Erin R.

Sorry guys I have been on a few other projects ... I am now back to my tracking issue. BobLFoot... First, Where in Southern Indiana are you from? I just moved to Florida from Sullivan, Indiana, Which is close to Terre Haute. Now to my issue just to clarify this is more of what I actually have. I think we had a miscommunication on the number of processes. I only have 2 processes then a load and unload as well. So its Load, Process 1, Process 2, Unload. That being said, coupled with your example, if I am following you properly; I should have something like this??? TrackArray[33] == Load 3 TrackArray[32] == Load 2 TrackArray[31] == Load 1 TrackArray[30] == Load 6 TrackArray[29] == Load 5 TrackArray[28] == Load 4 TrackArray[27] == Offset 3 TrackArray[26] == Offset 2 TrackArray[25] == Offset 1 TrackArray[24] == Process1 Lane 6 TrackArray[23] == Process1 Lane 5 TrackArray[22] == Process1 Lane 4 TrackArray[21] == Process1 Lane 3 TrackArray[20] == Process1 Lane 2 TrackArray[19] == Process1 Lane 1 TrackArray[18] == Process2 Lane 6 TrackArray[17] == Process2 Lane 5 TrackArray[16] == Process2 Lane 4 TrackArray[15] == Process2 Lane 3 TrackArray[14] == Process2 Lane 2 TrackArray[13] == Process2 Lane 1 TrackArray[12] == Offload 6 TrackArray[11] == Offload 5 TrackArray[10] == Offload 4 TrackArray[9] == Offload 3 TrackArray[8] == Offload 2 TrackArray[7] == Offload 1 TrackArray[6] == Lane 6 Work Memory TrackArray[5] == Lane 5 Work Memory TrackArray[4] == Lane 4 Work Memory TrackArray[3] == Lane 3 Work Memory TrackArray[2] == Lane 2 Work Memory TrackArray[1] == Lane 1 Work Memory Am I following properly in the thinking that I will load the TrackArray from the back side meaning when I verify I have loaded product that I will set location TrackArray[33] - TrackArray[28] to the ON state. Then when I do the copy command as in your example that those locations will shift to the locations TrackArray[27] - TrackArray[22]. I could also use Chris' method of when they are shifted to these locations I write a ZERO into the TrackArray until that station finishes then I could change it to a ONE upon completion?

Ok, I am starting to understand more clearly. And yes Chris, I have always thought there are 1000 ways to program a machine to do the same thing in the end... BobLFoot... I am leaning toward the track array. example that you show here. The only thing that has me in a programmers block is that I have a 3 lane offset after the load station. Our layout at the load station is from right to left... 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3 ... So with the 3 lane offset after the product leaves the load station it goes to process 1 but only lanes 4, 5, 6 go into the process 1... lanes 1, 2, 3 will be in the offset area. Thats why I am wondering if I wouldn't be better off to treat it as a single lane then just duplicate it over and over for my 6 different lanes. Because I will need to handle lanes 1, 2, 3 differently than 4, 5, 6. If that makes sense. I could be making it more complicated than it actually is. Thanks again.

Chris, I do understand most everything that is going on, as far as, how you are writing a Zero to the status bit until you verify that the station completed then you write a One back into the status bit. I was just trying to verify if your explanation is correct. You are writing a Zero to B3:0/1 and B3:1/1... I do see where you are manually writing those zeros with the program. But I do not completely understand if you are saying that the BSL is doing that for you. Further, I think I am having trouble wrapping my brain around the idea, because although I am running 4 stations including the load and unload. I have 6 lanes at each station. So when my loader cycles I will load 6 of my product at that time. Then when I index I will shift those 6 products out and I will have 6 empty carriages come in and load 6 more products. I think I need to stop thinking about it as I am loading 6 products and look at it as I am loading 1, and just duplicate the logic 6 times with a different DINT to track each lane. Am I on the right track with that way of thinking? Thank you.

The question I asked was regarding that he mentioned in the article he was going to load B3:0/1 and B3:1/1 with a Zero coming from B11:0/0 because it is always off. I was wanting to clarify if this is actually the case, because I am thinking(could be thinking wrong) that he will be loading the Zero into B3:0/0 and B3:1/0. I was also commenting on what I am going to have to do in order to apply this to the RSLogix 5000 software since his example came from RSLogix 500. I went on to explain the basics of the machine that I have. It is very similar to his example. Yet, my machine only has 4 stations.

Thanks for the quick reply on this Chris... I sent you an email and also added a comment to the article, I needed to clarify something. Please correct me if I am wrong. Thanks again.

Hello, First time I've posted here but have a question for you all... I need to track my product from a load point through the process to an unload point. There are only 4 processes total including Load and Unload. In a nut shell at the Load Station I load product from 6 lanes into carriages on an indexing conveyor. When the conveyor indexes; those 6 carriages are shifted and replaced by 6 more carriages. I already have in place a way to detect if the lane properly loaded product or failed to load product. I want to track these around the conveyor. So an example would be I need to move 111111 for 6 good products from station 1 to station 2. I also want to be able to replace data; so that if my process in lane 2 failed at station 2, that I could replace the 111111 with a 101111 Would it be best to do this with a FIFO; (FFL instruction and FFU) in AB RSLogix 5000? Or is there a simpler way to do it? I think I read up on possibly the COP instruction would do this for me easier. So I could basically write the logic to copy a 1 to a location if it is good product and copy a 0 to that location if the product is bad or the process failed? Thanks in advance for your advice.