Building a VI with Ethernet/IP to AB ControlLogix

[phuz]

Hello, I am very new to Labview, but have been doing industrial controls for 11 years.  I am no stranger to these systems, but have a project where I am creating an HMI using Labview.  I am using 2015 with the Ethernet/IP driver.  It includes the examples for reading/writing to a SLC500 and to a ControlLogix and I was able to get those samples to work, but for starters, I want to create a single pushbutton (NOT an array) and I am already having trouble doing that.  If I create a boolean pushbutton, I have to make it an array to work with the BOOL Ethernet/IP object, and it would be tacky for me to leave that on the VI when we won't be using it.  Otherwise, it gives me an error.  I tried to go into the BOOL object and modify it under the block diagram, but the block editor for the BOOL object is password protected.  (Why would this be for a piece of software we paid for?)

Anyway, some pointers would be wonderful, or even a tutorial would be great (which I have not been able to find).  I would even take some samples if anyone has some they want to share.  

Thanks in advance.

[karupinwendy]

Hi phuz,

I believe you are more familiar with the EtherNet/IP protocol than me. I mean 11 years, wow! So I won't try to look at this problem from protocol's point of view.

If I did not understand your problem wrong, is it the thing that bothers you that you want to show only one pushbutton when you have to define a array to interface with the API, actually you can change the display to only one button even if you have defined a array. Below are two same bit data array input of the "EthernetIP SLC500 Write VI". But you can display it as a single button through settings.

Maybe I am interpreting your problem wrong. Or could you give me your VI for me to understand your problem better?  Thanks!

BTW please allow me to explain a little bit why we haven't exposed the base code of the objec. I believe it is for the customer's own sake. Because we think what we do-industrial control is sometimes dangrous. Not everyone starting to use our product has the same experience as you do. So if we allow customer access to the base VIs we cannot gurantee safety with some wrong code modification. Hope that makes sense for you.

Wendy