, you are taken directly to Timer. Hit enter. The window now looks like: 16. The display for arrays is pretty good, too. Select Controller Scoped DINTs and expand dint_array: 17. Notice that there are 8 columns. The number of columns can be changed. Click on Tools Options Tag Display. 18. Set Number of Columns to 12. 19. Select Space Evenly. Page 3 07/19/16

20. Click OK. The display is very readable, isn t it? 21. The above demonstrated feature is called the Value Only Display Mode. It is available for Timers, Counters, Strings and Arrays of type BOOL, SINT, INT and DINT. Under Show:, select type tank, our UDT. The window looks like this: So, with UDT s, you would still need to expand each tag to see its members. There is another way to get to the screens for monitoring just a certain type of tag. Currently, only the tanks are being monitored. Let s see another way to go back and monitor the DINTs again. 22. Click on the word Predefined (not the + sign) at the Predefined folder under Data Types, and expand it by using the Right Arrow key. 23. Use the Down Arrow to get to the DINT data type and use the Right Click Equivalent button on the DINT data type: Page 4 07/19/16

24. Use the Down Arrow to get to Monitor Tags and press the Enter key. Using the Data Types tree is just another way to get to the same data monitor screen, but it automatically sets the Show filter to the data type selected in the Controller Organizer. 25. Go offline (so we ll be able to modify a UDT). 26. Go back to monitoring the tanks instead of the DINTs. 27. Expand first_tank. Notice that there is data in its members. 28. Right click on tank under User-Defined, which is under Data Types in the Controller Organizer window: Page 5 07/19/16

29. After you right click on tank, click on Properties. 30. Go to the blank line (the last line) under Members: and add a member named mixture_type of the DINT data type (always try to use DINTs instead of INTs or SINTs, for performance reasons). 31. Click OK at the bottom of the screen to close the window. Our UDT now has 5 members instead of four. 32. Monitor the tag first_tank and expand it so you can see all its members. Notice that all the data is still there. Big deal, you say? You would expect the data to still be there? Yes, you would, but that is not the way it has been in the past. Previous to V12, you would get some of the warnings below. If you didn t get the second warning, your data may or may not get set back to zero: Page 6 07/19/16

Losing data when modifying the structure of a UDT is no longer a concern in V12. 33. Go back online, download your newly modified program. 34. So, now you ve been writing logic til all hours of the night and you can t remember which tags you ve already used in the program and which you haven t. Click on Show: again and scroll all the way up to the top. In the list directly under Show All is Unused. Double click Unused to see a list of all the Controller Scoped unused tags. Now go over to the Scope: drop down box and select Main Program. Notice that now it shows the Program Scoped tags, remembering that all you wanted to see were the Unused tags. 35. RSLogix 5000 also gives you a way to view multiple Tag Editor/Data Monitor windows simultaneously. Only one window per scope but more than two scopes. For instance I can have a window showing controller tags, another showing Program1 tags, another showing Program2 tags, etc. Again, click Tools Options Tag Display. 36. Select the box for Create New Window When Changing Tag Collection. Page 7 07/19/16

37. Click OK. 38. You should still be looking at your Program Scoped tags. Select Show All. 39. Now, change the scope to Controller Scoped tags. If your tag monitor window is maximized, you might not see it, but your Program Scoped tags window is still on the screen. If you cannot see both, then un-maximize the tag monitor window and arrange your tag monitor windows as shown below: The Create New Window when Changing the Tag Collection checkbox gives you a new window when you change scope, but not when you Show: a different Type of tag. In other words, if you are showing DINTs and you change to showing TIMERs, Page 8 07/19/16

