Mapping SINAMICS Drive Fault Codes to HMI Text via WinCC VBA

Overview

When a SINAMICS drive enters a fault state, the controller surfaces a numeric fault code in status word r2132 (or r3122 in extended mode). Operators cannot interpret raw integers such as 1010 on a panel, so the HMI must translate the number into a human-readable string like Drive type unknown. With SINAMICS firmware V2.5x, a single drive can surface 1,065 or more fault numbers, which rules out one tag per text. The recommended pattern in SIMATIC WinCC V7 is to bind a TextList object to a single INT/WORD tag and drive the displayed value through TextList.Assignments populated at runtime via VBA. This reference documents that workflow on WinCC V7 SP2, the equivalent procedure in TIA Portal / WinCC Professional, and the cross-platform mappings for CODESYS, AutomationDirect C-more, Inductive Automation Ignition, and Unitronics UniLogic panels.

Prerequisites

• SIMATIC WinCC V7 SP2 or later runtime with the Graphics Designer and the VBA runtime enabled (Project > Properties > Options > Activate VBA).
• SINAMICS S120 / S150 / G120 List Manual for firmware V2.5x, or the exported CSV/Excel fault list shipped with the drive project.
• Configured HMI connection to the SINAMICS drive over PROFINET IRT, PROFIBUS DP, or EtherNet/IP, with the fault number mapped to a tag of type INT or WORD (typical tag name FLT_TAG_VALUE).
• Microsoft Excel or a text editor for reformatting the CSV into the value,text;value,text pair syntax that WinCC expects.
• VBA editor access: Tools > Macros > Visual Basic Editor (Alt+F11) inside the WinCC Graphics Designer.

SINAMICS Fault Code Reference (Firmware V2.5x, Subset)

The table below reproduces the first dozen entries from the SINAMICS S120/S150 List Manual for firmware V2.5x. The full list extends well beyond 1,065 entries and is published in the official List Manual. The integer column is what the HMI must receive; the F-prefix is a presentation suffix only.

Fault numbers above F3000 belong to the SINAMICS safety functions (SS1, STO, SLS, SDI, etc.). Fault numbers above F5000 belong to the safety integrated extended functions. They share the same HMI mechanism but should be grouped into a separate TextList so the operator can filter on category.

System Architecture

The text lookup happens in three layers. The SINAMICS drive writes the active fault number into status word r2132. The PLC reads that word over PROFINET IO and forwards it to the HMI tag database. The HMI TextList evaluates the integer and returns the matching string to the screen object. The diagram below shows the data path and the boundary at which the VBA macro injects the assignment table.

WinCC V7 / WinCC Flexible VBA Approach

WinCC V7 stores text lists as HMITextList automation objects. Each list has an Assignments property that takes a single string of value,text pairs separated by semicolons. The standard workflow populates this list through the WinCC Configuration Studio, but the property is also writable at runtime through VBA, which is the only practical way to load 1,000+ entries without manual data entry.

Step 1: Format the CSV to a Semicolon-Delimited String

Open the Excel fault list and produce a single column formatted as <integer>,<text> per row, then concatenate the rows with a ; separator. A small Excel formula does the job:

Copy the result column to a UTF-8 text file F1000_F1065.txt with line breaks removed. The result for the first twelve rows is:

Step 2: Insert a Text List Object in the Picture

1. Open the target picture in the Graphics Designer.
2. From the Smart Objects palette, drag a Text List object onto the canvas.
3. Rename the object to TextList in the Object Name field of the Properties pane. The name must match the string passed to ActiveDocument.HMIObjects(...) in the VBA macro.
4. Configure the List range property to map to the FLT_TAG_VALUE tag.
5. Set Output to Text and Assignment to Value/Range.

