JRICE

Thanks. I'll read up on SQO, sounds good. I just finished a fault tracking addition to an existing program where any one of four faults could make a "fault" light come on and the machine cycle stop. I added an S bit to strobe the fault lamp and added a bit to the individual fault states and used them to move a value into a counter to count the fault lamp flashes, start a pause timer, restart the flash sequence, you get the idea to send a fault code to the user for why their machine stopped. I hope to use some of this logic for the beacon controller program.  I realize there are some people on the forum looking for others to do their work for them, I'm just looking to be pointed in the right direction, and I think SQO is the direction I need to go. Thanks again.   I 

I AM NOT A STUDENT LOOKING FOR SOMEONE ELSE TO DO MY ASSIGNMENT FOR ME.I have the software, cables, etc... and several Allen Bradley SLC's. I'd like to program one of them to run a beacon. I dabble in PLC programming as part of my job, not really a programmer. I'd like to come up with or copy a way to write values into an algorithm to use a PLC to send a CW message on a beacon station. Starting with some simple stuff, callsign, location, etc... And the perhaps working up to local weather conditions as I have several analog input cards. I could "brute force" write the rungs for callsign and location but I would rather have some way to use MOV statements or similar to write the required values into counters or whatever to control the CW output.Any constructive thoughts on this are highly appreciated. I've searched for others doing this but have found very little on this subject and lots of posts about PLC - Power Line Communications.Thanks,Jon - kc8fmr

Not a class project. I'm a field service technician for a packaging equipment distributor. I haven't done much PLC programming but (in a past life) did program in Basic, RPGII, Fortran, Cobol, Pascal, and composed some very complicated Lotus 123 spreadsheets interpreting a serial data output from an injection mold press and formatted the data into a report. I need to stress the "past life" part. I remember knowing how to do all that stuff, could not necessarily do any of it today. I have some in line automatic strapping machines I'm installing 4 hours away from my home and I'm trying to make remote troubleshooting easier, as in over the phone. If sales had pushed the panelview option I wouldn't be doing this... My thought was I'd use an S bit to get a flash rate I like and then use a counter to limit the number of flashes before I do a pause. flash X times, pause, repeat,  I would use a move statement to put the value in the counter depending on what triggers the fault. All of the prox's I've looked at so far are NO. Ideally the lamp would indicate the first cause of the fault as a condition causing one time out might also cause others unrelated. That's a good consideration though. I'm doing the first one next week so I may be able to watch the fault routine in action to get a good idea of how it sets/resets itself.  Most of the work I do with PLC's is either troubleshooting or forensic programming - I run across customers that have a PLC with little to no (or incorrect) documentation and have to teach it a new trick or port the program to a newer PLC. Whatever guidance I can get is highly appreciated. Thanks, Jon      

As I am a noob this is probably a noob question. I have a machine with a micro 1400 and if the machine has a fault or jams it lights it's "machine fault" lamp. The fault can be triggered by one of 8 prox switches not getting made within a certain time span. There is nothing to indicate which one. I'd like to program the lamp to, rather than stay on steady, have a blink pattern to indicate which prox caused the fault condition. 3 blinks and a pause, then repeat for PROX 3 for example. I have searched for this with no joy. Thanks - Jon