you will not get a new window for both DINTs and TIMERs (based on different collections or scopes of tags nothing else) Viewing Routines Remember when we wanted to look at the behavior of different timers in the tag monitor screen? Let s say we wanted to see how those timers were interacting in the actual ladder logic code. Only problem is, those timers are no where near adjacent in the logic. 40. Double click on the Main Routine and maximize. 41. Move your cursor to the top of the ladder routine so that the cursor looks as shown below (Can also activate using the Window -> Split menu item): 42. Hold down the left mouse button and move the mouse toward the bottom of the screen. 43. In the lower ladder window, move down to the bottom rungs of the logic. We can now see the operation of timers at both the top of the ladder and the bottom of the ladder, even though there might be hundreds of rungs in between. Cannot remove split using menu. Must select split getting the split cursor and drag it either all the way up or down, either way it doesn t matter. Page 9 07/19/16

44. That s nice, but what about viewing two different routines at the same time? Select Window New Window. 45. If your ladder logic is maximized, un-maximize it. You can now see that there are two separate windows of ladder logic opened up. Select one of these windows and click on another routine, such as cam_modifier. Now both routines can be arranged any way you want so that they can be clearly viewed: 46. While we are viewing these routines, let s look at a useful mouse shortcut. Right click on any routine tab, and you get a whole list of things you can do. This is just another way to get to these functions. Page 10 07/19/16

Critical Keyboard Shortcuts 47. Click on Help Contents Contents tab double click Navigating the Software double click Navigating the Software again Use the Keyboard. This shows you all the keystrokes that can be used without a mouse. We ll go through only the most important of these. Programmers who use the software every day don t generally like to use a pointing device. They like to use the keyboard as much as possible. 48. After you take a look at the Use the Keyboard window, minimize it for later reference, or close it altogether. 49. Click on the different headings in the menu bar. Notice that keyboard shortcuts are listed along with the selections: Page 11 07/19/16

Version 13 will also show the corresponding button icons to the left of the menu item. 50. Click on the routine window that has two tabs at the bottom of it. Double click on the CLEAR_CAM routine on the left hand side in the controller organizer. Now there are (3) tabs in the selected routine window. Press Ctrl+Page Down and Ctrl+Page Up. These will take you through the tabs, in this case the routines, at the bottom of the routine window. 51. Click on the Controller Properties button, as shown below: That is a neat little button in and of itself. But why is it really needed? Is it really that much better than right clicking on the Controller and selecting Properties? Is it really that much better than clicking on Online/Offline and selecting Controller Properties? The reason that this button exists is that some users expect to be able to double click on the Controller and have the Properties page come up. But, the Controller is a folder, so double clicking it either expands or contracts the folder, which is standard Windows operation. So, this button is just another easy way to get to the Controller Properties. 52. Now that Controller Properties is opened, use Ctrl+Page Down and Ctrl+Page Up to navigate through all those tabs. Here you really see the usefulness of these shortcut keys. Ctrl+Page Down and Ctrl+Page Up take you through a set of tabs anywhere tabs appear in the RSLogix 5000 user interface (or most Windows applications for that matter). 53. There should still be at least (3) RSLogix5000 views opened: the Controller Properties and (2) routine windows. Press Ctrl+Tab and Shift+Ctrl+Tab to scroll through the different windows. This is similar to the Alt+Tab feature of Windows. Page 12 07/19/16

54. Go offline. 55. Click on your ladder routine. 56. Press Alt+Insert. This brings up the following dialog box: 57. Notice that the Type Ahead feature works in this box, as it does when you type tag names, etc. Type Ahead also works in the Tag Browser, where it is perhaps the most useful. 58. Type an x and you are taken to the Booleans, many of which start with x. 59. Clear the x and type a t and you are taken to the timer elements. You can keep typing to get to a specific element. Example, tof will select the Timer Off Delay element. 60. Select a ladder element and click OK to place it in the selected location. 61. Click on the CLEAR_CAM structured text routine. 62. Type Alt+Insert. Because we are now on a structured text routine, the window that appears is for structured text elements. Type a p to go straight to the PID. Alt+Insert will give you the available elements for whatever language you are on. This works for all (4) languages. If you go to the main menu Edit Add Element, you get the same result. Page 13 07/19/16

