Hi.
I am using RS485 to USB converter to connect my Omron CP2E-N20DR-A PLC and my computer. I have successfully read the data from data memory of PLC and can see it on my debug window at node-red.
Here's the visual representation of my progress..
Data read at the node red debug window
Now, I just want the data '1234' to be displayed onto the node-red dashboard. What should I do?
The v1 beta of node-red-contrib-omronfins has c mode nodes to assist with reading and writing serial commands. It would be great if you could test these out?
Hi, I thought that Omron Fins is only applicable for those connected using ethernet. But I have connected through RS485. Will the Fins protocol work for me also? I'm asking also because Fins connection node requires IP address, which can be found only using ethernet, as far as I know...
The beta version I have pointed you to contains C Mode nodes that generate the hostlink protocol strings that you pass to a serial request then you pass the response through another C Mode node to parse the data.
In essence, they are doing what you did except they simplify the creation of the protocol strings and extracting the response from the PLC into meaningful values (including any error replies)
Did you install the beta as explained in the post I linked to in my first response?
Did you restart node-red after installing?
Did you refresh the browser?
Thanks, found the nodes after installing them through Windows Powershell. Now I would like to know the way to use the function node, to write out the response from the PLC
You don't. That was a placeholder to indicate where the serial port node goes.
Here's my C-mode command setting:
where are you seeing 2 hexadecimal strings? I see a Data object with 2 16 bit values and an equivalent buffer containing the byte values.
So you want to "display" ( i assume on a dashboard) the hexadecimal value of the 16 bit integer returned from the PLC? So, if you read the readme you will see there is a companion node node-red-contrib-buffer-parser that can do pretty much everything you need to do with data.
As a tip, if you click the value msg.data[0] in the debug window, it will show you the hexadecimal equivalent of the decimal value 8721.
The readme has some info with regards PLC data formats...
Data formats and conversion
As I use multiple PLCs and didn't want to write boolean / 32bit / float / double functionality into each node (it's best to keep things atomic and good at what they do) so I wrote a separate second node for handling data conversions.
This node "node-red-contrib-buffer-parser" node-red-contrib-buffer-parser (node) - Node-RED is capable of pretty much anything you will need for this or any PLC that returns 16bit data or a NodeJS Buffer.
In essence, you pull a bunch of data from the plc in one go & convert it all in the buffer-parser node to almost any format you could wish for (bits, floats, 32bit signed / unsigned, byteswapping etc etc). It can do 1 or many conversions all at once. It can send a grouped item (object) or individual items with a
topicready for pushing your data directly from the PLC to MQTT.
Here is a demo...
[{"id":"e655a6aea0634b73","type":"buffer-parser","z":"6061813d087d6df4","name":"","data":"payload.buffer","dataType":"msg","specification":"spec","specificationType":"ui","items":[{"type":"int16be","name":"asInteger1","offset":0,"length":1,"offsetbit":0,"scale":"1","mask":""},{"type":"int16be","name":"asInteger12","offset":2,"length":1,"offsetbit":0,"scale":"1","mask":""},{"type":"hex","name":"asHex1","offset":0,"length":2,"offsetbit":0,"scale":"1","mask":""},{"type":"hex","name":"asHex2","offset":2,"length":2,"offsetbit":0,"scale":"1","mask":""}],"swap1":"","swap2":"","swap3":"","swap1Type":"swap","swap2Type":"swap","swap3Type":"swap","msgProperty":"payload","msgPropertyType":"str","resultType":"keyvalue","resultTypeType":"return","multipleResult":false,"fanOutMultipleResult":false,"setTopic":true,"outputs":1,"x":1830,"y":160,"wires":[["4ea4b17021893a18"]]},{"id":"fdee6645fb2c9d53","type":"inject","z":"6061813d087d6df4","name":"","props":[{"p":"payload"},{"p":"topic","vt":"str"}],"repeat":"","crontab":"","once":false,"onceDelay":0.1,"topic":"","payload":"","payloadType":"date","x":1510,"y":100,"wires":[["be79f96065e17c75"]]},{"id":"be79f96065e17c75","type":"function","z":"6061813d087d6df4","name":"Faking your PLC data","func":"msg.payload = {\n Data: [8721, 8721],\n buffer: Buffer.from([0x11,0x22,0x11,0x22])\n}\nreturn msg;","outputs":1,"noerr":0,"initialize":"","finalize":"","libs":[],"x":1590,"y":160,"wires":[["e655a6aea0634b73","4dfdc0a13fb6675b"]]},{"id":"4ea4b17021893a18","type":"debug","z":"6061813d087d6df4","name":"Parsed Data","active":true,"tosidebar":true,"console":false,"tostatus":false,"complete":"payload","targetType":"msg","statusVal":"","statusType":"auto","x":1910,"y":220,"wires":[]},{"id":"4dfdc0a13fb6675b","type":"debug","z":"6061813d087d6df4","name":"PLC Data","active":true,"tosidebar":true,"console":false,"tostatus":false,"complete":"payload","targetType":"msg","statusVal":"","statusType":"auto","x":1680,"y":220,"wires":[]}]
There’s a great page in the docs (Working with messages : Node-RED) that will explain how to use the debug panel to find the right path to any data item.
