Industrial Automation Knowledge Base

Manage forced variables in a PLC program has been a challenge on the industry for decades. Ideally every plant manager wants a ZERO force policy but in real world this not possible and eventually a force must be put in place to ensure production KPIs. Then the challenge becomes how to manager those forces. The solution to manage forces is to give full transparency by showing the status of forced variables in a SCADA system where operation managers and maintenance managers could see and take the needful action to replace the damaged sensors and then removed the forces in the PLC program. This KB shows an easy way to manage forces through the OPC quality code by displaying it in the supervision system.

Issue Historically, picking a date in Citect has always been achieved using the Microsoft Date and Time Picker Control 6.0 Active X object that comes along with most Windows installation. However, as time progresses on, this Active X is no longer as popular as it used to be. Often, projects which uses the Active X, which are migrated from older systems into a new Windows 10 or above environment will fail on Compile. And installing the Active X is often difficult because it may require installing a whole bunch of un-related software just to get it. And many times, even with the Active X already in the environment, the project still does not Compile, or fail to run properly. Resolution There is an alternative to using Date and Time Picker Control 6.0 Active X and this article is to introduce how to use the Calendar Genie in lib_controls Library to do that. It will involve the implementation of a Callback Function, and this article explains how this is to be created and used.     Disclaimer The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Schneider Electric.