63. Go back online by uploading the program. We don t want to save any changes since we were last online. 64. Monitor rungs 5 & 6 of the main routine. 65. Monitor the controller scoped Booleans, but don t right click on Controller Tags in order to get there. Use the Data Types folder as described earlier (Data Types folder Predefined right click on BOOL Monitor Tags). 66. Adjust the windows so you can see both the logic and the tag monitor: Page 14 07/19/16

Why are there 12 columns for these Booleans? Because we set up 12 columns in order to look at our array of DINTs. We won t change this again now, but how could we change it? Previosly, we went through the main menu, but we could right click on the Main Routine tab at the bottom of our logic, then select Options, then Tag Display. Alternately, the user can right click anywhere in the Tag Editor/Data Monitor grid and select the Options menu item. The advantage here is it automatically takes you the Tag Display category. 67. Now that you can see the logic and the tag editor, click on the tag name, time_to_run and press Cntl+T. This will toggle the bit from 0 to 1. 68. Press Cntl+T again to toggle back to a zero. 69. Now click on the bit in the ladder logic. 70. Press Cntl+T a few times to see that the bit will also toggle from the ladder logic. Cntl+T works in ladder and FBD. 71. Click on 6 of Rung #6. 72. Press Cntl+D to edit the rung comment. 73. Type something clever like How this rung works 74. You can t enter the comment by pressing the Enter key because that will just take you to the next row of the comment. You could click on the green checkmark, but we are trying to avoid using the mouse, which really just slows you down. Press Ctrl+Enter to enter the comment. Actually, pressing Enter, Enter, Enter (3 times) gives the same result. Page 15 07/19/16

75. Ctrl+Enter also works to give descriptions to operands. Click on the time_to_run bit. After this program had been running a while, it was decided that more description had to be added to this bit. 76. Press Cntl+D, but this time to edit the operand description. 77. Add the following description, using Ctrl+Enter to enter the description. In general, Ctrl+Enter can be used in a number of places, to apply modifications. Ctrl+D and Ctrl+Enter often work together 78. Click on the [End] rung. 79. Type the following line of logic: Page 16 07/19/16

80. Press the Enter key. 81. These tags are yet to be defined. We want to define them as Controller Scoped, Boolean, Base tags. Rather than right clicking on each of them, use the arrow key to move on top of some_other_tag. 82. Once some_other_tag is highlighted, press Ctrl+W to launch the new tag dialog. 83. Press the Enter key. 84. Use the arrow key to move to the output tag and go through the same drill. Notice, the mouse was not needed to create new tags using Ctrl+W. You do not have to be on an undefined tag to use Ctrl+W. You can use it from just about anywhere. 85. Want to hide the Controller Organizer to see a lot more code? You do not need to manually move windows. You can hide it using View in the main menu. Better yet, try typing Alt+0 (zero, not the letter O ). Press Alt+0 a few times, you see that you can toggle the Controller Organizer on and off. 86. For this next set of keystrokes, make sure you can see the Errors-Search-Watch pane below your routines: 87. Press Alt+1, then Alt+2, then Alt+3 and you can see how you can scroll through those three tabs. Press any one of those keystrokes twice in a row and you ll turn Page 17 07/19/16

that pane off. Make sure you are on the Search Results tab by pressing Alt+2. Press Alt+2 again to turn it off, then Alt+2 yet again to turn it back on. Note the Watch Pane that Alt+3 gives you. This is basically a tag monitor beneath the routine. It was added specifically for monitoring the tags of Structured Text routines, so it was new in V11. However, it also provides tag monitoring in any language, not just STs. This Pane will grow in functionality in future releases, e.g. Custom Data Monitor. There are lots and lots of Tips and Tricks to use in RSLogix 5000. This was just Part 1! Page 18 07/19/16