Basic question

[DaveWillard54]

I am a PLC guy just getting started with Labview.  I have an existing machine that I need to modify the operation of.  I went through the tutorials but have a very basic question.  On PLC's you connect to the machine and make your changes.  On a Labview based machine how do I do that?  The Labview license is on my laptop and the runtime operates on a dedicated PC on the machine.  Do I need to transfer the license each time I want to make a change or can I just hook my laptop to the machine in place of the dedicated PC?

[GerdW]

Hi Dave,

you create an executable and distribute it to your production machine (which basically is a PC as I guess from your message).

On PLC's you connect to the machine and make your changes.

AFAIK you also create an executable in your IDE and store/run that exe on the PLC. So its basically the very same deployment process as is used with LabVIEW.

[DaveWillard54]

Thanks for the info.  Yes, on PLC's you do compile and download, but that is usually only for the initial startup.  Once the program is running you perform all your debug and make quick changes on-line while the process is running from a single computer.

So, restated to be sure I understand,

• Move a copy of the runtime to a development enabled computer
• Make the change
• Compile and create new runtime file
• Transfer that back to the target machine
• Use the debug environment on the target machine to verify the change

 Cumbersome, but functional.  Thanks.

[GerdW]

Hi Dave,

Once the program is running you perform all your debug and make quick changes on-line while the process is running

I hesitate to change a running program on a PLC when the process is running and you (potentially) could ruin the machine! (Yes, I do program PLCs also, sometimes.)

So, restated to be sure I understand,

I understand you are deploying your program to a (Windows) PC. So the steps are:

- program your VI on your development computer

- create an exe from your VI

- create an installer ("setup routine") with your exe and all needed runtime engines (both creation steps are just one click in your project once you configured&saved the AppBuilder specs)

- install that setup on your production machine (the install process will detect when you just want to update your exe, the runtime engine is only installed the first time)

- debug your exe from your development computer using remote debug access

Cumbersome, but functional.

You do the very same steps with your PLC! You program and compile on your development computer and do the debugging by remote access to the PLC!

P.S.: Next time please use a (more) descriptive title for your thread. "Basic question" isn't telling anything about the topic/matter of your questions…