Viewing messages written on TPU [WebWare SDK]

RussD

A customer enquired about how they might be able to display operator messages that are being written programmatically from RAPID to the TPU.

Below are two possible methods for displaying TPUWrite commands remotely, one each for SDK and WebWare Server. The SDK approach requires 1 helper control instance per controller to be monitored, while the WebWare Server approach allows the user to monitor all of the controllers in their plant (though the data display will show one at a time).

The attached zip file contains a VB6 project demonstrating the SDK approach, and also includes a simple RAPID program that writes messages to the TPU and can be used with both methods.

SDK:

1. Declare TPU message strings as constants (a good practice anyway).

2. Set a PERS string variable = to the current message being displayed.

3. Subscribe to that variable with the Helper control and capture the StringVariableChanged event, then write message to the display.

4. Alternately, use the SCWrite command to send the message string to the PC, then handle the SCWriteEvent event.

WebWare Server:

1. Repeat steps 1-2 above.

2. Modify the robot alias profile in Interlink Configuration utility to subscribe to the string variable created in step 1.

3. Open the WebWare Server data page, then highlight the robot alias in the WebWare tree and select RAPID and the "String" filter.

4. The value will update as the value of the controller variable changes.

8EB_tpu.zip

RussD38068,9414236111