In using Mango to monitor PLC values from an Automationdirect PLC via the Modbus IP protocol, we found that double word BCD values were coming in with the words read in reverse order.

We are able to overcome this by first converting the value to binary in the PLC and then reading the value in Mango as a '4 byte unsigned integer swapped'. However, it would be much more convenient to read this value without making changes to the PLC program.

Based on convention, I expect this would be described in Mango as '4 byte BCD swapped'.

Thanks,
BRAD

In using Mango to monitor PLC values from an Automationdirect PLC via the Modbus IP protocol, we found that double word BCD values were coming in with the words read in reverse order.

We are able to overcome this by first converting the value to binary in the PLC and then reading the value in Mango as a '4 byte unsigned integer swapped'. However, it would be much more convenient to read this value without making changes to the PLC program.

Based on convention, I expect this would be described in Mango as '4 byte BCD swapped'.

Thanks,
BRAD

Matthew -
Thanks for the reply. I guess what I was looking for in the first question is, what is the variable name I should reference in reportChart.ftl in order to display the datasource name? Also, if you can point me in the right direction to the .java file where the data is gathered for the jfree chart generator, I would appreciate it.

For anyone interested, I did come up with a possible alternative solution to my second question. It is required for all of the points to be updated at the same time to avoid the problem Matthew described, but it seems to work. A Mango publisher can be used to upload data to a Google spreadsheet. To figure out what variables to use, create a form in Google docs and look at the source code for the form. It will have the url to post to in the form action and the parameter names to use (namely entry.0.single, entry.2.single, etc.) Just remember to add a static parameter of submit=submit. I was hoping to do this in Mango natively, but this seems to work OK.

BRAD

@mlohbihler said:

Hi Brad,

1. Should be straightforward, and since this is done in other areas of the system it is also reasonable. On the consolidated chart the legend might start wrapping, but that's about as bad as anything would get.

2. Multiple trend reports (for lack of a better name, referring to a single timestamp and associated point values) are tricky because there may not be a value at a given time for a given point. What would the report look like if you selected, say, a point that updates every 5 seconds, and a point that updates every 5 minutes? There are certainly solutions to this problem (with a dash of "garbage-in-garbage-out" caveats), but suffice to say that this is not currently available in Mango.

We are using Mango (1.8.2) to monitor several systems and record some test data. There are two things I would like to do to augment reports:

1.) I would like to extend the freemarker template used for viewing charts to include the point's datasource name. Is this variable available to freemarker? The same change would be desired for the consolidated chart.

2.) Can the .csv export be modified to place the different data points in columns across the spreadsheet instead of having each datapoint sequential? The result being to have the timestamp in column A, first datapoint value in B, second datapoint value in C, etc.

If someone could point me in the right direction, it would be appreciated!

BRAD

We are using Mango (1.8.2) to monitor several systems and record some test data. There are two things I would like to do to augment reports:

1.) I would like to extend the freemarker template used for viewing charts to include the point's datasource name. Is this variable available to freemarker? The same change would be desired for the consolidated chart.

2.) Can the .csv export be modified to place the different data points in columns across the spreadsheet instead of having each datapoint sequential? The result being to have the timestamp in column A, first datapoint value in B, second datapoint value in C, etc.

If someone could point me in the right direction, it would be appreciated!

BRAD