Clay B.

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About Clay B.

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  • Location North Carolina
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  1. I have built several over the years using extruded aliuminum. Usually can build one for a couple of hundred bucks. Most of the parts you need are bolt on. Take a look here for some of the parts you have to work with. http://modular.en.ec21.com/Connectors--3079212.html
  2. PLC suggestions?

    Jim you may have thought of this but I did not see it in your detail. You say you are using a hall effect sensor for engine speed. THat is going to be a fast switch and is going to require a high speed input. That said I think AB and Siemens should have soemthing that will get the job done. Take a look at the Micorlogix 1400 from AB and the S7-200 from Siemens. Both will require some expansion cards. The only other one I can think of that could do something like this is the Unitronics.
  3. Looking for new options in PLC Brands

    PLCMentor, I am right down the road from you, I am suprised with the support you got. Not sure if the vendor you dealt with is the same I deal with but my local supprt has been great. In the loacl supprt area I have been lucky in that I get good AB and Siemens support. On the Siemens side my local rep has loaned me several componets so I could test my crack pot ideas. The oen thing I really like about Siemens and this is on the S7-200's mostly because that is what we use the most the guys in Johnson City Ten. are a big help on the phone. An example: One of weight controller suppiers said his product has Profibus abilities. I found and proved with the help of my local rep. He brought in a tool that I could not justify buying and we proved the weight controller was scambling the messages.
  4. UL Listed

    It ususally is not as painfull as you imagine. There are a lot of shops that are UL listed. Just do a search in your area for intergrators and panel builders.For me I still design the panels, and I use the same panel shop for the non-UL certified panels as well as the certified ones. We just add to the panel cost if the customer requires the certification. I would say over 70% of our customers simply require UL componets and do not require the panel itself be certified.
  5. While we generally do not get the million dollar job, we intergrate our systems into them. That said in the past year ALL of the requested specs that involved AB PLC's required Ethernet/IP. In fact one customer was convertering over to Ehternet/IP from Devicenet. I asked why the conversion and their answer is when it runs it runs...when it breaks it really breaks. One thing I do know. On the plant maintenance level techs seem a lot less intimitated by Ethernet/IP than Devicenet.
  6. UL Listed

    Unless you are going to do a lot of UL Certified panels I would call around to your local panel builders and find one that can certify the panels for you. Maintaining UL Certification can be costly and getting setup even more costly.
  7. Wich is the best inverter brand?

    personally I think the aplication dictates which drive is best. I noticed no one metioned AC Tech. For simple start stop with maybe a jog function or 2 you can not beat these for the price. I do like the Powerflex when I am using an AB platform but if it is a Siemens platform I prefer to use their drives. On web handling machines I found that the SSD's were really easy to setup and trouble shoot. I have not used an ABB in years so I do not really have an option of them. I will say I have one brand I find to be a total piece of junk for the cost and that is the Square D Altivar. This drive in my opinion has the most convoluted comand structure I have ever seen.
  8. PLCs in the home?

    I have a friend who is doing kinda what you are talking about. When he had his house built it was wired for security (window/ door sensors). He never had it tied in though. So now he is using a unitroinics plc (built in touch screen) and has wired his sensors into it. Cool part is when a sensor tripps he knows exactly which one. He is working on the internet coms now. For the price it is pretty slick. Note: His excuse/reason for doint it is his 2 year old son is getting good at opening doors and such. This way he knows exactly what is opened.
  9. Small PLC with simple screen

    Every major PLC maker has a line of the "Smart" Relays. Even Siemens has the Logo! line. For really small jobs they are real good. What your talking about you could use most any of them. Just make sure you get the one with the correct I/O voltage. You will probably want 120 vac for a home project.
  10. cool sight Bob. Thanks
  11. Well if you use the lightscribe. Have something else to do in the mean time. Its real cool for labeling disks but takes forever. I still use it though. I can give my customers a disk with a label that doesn't come off.
  12. Training materials for beginner

    Thanks Crossbow. We just hired a new Service Tech and this can be real handy.
  13. New project advice S200

    You may Simplify it a bit. Siemens makes a weight module called Siwarex MS module. This module comes with the ablity to handle your batching functions. If you have to use more than 1 load cell then you can combine your load cells in a Siwarex JS box. Depending on the resolution you need, a converter can become an issue. Contact your local vendor for more info. These modules have alot of built in features that make building a system alot easier.
  14. I use AVG and have no complaints. One thing I do is run a complete system scan each night starting at 1 am. The reason I do this is I found alot of tracker bots on my laptop. These would try and run at the same time slowing my downloads and other ativities down. AVG will see these and tag them as Warning's so you can delete them. I am not sure if other virus software does this but I have found it to be a real handy feature with AVG.
  15. Have You Seen this before/

    Thanks Ken, I was not sure of the best place to put it.