Good day, everyone!
Having an interesting problem with Date and Time tag value.
Ignition "reads" the PLC tag of a Date_and_Time type with 4 hours difference.
PLC tag: 14:00 (2PM)
Ignition reads the same tag: 10:00 (10AM)
If this helps, I am in the Eastern Time zone (New York)
PLC type - Wago PFC200
Comm protocol: OPC-UA
Server is set to the same time zone and displays the correct time.
I have a suspicion that there may be something with the Server time settings. But everything seems fine and unfortunately, I don't have access to server's configuration settings.
Did anybody experience a similar issue?
Well, that difference is the current offset between US Eastern Daylight Time and UTC. Suspiciously so.
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I thought so too at first.
But UTC is Eastern time plus 5 hours.
Meaning, PLC time of14:00 EST = 19:00 UTC
If you, the Ignition Gateway, and the PLC are all located in the same timezone / location, then the most likely issue is the PLC is configured with the wrong time(zone).
Not in the summer. Daylight time.
PLC is configured correctly though.
Okay, then it's probably what Phil is suggesting. You are viewing the time as UTC in one context, and as EDT in another. In most (all?) places that Ignition shows you a date/time it's doing so in the local timezone.
I see now.
PLC is configured correctly though with timezone / date / time same as on the server.
I will be waiting for some more information from the PLC manufacturer regarding the Date and Time value transfer over OPC-UA. Maybe there is something else in their configuration we have to set.
Thank you!
Do other Wago devices show this behavior? How confident are you that Wago has implemented time zones properly in their devices?
(It isn't that unusual. Omron's modern flagship products have it all screwed up, too. If you want those to play nice, you must set the PLC to UTC.)
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You are right, changing the timezone in PLC has somewhat helped.
I have set PLC to GMT/BST (they don't have a UTC in a drop-down list).
Ignition now reads the tag with just one hour difference. lol
Will wait for a reply from Wago Tech Support regarding a method of setting up a UTC time zone.
I will post a final update into this thread.
Thank you so much!
After a few attempts and being too impatient, lol
found a correct time string combination and typed it into the "Custom Time Zone" field of the PLC time configuration section.
Typed "UTC0" and reboot.
The clock in PLC and values of Date and Time tags in the PLC code are now shifted. But Date and Time values in Ignition are now correct.
This is a temporary solution though. I guess, we should change the approach now. I guess, the ideal solution in this case will be to configure PLC back to Eastern time and to use Igniiton timestamps for all Date and Time values. At least, for this PLC type.
Thank you so much for help!