Pay particular attention to the part about the buttons that appear under your mouse pointer when you over hover a debug message property in the sidebar.
So for a text item, use `{{ msg.payload.xxx }}``` instead of the whole payload (which is an object containing multiple items.
[
{
"id": "ba40178493839cb7",
"type": "tab",
"label": "Flow 1",
"disabled": false,
"info": "",
"env": []
},
{
"id": "033c373046a2da30",
"type": "C-Mode Command",
"z": "ba40178493839cb7",
"name": "CP2E",
"plcSeries": "CSJP",
"hostNumber": 0,
"headerCode": "RD",
"p1": "0",
"p2": "12",
"p3": "",
"x": 270,
"y": 100,
"wires": [
[
"92dcb68ff10007a0"
]
]
},
{
"id": "64c03284f8f31ee0",
"type": "C-Mode Response",
"z": "ba40178493839cb7",
"name": "",
"x": 570,
"y": 100,
"wires": [
[
"dc2cec39514b5748"
]
]
},
{
"id": "91eb937ee4e89c68",
"type": "inject",
"z": "ba40178493839cb7",
"name": "",
"props": [
{
"p": "payload"
},
{
"p": "topic",
"vt": "str"
}
],
"repeat": "1",
"crontab": "",
"once": false,
"onceDelay": 0.1,
"topic": "",
"payload": "",
"payloadType": "date",
"x": 110,
"y": 100,
"wires": [
[
"033c373046a2da30"
]
]
},
{
"id": "4ba084247ffa13ea",
"type": "debug",
"z": "ba40178493839cb7",
"name": "debug 7",
"active": true,
"tosidebar": true,
"console": false,
"tostatus": false,
"complete": "payload",
"targetType": "msg",
"statusVal": "",
"statusType": "auto",
"x": 540,
"y": 280,
"wires": []
},
{
"id": "92dcb68ff10007a0",
"type": "serial request",
"z": "ba40178493839cb7",
"name": "",
"serial": "893956afe4c6c260",
"x": 400,
"y": 100,
"wires": [
[
"64c03284f8f31ee0"
]
]
},
{
"id": "4a9d8cb4d0c90c8c",
"type": "ui_text",
"z": "ba40178493839cb7",
"group": "efcc13e5a5b82fc5",
"order": 2,
"width": "2",
"height": "2",
"name": "",
"label": "Oven 1",
"format": "{{msg.payload.asInteger1[0]}}",
"layout": "col-center",
"className": "",
"x": 540,
"y": 320,
"wires": []
},
{
"id": "dc2cec39514b5748",
"type": "buffer-parser",
"z": "ba40178493839cb7",
"name": "",
"data": "payload.buffer",
"dataType": "msg",
"specification": "spec",
"specificationType": "ui",
"items": [
{
"type": "int16be",
"name": "asInteger1",
"offset": 0,
"length": 12,
"offsetbit": 0,
"scale": "1",
"mask": ""
},
{
"type": "hex",
"name": "asHex1",
"offset": 0,
"length": 2,
"offsetbit": 0,
"scale": "1",
"mask": ""
},
{
"type": "hex",
"name": "asHex2",
"offset": 0,
"length": 3,
"offsetbit": 0,
"scale": "1",
"mask": ""
},
{
"type": "hex",
"name": "hex3",
"offset": 0,
"length": 4,
"offsetbit": 0,
"scale": "1",
"mask": ""
},
{
"type": "hex",
"name": "hex4",
"offset": 0,
"length": 5,
"offsetbit": 0,
"scale": "1",
"mask": ""
},
{
"type": "hex",
"name": "hex5",
"offset": 0,
"length": 6,
"offsetbit": 0,
"scale": "1",
"mask": ""
}
],
"swap1": "",
"swap2": "",
"swap3": "",
"swap1Type": "swap",
"swap2Type": "swap",
"swap3Type": "swap",
"msgProperty": "payload",
"msgPropertyType": "str",
"resultType": "keyvalue",
"resultTypeType": "return",
"multipleResult": false,
"fanOutMultipleResult": false,
"setTopic": true,
"outputs": 1,
"x": 170,
"y": 360,
"wires": [
[
"4ba084247ffa13ea",
"4a9d8cb4d0c90c8c",
"f14369720473e9f7",
"34f847f2bbe15d3b",
"f022d5898a696ebf",
"0b2ad89132104852",
"042c5d8445576637",
"f77a6d4e6acb8a58",
