I_rock_well

MrPLC Member
  • Content count

    31
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by I_rock_well

  1. I am looking for e-learning or preferably classroom training which will enable me to better understand what I am doing when I am setting up statix switches. Things like VLAN, PTP, DLR and so forth.  I guess training for the 200-601 IMINS2 certification would have been good to take, but unfortunately Cisco retired it. Everything I can find now seems to be way to bradly based (Cisco ccna) or way to basic (rockwell training). Any recommendations besides reading white papers and stuff? Not saying that would be a bad thing, but my manager wants me to take a class.   Thanks in advance!
  2. I would like to add a 4 line led display or something similar to our lines to display parts produced, last cycle time and stuff like that. I did find the  https://www.electronicdisplays.com/industrial-message-signs-and-displays-14  . Unfortunately the price is a little steep when you factor in that you have to buy the EIP gateway separably to make it work over Ethernet/IP.   Can anybody recommend something? ~1200 dollars, easy instructions and AOIs for Studio 5000 are my wishlist.     Thanks in advance!           
  3. This is perfect! Thank you so much! If all I want is to display a few things, its hopefully not to difficult to set up?
  4. Was just wondering what everybody is doing for door safety when combined with a safety PLC. I found a nice device from Allen Bradley (442G-MABRB-UR-E0JP4679)  that includes the lock, push buttons and everything and as the kicker has safety over Ethernet/IP but it comes with a somewhat hefty price tag. Can somebody recommend cheaper options? Does not need to be safety over ethernet, but something that is prewired internally for example would be nice, so that I do not have to buy a box for push buttons, wire it all, etc.      
  5. I would like to setup some kind of dashboard for our plant. Which machines are running, maybe parts counter, how long have they been down and so forth. I would like it to be viewable over a web browser, at least in the plant, but ideally also remotely. Of course my manager wants that to, but only if it costs him an arm and a leg like it would if we get it from Rockwell. Can any body recommend anything? I looked into PLCnext from PhoenixContact, but that seems like it is still in early development and more geared towards actual programmers and not junior automation guys such as myself.   Any recommendations would be highly appreciated.      
  6. IO Link Master Recommendation

    I contacted IFM, their reply was "The AL1322 can provide sensor supply power (US) of up to 3.6A over all 8 ports combined, this is more than sufficient for your 300mA devices (8x of these only draw 2.4A total).  This is a self-regulating internal supply, so you simply add up the power consumption requirement for all 8 ports, and as long as this does not exceed 3.6A, then it is acceptable." So I think I should be good.    
  7. IO Link Master Recommendation

    Thanks for the recommendation. As a German living in the US IFM always gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling. Quick question: Is the max 200mA current draw per IO link port pretty much standard? My pressure regulators need 300mA and I was hoping I could eliminate additional wiring. To answer my own questions, 200mA seems to be the IO-Link standard, so type B wiring has to be used for higher current draws. See 3 messages below. 300 mA seems to be OK with the AL1123.  
  8. We just started adding some IO-Link to our plant. In the first couple of implementations we had existing Point IO adapters, so a IO-Link point module was the obvious choice. Now I want to add a few more devices (Festo Proportional Pressure Regulators). I want to use 8 each in 2 different locations, about 50 yards apart. Is adding a brand new Point IO adapter still the best choice or are there any cheaper/better IO link masters that play well with Control/Compact Logix PLCs that you guys could recommend?
  9. RSLINX in excel