Step 3: Add the VBA Macro

Open the VBA editor (Alt+F11) and add a new module with the following code. The macro reads the assignment string from disk, trims any trailing whitespace, and pushes it into the TextList.Assignments property:

Sub EditTextList()
    Dim objTextList As HMITextList
    Dim strAssignments As String
    Dim strFile As String
    Dim iFile As Integer
    Dim sLine As String

    strFile = "C:\WinCC\FaultLists\F1000_F1065.txt"
    iFile = FreeFile
    Open strFile For Input As #iFile
        strAssignments = ""
        Do While Not EOF(iFile)
            Line Input #iFile, sLine
            strAssignments = strAssignments & sLine
        Loop
    Close #iFile

    Set objTextList = ActiveDocument.HMIObjects("TextList")
    objTextList.Assignments = strAssignments
End Sub

Run EditTextList from the macro menu. The TextList object is now populated with all 1,065 entries. When the drive writes 1010 into FLT_TAG_VALUE, the Text List displays "Drive type unknown".

Step 4: Persist the Assignment in the Project

The runtime assignment written by VBA is not persisted in the .pdl file. To make the change permanent, open the configuration dialog of the Text List object and paste the same string into the Assignments editor. The configuration dialog also supports importing a tab-separated list directly through the Windows clipboard. After the import, save the picture and rebuild the runtime database.

TIA Portal / WinCC Professional Alternative

WinCC Professional (TIA Portal) does not expose TextList.Assignments as a writable runtime property. The TIA Portal workflow uses the built-in Text list editor instead:

1. In the project tree, expand HMI > Text and graphic lists and create a new Text list named FLT_LIST.
2. Set List range to Value/Range and Output to Text.
3. In the List entries editor, click Import and supply a CSV file of the form Number;Text;Bit with one fault per row. TIA Portal accepts several thousand rows in a single list; for very large lists, split into multiple text lists and switch with a C-script.
4. On the screen, place a Symbolic I/O field with Display mode: Text list and bind it to FLT_LIST and the PLC tag carrying the fault number.

The TIA Portal CSV import handles commas inside the text by quoting the field (1010,"Drive type unknown"), which avoids the manual escaping needed in the WinCC V7 VBA string. Multilingual projects benefit from the same import file: place the default-language column first, then add a column per active runtime language and select the language-specific column in the import dialog.

CODESYS Visualization Text List

In CODESYS V3.5 SP16 and later, the Text List visualization element provides a Fallback value property for codes that do not match any defined entry. Configure the element in the Visualization Manager: add a Text List with ID and Text columns, then bind the visualization element to FLT_TAG_VALUE through the Variable property. The Fallback value is shown whenever the integer does not match any defined ID. Update the list at runtime by writing a recipe or by loading the list from a CSV file using the FileDevice library. For more than 1,500 entries, consider splitting the list into several Text Lists and routing the lookup through a CASE structure in the controller to pick the right sublist.

AutomationDirect C-more HMI Dynamic Text

The C-more and C-more Micro product lines implement dynamic text through the Dynamic Text object. The object subscribes to a string tag in the PLC and to a numeric Trigger Tag; when the trigger value changes, the panel reads a new string from the PLC. To map 1,065 fault codes without ballooning the PLC code, build a CASE structure that selects the matching string in the controller and writes it to the string tag. C-more does not run user scripts, so all branching must live in the PLC. C-more EA9 and EA9-T panels support up to 4,096 characters in a single string tag, which is enough for the longest fault descriptions. The Dynamic Text object polls the trigger tag at the configured screen-update rate; use a one-shot edge in the trigger to avoid excessive network traffic.

Ignition Perspective / Vision

Ignition Vision and Perspective do not have a native text-list element bound to an integer. The standard pattern is to expose a dataset from the gateway with two columns (Code, Text) and to bind a Label expression to {[default]FaultList/Code = {FLT_TAG_VALUE}].[Text]}. For 1,000+ rows, store the dataset as a database query or a memory tag driven by a tag history binding so the lookup happens server-side and does not pollute the client. Use the indexed query binding to keep the lookup under 30 ms even at 10,000 rows. For Perspective, bind the Label component's text property to an Expression binding that returns text from the dataset row where code = {FLT_TAG_VALUE}.

