Tasks: Display instantaneous values

Tasks: Display instantaneous values

As of version 4.6 R6, you can also display instantaneous values in Excel sheets and automatically update them periodically. Instantaneous values are for example measured values that the bus master reads from connected devices. They are provided to the Excel add-in by visual energy 4 using an http web service. Unlike when using OPC, you do not have to make any special DCOM settings with this method.

Instantaneous value configuration

Instantaneous value configuration

To display instantaneous values with the Excel add-in, perform the following configuration steps:

  1. Open the project window and activate the 'Live values' tab: To add a configuration sheet to the current file, click on the second button: 

     
  2. Now, enter the desired data points in the rows under the heading of the 've4LiveValue' sheet created. Please do not rename the sheet, as the add-in cannot process the data points if you do.
    • Name DP: A free description to identify the data point.
    • Worksheet: Enter the designation of the target worksheets in which the data point should be displayed.
    • Col: The column in the target worksheet in which the data point should be displayed.
    • Row: The row in the target worksheet in which the data point should be displayed.
    • ItemID: The unique data point ID. How to determine the data point ID...
    • ServerID: The unique ID of the supplying bus master. How to determine the master ID...
    • Formatted: True or False. Defines whether or not the return value is returned formatted (true) or as the original value (false).
       
  3. If all required information on the data points has been entered, the latter can be added to the periodic update list by clicking on the  button. Any errors detected (for example missing or wrong sheet names) are highlighted in red and are not accepted.

Detect the master and data point ID

Detect the master and data point ID

  1. Login to the visual energy 4 website and open the distribution page that contains the required data point. You may create a temporary distribution with a drawing object, which you have to delete after finishing the configuration.
  2. Select the drawing object and open the settings page. In the data point definition, use the 'Details' link:

     
  3. In the following dialog, select the data point ID (ExcelID) and copy your selection into the Excel sheet using the clipboard. Repeat the copy process for the server ID:

     
Start/stop refresh

Start/stop refresh

As soon as the list of the instantaneous values that are to be displayed contains valid entries in the project window, you can update them by clicking on the button highlighted in the figure below:


 

A safety prompt is displayed, notifying you that you cannot edit Excel sheets in live mode:


 

The LED changes to green and the add-in tries to determine the data points via bus master and to display them in a specified sheet in the desired location: