Ever wish you could create a project with optional hardware modules? Or add hardware in the field with any programming? Configuration Control within TIA Portal allows you to configure hardware modules and even I/O network objects to be optional so th...
For anyone who has spent much time working with the SIMATIC S7-400H, it becomes quickly apparent that the devil is often in the details. You find that there are many small settings and 'tricks' that you uncover while setting up redundancy, re...
It's back! When V13 SP1 was first released, one of the features I was most excited about was the ability to multiplex arrays of custom UDTs on a PLC using a simple index tag on an HMI. This feature allowed me to use a single faceplate or scree...
Recently, I found the need to create customizable text for some alarms in a TIA Portal project. In this particular case, I needed to include the name of the operator that was monitoring the machine for traceability, as well as some specific mach...
(With Apologies to Robert Lamm and The Chicago Transit Authority.) As I was walking down the street one day a man came up to me and asked me what the time was that was on my HMI time indicator, yeah, and I said: Uhhh...don't ask me. I seem ...
Manufacturers are rapidly increasing their capability to collect and analyze data. This data can be used to deploy KPI metrics, like OEE, providing real time and historical feedback on the productivity of manufacturing operations. This data can also ...
PLEASE NOTE: This blog was written using features available in TIA Portal V13 SP1 Update 1. Some of the functionality shown was removed in Update 3, specifically the ability to multiplex UDTs. Hopefully the rest of the information will be still be he...
Earlier this year (January 2015), Siemens released their latest service pack for the TIA Portal V13. This included updates to Step7 V13 SP1 and WinCC Comfort/Advanced V13 SP1, along with several others. Along with the WinCC V13 SP1 pack came the addi...
There is no global CTRL+F and Replace in WinCC v7.2 that catches everything at once, but there are a few tools that can help you accomplish the same thing. Let’s say we have a picture for Robot Defense. This picture has tags, tex...
As a Siemens Solution Partner, DMC is proud to have recently been recognized as a Siemens WinCC Specialist. WinCC Specialists are qualified experts who can implement complex SCADA projects using Siemens’ best practices. This prestigious acknowl...