UniLogic Text Display

UniLogic (Unitronics) offers a Text After suffix on numeric display objects. The unit string is overlaid after the numeric value. This is a unit-display feature, not a fault-lookup feature, so for fault translation on UniLogic you embed a CASE structure in the PLC ladder and write the resulting string into a String Display tag. UniLogic strings are limited to 40 characters in the standard data types; the UniStream platform supports up to 1,024-character strings. For 1,000+ faults, prefer the String Table data type if your UniLogic version supports it; otherwise, truncate the fault text to fit the panel width and follow up with a long-form description in a separate help screen.

Performance and Memory Considerations

For WinCC V7, keep the assignment file on a local SSD and do not share the picture across multiple runtime instances. For TIA Portal, use a separate text list per fault category (CU, Power Unit, DRIVE-CLiQ, Safety) so each list stays under 2,000 entries and the editor remains responsive. For C-more, keep the CASE structure in fast task or in a periodic subroutine triggered at 50 ms to avoid scan jitter.

Multilingual Support

WinCC V7 supports per-language text lists through the same Assignments property by appending the language ID to the object name (TextList_de, TextList_en, TextList_zh). TIA Portal exposes the language columns directly in the text list editor and swaps the displayed language at runtime through the SetLanguage system function. CODESYS handles multilingual text lists through separate list IDs per language. C-more and UniLogic require per-language string tables in the PLC; plan for the largest language (typically German) when sizing the string memory.

Acknowledgement and Reset Behavior

Mapping the fault number to text is only half the workflow. The operator must also be able to acknowledge the fault and reset the drive. Wire three actions to the picture:

1. Set FLT_ACK to TRUE to write STW2.7 (control word 2, bit 7) on the SINAMICS and acknowledge the active fault.
2. Set FLT_RESET to TRUE to write STW1.7 (control word 1, bit 7) and reset the drive.
3. Bind a separate TextList or symbolic I/O field to status word ZSW1 to show the drive state (e.g., 0 = "Ready", 1 = "Run", 2 = "Fault", 3 = "Fault active, ack pending").

Verification

1. Force the drive to fault F1010 by setting p2100[0] = 1010 in the SINAMICS Starter or Startdrive commissioning tool. The drive should enter fault state and write 1010 to status word r2132.
2. Confirm the tag value in WinCC tag management: Diagnostics > Tag simulation, read FLT_TAG_VALUE.
3. Switch to the picture that contains the Text List. Verify that "Drive type unknown" is rendered in the configured text box.
4. Cycle through at least five other fault codes (F1003, F1005, F1007, F1009, F1012) and verify the text updates without restarting the runtime.
5. Reset all faults (p3981 = 1 on SINAMICS) and verify the Text List shows the configured default value (typically 0 = "No fault").
6. Test the fallback path by writing a fault number that is not in the list (e.g., 9999) and verifying the configured default or fallback text is displayed.

Troubleshooting Matrix

Field-Proven Caveats

• Some SINAMICS firmware versions change the fault number when the drive is configured in a different operating mode (servo, vector, V/f). Always export the fault list for the specific firmware version that ships on the drive, not the one in the design spec.
• After a firmware update, the assignment file must be regenerated. Old fault numbers can become obsolete and new ones added; an old TextList will display "Unknown fault" for entries added in the new firmware.
• DRIVE-CLiQ faults (F1005 through F1007, F1011) often arrive as a flood during commissioning. The TextList should be populated before the drive is first powered up to avoid showing blanks during the initial bring-up.
• Safety faults (F3000 to F5xxx) must be in a separate TextList. The operator must not see them mixed with drive faults because the acknowledgment procedure is different.
• For redundant HMI pairs (two panels reading the same drive), the VBA macro must be executed on both panels. Export the assignment string from the project tree and apply it to both targets to keep them in sync.

Related Configuration

After the TextList is wired, the related configuration items that should be reviewed are: (a) the fault buffer mode in the SINAMICS (parameter p2100 for fault selection, p2101 for acknowledgement mode, r0947 for the active fault number); (b) the WinCC alarm logging configuration so that the same fault number triggers an alarm in the alarm view; (c) the operator role permissions on the Acknowledge and Reset buttons so that only authorized personnel can clear safety-related faults; (d) the WinCC audit trail so that fault acknowledgements are logged with operator ID, timestamp, and the new fault number.

FAQ