"3e5216204600adf7",
"494dbbc109ff3992",
"3bcdec2a17238e0c",
"4be0a557693b5c35",
"5832bd24f1a404ad"
]
]
},
{
"id": "f14369720473e9f7",
"type": "ui_text",
"z": "ba40178493839cb7",
"group": "efcc13e5a5b82fc5",
"order": 3,
"width": "2",
"height": "2",
"name": "",
"label": "Oven 2",
"format": "{{msg.payload.asInteger1[1]}}",
"layout": "col-center",
"className": "",
"x": 540,
"y": 380,
"wires": []
},
{
"id": "03439064148ae32c",
"type": "ui_button",
"z": "ba40178493839cb7",
"name": "",
"group": "efcc13e5a5b82fc5",
"order": 14,
"width": "9",
"height": "1",
"passthru": false,
"label": "Reset",
"tooltip": "",
"color": "",
"bgcolor": "red",
"className": "",
"icon": "",
"payload": "",
"payloadType": "str",
"topic": "topic",
"topicType": "msg",
"x": 170,
"y": 400,
"wires": [
[
"f14369720473e9f7",
"4a9d8cb4d0c90c8c",
"34f847f2bbe15d3b",
"f022d5898a696ebf",
"0b2ad89132104852",
"042c5d8445576637",
"f77a6d4e6acb8a58",
"3e5216204600adf7",
"494dbbc109ff3992",
"3bcdec2a17238e0c",
"4be0a557693b5c35",
"5832bd24f1a404ad"
]
]
},
{
"id": "34f847f2bbe15d3b",
"type": "ui_text",
"z": "ba40178493839cb7",
"group": "efcc13e5a5b82fc5",
"order": 4,
"width": "2",
"height": "2",
"name": "",
"label": "Oven 3",
"format": "{{msg.payload.asInteger1[2]}}",
"layout": "col-center",
"className": "",
"x": 540,
"y": 440,
"wires": []
},
{
"id": "f022d5898a696ebf",
"type": "ui_text",
"z": "ba40178493839cb7",
"group": "efcc13e5a5b82fc5",
"order": 5,
"width": "2",
"height": "2",
"name": "",
"label": "Oven 4",
"format": "{{msg.payload.asInteger1[3]}}",
"layout": "col-center",
"className": "",
"x": 540,
"y": 500,
"wires": []
},
{
"id": "0b2ad89132104852",
"type": "ui_text",
"z": "ba40178493839cb7",
"group": "efcc13e5a5b82fc5",
"order": 6,
"width": "2",
"height": "2",
"name": "",
"label": "Oven 5",
"format": "{{msg.payload.asInteger1[4]}}",
"layout": "col-center",
"className": "",
"x": 540,
"y": 540,
"wires": []
},
{
"id": "042c5d8445576637",
"type": "ui_text",
"z": "ba40178493839cb7",
"group": "efcc13e5a5b82fc5",
"order": 7,
"width": "2",
"height": "2",
"name": "",
"label": "Oven 6",
"format": "{{msg.payload.asInteger1[5]}}",
"layout": "col-center",
"className": "",
"x": 540,
"y": 580,
"wires": []
},
{
"id": "f77a6d4e6acb8a58",
"type": "ui_text",
"z": "ba40178493839cb7",
"group": "efcc13e5a5b82fc5",
"order": 8,
"width": "2",
"height": "2",
"name": "",
"label": "Oven 7",
"format": "{{msg.payload.asInteger1[6]}}",
"layout": "col-center",
"className": "",
"x": 540,
"y": 620,
"wires": []
},
{
"id": "3e5216204600adf7",
"type": "ui_text",
"z": "ba40178493839cb7",
"group": "efcc13e5a5b82fc5",
"order": 9,
"width": "2",
"height": "2",
"name": "",
"label": "Oven 8",
"format": "{{msg.payload.asInteger1[7]}}",
"layout": "col-center",
"className": "",
"x": 540,
"y": 660,
"wires": []
},
{
"id": "494dbbc109ff3992",
"type": "ui_text",
"z": "ba40178493839cb7",
"group": "efcc13e5a5b82fc5",
"order": 10,
"width": "2",
"height": "2",
"name": "",
"label": "Oven 9",
"format": "{{msg.payload.asInteger1[8]}}",
"layout": "col-center",
"className": "",
"x": 540,
"y": 700,
"wires": []
},
{
"id": "3bcdec2a17238e0c",
"type": "ui_text",
"z": "ba40178493839cb7",
"group": "efcc13e5a5b82fc5",