    That is super interesting! How do you import that into studio 5000?
  10. If other people run into this: the drive was bad. I replaced it and it took off.
  11. I have two Ultra 3000 drives with MPL A310F motors. One is setup as "Follower: Auxiliary Encoder". I get the drive enable, follower enable, and both encoder values (motor and auxiliary)  but for some reason it does not follow the master. I can however index it manually in ultraware.   Any ideas? I am a total loss.
  12. My problem earlier was that it was that the drive was in "Index Control Panel" mode. After I reset the drive it started working. Homing now works fine, at normal speed. However jogging painfully slow and sporadic. I can see on the device net screen that it is communicating, the selected preset changes as expected, but the velocity setting do not seem to matter.   Also when I try to change over, it does not move at all. But for that I do not even know where those are stored.    
  13. I tried that. I can however not guarantee that the old parameters were not changed, or completely overwritten during maintenance bob's troubleshooting attempt. Any idea what could be wrong? The mode is set to Follower: Auxiliary Encoder. So is the override mode. The motors are set correct as well.
  14. It's a PLC5, not sure what is instruction is being used. I am just hitting up and down on an HMI. I can try to hunt it downs but its a huge messy program and I do not have the software to check the connection in the ancient HMI. Everything was working yesterday though. The only thing that changed are that both drives and the motor of the follower was changed, so I doubt its a PLC problem.
  15. Is there a tool to calculate the power consumption of a point io rack for given modules, or do I need to make my own?   Thanks in advance.
  16. That's fine and what I did. I just do not understand why the upload part was greyed out in the first place. Again, an older backup worked fine.
  17. I made some changes which required me to do a download. Before I took the PLC offline I did a backup. After I was done I wanted to do another backup from my laptop over the network. I opened the backup from just before I did the edits, but was not able to do an upload, the option is greyed out. It would have let me do a download. Older backups work without a problem. Any idea what is happening? I am working with a L73S,  my PC is running 28.03, the other 28.02.      
  18. I have a PLC5 that basically runs 24/7, so that its difficult to in in program mode and new data files. However, any mess up would get very costly very quickly. I want to add a new functionality that requires me to use a large number of integers. There are a whole bunch that appear unused, i.e. they are all zeros and have no 'x' under usuage in the data table. However, the program makes heavy use of relative references, which do not show up under usuage. (and that's just what I am aware off). Is there any other way of checking whether or not those integers are actually free?
  19. Fatal dump

    Last time I had a (near)  fatal dump I ate both lunch and diner at Taco Bell.
  20. Did you ever figure out a good method? 
  21. I would like to store values in an array, in a way that makes sure that the newest data point is always in myArray[0], the second newest in myArray[1] and so forth. FFL seems to do the trick, but only until it is full. If I try to use FFU to unload it, I can not keep it to storing the newest value in myArray[0]. I tried resetting the control bit, moving and copying a zero, or a bool with value zero into the .dn and .em bits, but nothing seems to help. I am very grateful for any suggestions, this starting to get frustrating. I do not care what happens to the oldest data, and my goal is to display the data on an HMI.
  22. Trying to understand FIFO

    I am using a Controllogix CPU. Not at work so I can't double check, but I think it's a L73 running firmware 20.xx.
  23. I am working on my first project involving a PLC, and am trying to implement a trigger button. I attached the program I have created so far. Strangely, it works only about half of the time. Sometimes the output energizes/deenergizes (in my case a solenoid valve which opens/closes a gripper) for a split second, but than returns to the previous state, kind of as if the osr triggered twice in rapid succession. I am using Rslogix Micro with a Micrologix 1100 (1763-L16AWA) if that makes a difference. Any help is greatly appreciated.
  24. So I moved the comparator to rung 4 and bypassed the analog input if the gripper is closed. I think this actually a feature, not a bug. However, I found out I have a safety issue that I personally think is more important than the 2 hand stuff being tamper proof. When the PLC loses power, and the gripper is closed, the valve loses power and the gripper opens. I assume there is nothing I can do with the PLC and need a different valve, right? If anything this project taught me the importance of a good salesperson who knows his stuff and identifies problems before the customer does :)
  25. Thanks again for your help, I assume placing the comparator on rung 4 should do what I indented the plc to do.  Now to the question of what I intended to do is enough. This is for a senior design project, so it will eventually be used in industry. The sponsoring company will have safety people look over it, but frankly I don't know how professional they are. The problem with the current setup is that operators could jump the two inputs to circumvent the two hand control, and a dedicated safety relay would prevent that,  correct? My understanding is that a safety relay takes the two inputs from the buttons, has some internals that make sure that the output of that relay only triggers when both inputs energize (or deenergize I my case). Couldn't an operator just as easily wire the output of a single button switch to the input of the plc, bypassing the relay altogether?  Or would the relay be used after the plc, with plc outputs as inputs?    Another question, which I know is know might not be answerable due to legal reasons: is a dedicated safety relay neccesary for a non life threatening device? The only OSHA standard I found is for mechanical presses, which I don't think this falls under. It's a parallel gripper delivering 500 pounds force, with a stroke of ~3 inches.  I do not have a problem purchasing a relay, but I need to convince my partner who works for the company who sponsors our senior design who wants to show how economical he is by keeping everything cheap.    And I'm not discouraged, I spend 4 years doing heavy math by hand for stuff that could  be better done with software. My only programming class was c+, all this is new and self taught, I'm even a little proud of myself and find it very rewarding as I see results quickly.