Joan M

MrPLC Member
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Everything posted by Joan M

  1. PLC Studend

    If you are free to choose any brand, take a look at TWinCAT from Beckhoff, you will need nothing else tan your computer to test anything and their products are great and powerful. Beckhoff site TWinCAT 2 is the old version, I'm using it for the last machine we are building. If your background is more electrical than software you will find it easier to start with. you can use several languages and you can download it from here. If you want you can also use TWinCAT 3 which is more powerful and it gets integrated with visual studio, therefore you will be able to use subversion, git or any other repository... Good luck!
  2. TwinCat chronometer

    Take a look at the information system: http://infosys.beckhoff.com/content/1033/tcplclib_tc2_standard/html/tcplclibstandard_ton.htm?id=12943 In the previous link there’s a complete description of the TON function block, which is used to count time. This link was from the TWinCAT 3 development tools environment. It works exactly in the same way for version 2. If the PLC you are using includes Windows as its operating system, then you can take advantage of the RTC and NT_GetTime functions blocks to get a real time clock (RTC) from one starting time, and the current operating system time and date. Search the Information system to get extra information about that. Good luck!
  3. pick and place with kuka and cognex

    You will need the conveyor tech from KUKA to be able to get the part from the belt… Also the belt will need an encoder to give the proper feedback to the robot and to allow it to follow the belt… Typically those applications work in the following way: 1. The camera captures the position and orientation of the part in a given encoder position of the belt. 2. The robot uses that information to pick the part and follows the belt automatically using an internal software (in that case (KUKA) it is named conveyor tech). If you can’t afford the “conveyor tech” then you will have to ensure that the belt won’t change it’s speed during the pick operation and make all the movements calculation… a small nightmare… it is not impossible, but in those cases conveyor tech makes it… I still remember the last time I had to calculate a reorientation of the 6th axis (continuous turning) while the robot was performing a complete path… :O Get information of the conveyor tech here: http://www.kuka-robotics.com/en/products/software/application_software/ Good luck!
  4. Movement control

    Which robot brand are you working with? And, could you please try to extend a little bit your question? With that I truly don’t know what to say… Sorry…
  5. ABB robots

    Just in case you need more manuals you can always take a look here. Good luck!
  6. PLC I/O Recommendations

    Try to stay with Ethernet. It will be easy to check, it uses standard equipment that can be found even in supermarkets (when you’ll be in a set up and somebody will cut a communications cable it is nice for it to be Ethernet). In my case I’ve been using Beckhoff for at least 18 years already and I can say it is wonderful. - It works without problems (only changed one card in all those years). - It is extremely fast (the cheapest digital IO module has a clock frequency of 5ms which is giving you 2 reads in a normal 10ms PLC cycle). - All the E-BUS IO cards are suitable for all Beckhoff controllers. (Most of them and with all the new ones). - Being able to plug different CPU’s into the same IO boards’ gives you the option to separate properly the physical layer from the software one. I’ve worked with Siemens, Allen Bradley, Telemecanique and other strange things, but I love PC-based solutions as they offer the best of the PC (HMI, communications…) and the best of a high level controller (as no PLC in the market will have a processor as powerful as the ones in modern PC’s). PS: Oh, and Beckhoff offers you a good number of fieldbuses to communicate to almost anything… My two cents! ;)
  7. temperture control with a plc

    You need to know how the PLC you are working with handle 0..10V outputs, typically it will link that analog output to a variable in your PLC. Being a 0..10V the most usual would be to have it linked towards a WORD or a BYTE as you don’t need to go into the negative side of the value. Then, the variable you will have linked the analog output will define which scale you need. If you are using a PID (which would be the best in that case) you will be able to control the output in the best possible way (forget fuzzy logic as it is too hard to cope with) and it works wonderfully and you will save electricity. Good luck!
  8. After reading that you have not to look for the error in that axis, in fact it seems that this axis has received this error as another one has failed for any reason. Try to see the master axis state, use an oscilloscope to see the status of that axis if you can’t see the right error or even easier, use a variable that reads the error state of that master axis like: If (dwLastError = 0) then dwLastError := fbMasterAxis.ErrorID; end_if Good luck finding the problem!
  9. What makes a quality PLC?

    That is always a good starting point… :D Apart of the joke, if you want to success on that job, you will have to give the customers good reasons to change… In my case I love to be able to do several things with my systems like: - Pointers to allow me to use less code to get the job done. - Being able to program like in an Object Oriented Programming environment. Which allows me to re-use code without modifying it and suppress lots of working hours. - Not being forced to use a certain number of elements (there are PLC’s out there that have a certain number of timers… and of course then you always face the problem to decide how many of them you will need before making the buy). - Speed. - Speed. - Speed. - Motion capabilities. - Standard libraries like PLCOpen. - Being able to use a PC is ultra-nice as you will never run out of power… (But if you are selling PLC’s that is not the right way to go for you…). - Being able to use standard displays (Industrial PC displays that have not to be configured in regards of variable directions to communicate with the PLC). - Ethernet. It is a good thing to be able to use the standard cables one has at home and that can be bought at any supermarket. - Standard voltage. - … I can think of more good reasons to switch from one brand to another one… but the best is the technical support and it seems always the hardest to get… Good luck!
  10. BX5100 and AX2003

    A BX is not capable to control a servo as it’s not powerful enough, therefore, you can have two different configurations here: 1. The points are stored in the BX5100 and sent via ADS calls to the Servoamplifier. 2. The points are stored inside the servoamplifier and you use the PLC to execute programs… If you have an AX2000 device (seroamplifier) then you should download the DRIVE.EXE program from the Beckhoff site and download the configuration into your PC to check what is happening there. If you have an AX5000 device then you will need to use System Manager to get inside the parameterization of the servodrive. And at the end you will need the source code for the PLC to see what is running inside (unless who programmed it put the source inside the PLC which is not very common).
  11. Mailing with twincat

    You won’t be able to do it with a BC controller... Sending e-mails depend on the operating system itself, not in the PLC (TwinCAT PLC Control). Of course you can send an e-mail from your PLC program, but at the end what you get is an ADS call to the operating system that will make the OS to send the e-mail… This is the reason why you can download special supplements for TwinCAT for Windows XP and for Windows CE. Good luck!
  12. Twincat beginner

    You could always use the PLCControl to test your program and wait for the PLC to scan the complete PLC io's in the System Manager. You can use even your computer to test the program. In order to do that you have only to set TWinCAT in run mode in your computer (ALT+ and system run), then in the PLC control look for the right PLC to receive your program (in that case LOCAL is the right choice). And load the PLC program into your computer. There are only a few differences between all the CPU models, some accept pointers, some others not, there are old processors which store data in different ways than newer ones… But all in all most of the differences are not important when you are starting, and one of the best things comparing Beckhoff to others is the fact you can use as many elements you want of each kind (i.e. you are not limited to a certain number of counters, timers…). And the speed is incredible. Good luck!
  13. Unicode FTP Server for Beckhoff CX1010 series

    If you are on a CX1010 you are working with an old CPU and I guess it will be CE5.0... Anyway I would try two things: 1. Search the beckhoff FTP site (ftp.beckhoff.com) to see if they have upgraded the image you have installed into your controller (and upgraded the FTP server too). 2. Use a third party FTP server for Windows CE like : http://www.menasoft.com/blog/?p=32 Hope this helps!