"order": 11,
"width": "2",
"height": "2",
"name": "",
"label": "Oven 10",
"format": "{{msg.payload.asInteger1[9]}}",
"layout": "col-center",
"className": "",
"x": 540,
"y": 740,
"wires": []
},
{
"id": "4be0a557693b5c35",
"type": "ui_text",
"z": "ba40178493839cb7",
"group": "efcc13e5a5b82fc5",
"order": 12,
"width": "2",
"height": "2",
"name": "",
"label": "Oven 11",
"format": "{{msg.payload.asInteger1[10]}}",
"layout": "col-center",
"className": "",
"x": 540,
"y": 780,
"wires": []
},
{
"id": "5832bd24f1a404ad",
"type": "ui_text",
"z": "ba40178493839cb7",
"group": "efcc13e5a5b82fc5",
"order": 13,
"width": "2",
"height": "2",
"name": "",
"label": "Oven 12",
"format": "{{msg.payload.asInteger1[11]}}",
"layout": "col-center",
"className": "",
"x": 540,
"y": 820,
"wires": []
},
{
"id": "893956afe4c6c260",
"type": "serial-port",
"z": "ba40178493839cb7",
"serialport": "COM11",
"serialbaud": "9600",
"databits": "7",
"parity": "even",
"stopbits": "2",
"waitfor": "",
"dtr": "none",
"rts": "none",
"cts": "none",
"dsr": "none",
"newline": "\\n",
"bin": "false",
"out": "char",
"addchar": "",
"responsetimeout": "10000"
},
{
"id": "efcc13e5a5b82fc5",
"type": "ui_group",
"name": "",
"tab": "d6f687902eee7759",
"order": 2,
"disp": true,
"width": "9",
"collapse": false,
"className": ""
},
{
"id": "d6f687902eee7759",
"type": "ui_tab",
"name": "Home",
"icon": "dashboard",
"order": 1,
"disabled": false,
"hidden": false
}
]
Hi, I think I am able to read the data from Plc to be displayed to the node-red dashboard.
Agreed, found the specific msg.payload to display the data I needed...
Now, I would like to add some logic to the dashboard. For example, I want the oven text boxes to blink in either red or green colour.
Additionally, I want to plot the temperature vs time graph for all Ovens. Please suggest ways for this functions..
This is the sample which shows the oven number and the present temperature value at the ###. So when the oven is running, I want the oven button to flash in green. When the oven has completed its operation, I want the oven button to flash in red.
This is a separate conversation. You should really start a new thread (in the dashboard category), with a suitably relevant title - to permit right forum members to discover your dashboard question.
For the topic at hand, I believe that is now resolved & you should pick a post that you consider to be the solution and mark it as the solution
Clearly understood, thanks for your assistance 
This topic was automatically closed 14 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
Copyright OpenJS Foundation and Node-RED contributors. All rights reserved. The OpenJS Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of the OpenJS Foundation, please see our Trademark Policy and Trademark List. Trademarks and logos not indicated on the list of OpenJS Foundation trademarks are trademarks™ or registered® trademarks of their respective holders. Use of them does not imply any affiliation with or endorsement by them.
The OpenJS Foundation | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | OpenJS Foundation Bylaws | Trademark Policy | Trademark List | Cookie Policy
