don

MrPLC Member
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About don

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  • Website URL http://www.plcapplications.com
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  • Location Colorado
  • Country United States
  • Interests old cars
  1. Click Plus and MQTT

    Super easy solution - the published data triggers a time-out node in Node Red.  The timer is set 2 or 3 times longer than the publish rate.  If it times out, the data is stale and can be flagged as such.  Thanks for the suggestions.
  2. Click Plus and MQTT

    I'm also looking into Last Will and Testament (LWT) which is part of MQTT protocol.  I think that may do the trick.
  3. I'm a first time Automation Direct user setting up a Click PLus as a publishing client using MQTT.  I've got a mountain top, solar site with 3 analogs pressures.  Non-mission critical data, just nice to have.  I got the MQTT stuff working and am using aa cloud based Node Red instance (it's on the MQTT broker service) to publish the data as 3 gauges on a web page.   I've got all of that working, but am trying to figure out to determine if the data is stale.  In the winter, we only get 4 or 5 days daylight, so the batteries die and we loose communications daily.  I need to figure out a Node Red flow when the data is stale and flag it on the pressure gauge display.  I'm thinking of having a free running clock in the PLC, and do a compare in Node Red to determine if it gets stuck.  I was just wondering if anyone has any other ideas on how to do it.
  4. HMI user

    Did you try the string tag "system\User"? Not sure how to get it into the PLC.  Maybe a macro in "Global Connections"?
  5. What's with my font???

    Have you tried deleting the object and recreating it?  I don't recall having this exact problem, but I've had buttons that don't work, problems with animation, etc. that were fixed by recreating. 
  6. Testing  got cut short by CV19. Still no start-up schedule.  As stated, I got it working in the shop by turning auto negotiation OFF in the N-tron and the drives.   Is it recommended to turn ON auto negotiate in all Rockwell hardware (CPU, drives, etc.) as well as the switch?  I can try that when I get back to it. Also, I was having the problem no matter how many drives were connected.  Nothing else is on the network, at least during testing at the shop.  Not sure what else the end user is doing with the network, but I assumed only this panel's devices would be on that network.    
  7. I disabled auto-negotiate because on a previous project, Rockwell tech support recommended do it.  Admittedly, not a very good reason. I disabled auto-negotiate on the N-tron and that cleared up the problem.  I needed to move and check the rest of the panel and logic.  When I get a lull, I will go back and turn auto-negotiate back on everywhere and see if that works.  I'll also mirror the port and play around with Wireshark some more. No external network was connected because we were at the panel shop testing the panel. No other I/O adapters other than the drives. Thanks for the suggestions.
  8. I have a CompactLogix system with 4 Powerflex 755 drives and one PanelView.  The drives work (start/stop, speed reference via Ethernet), but fault randomly every 30-120 seconds with a fault 4037 (actually port 4, fault 37, I think) Net I/O Timeout fault.  Fault always clears immediately.  No problems with the Panelview.  Talked to tech support who said it was a network problem and suggested downloading Wireshark, which I did.  I've run it, but not sure what to look for.  I've disconnected the PanelView and programming computer, but still have the faults. Network Setup (processor and drives have autonegotiate off, set to 100/full duplex) (all devices have mask 255.255.0.0, gateway 10.91.1.1 10.91.2.5, Processor, 5069-L32ER, firmware 30, using port 2, port 1 is set to DHCP and not connected to anything 10.91.251.5, Switch, N-tron 708TX, IGMP snoping enabled, 10.91.101.5, VFD1, PowerFlex 755 with ENETR card, IP set by parameters 10.91.102.5, VFD2, PowerFlex 755 with ENETR card, IP set by parameters 10.91.103.5, VFD3, PowerFlex 755 with ENETR card, IP set by parameters 10.91.104.5, VFD1, PowerFlex 755 with ENETR card, IP set by parameters 10.91.10.5, PanelView, 2711P-T10C22DP I've done about 10 similar projects with 4-10 drives and haven't had this problem.  This is the first for this particular processor and using version 30.  Panel is at the panel shop for testing with no motors attached. Thanks in advance for any ideas.
  9. Within the last 2 mos., I've had a similar problem on two different Windows 7 computers.  I didn't record the error numbers.  I did the same two steps as you did and was still having problems.  As a last resort, I went to the codemeter website and downloaded the latest codemeter and reinstaled it.  I haven't had problems since. 
  10. That was exactly what I was looking for. A non-zero in the register associated with each command indicates an error. Thanks.
  11. I'm using a L32E CompactLogix along with a Prosoft MVI69-MNET to poll a couple of Fisher ROC flow computers using Modbus TCP/IP. After some difficulty with determining the floating point data format, I got everything working. I noticed that if I disconnect the ROC, the old data from the last good poll remains. I need to determine a way to detect "stale" data and flag it on the HMI. There is a some information in the MNET.STATUS.ClientStatus registers, but the documentation doesn't say much about them. If I were only polling one device, I could look at MNET.STATUS.ClientStatus.CurEr word. But, if one device is answering and the other one isn't, this word constantly changes from 0 to the error code and back. I was thinking about setting a heartbeat bit in the remote devices and checking it with ladder logic. Is there some other way to determine when a device is not answering and which device it is? Thanks.
  12. I have a customer with no installed PLC base and am thinking about using the Productivity line from AD and was wondering if anyone has any recommendations. The application is not very demanding - about 16 analog inputs, 32 discrete inputs, 32 discrete outputs. These requirements could grow in the future. The logic is very simple - mostly discrete pump and fan motor controls and alarming of analog instruments. It is a remote location, so reliability (not redundancy) is a concern. It does need to interface to a HMI package running on a local PC - something like Intellution or Wonderware. Also, there will probably be a requirement to communicate with Modbus devices over RS485 or Ethernet. True on-line programming is a definite requirement. About 85% of my experience is A-B (now, primarily ControlLogix), but I've worked on Mitsubishi, Modicon, Siemens, Sq-D, etc. My concern is recommending an unknown (to me) product to a customer, but the pricing seems really attractive. I would appreciate any comments. Thanks in advance.
  13. I would guess that one good thing about cardlock was that it very fast. I remember using data cartridges for PLC2 program backups. Anybody remember using a CRT terminal to do instruction/rung comments on a PDP or VAX minicomputer?
  14. I rummaged around my files and found quite a few data sheets myself. The part numbers are all 1720-xxxxx and the documentation is dated 1971-76. Looks like inputs and outputs were 120 vac and internal logic is 15 vdc.
  15. About 9 years ago, I replaced an A-B Cardlock controller with a ControlLogix PLC. Cardlock was an early controller with cards containing various kinds of logic gates, timers, counters, etc. that were wire wrapped together to create control logic. I think the original drawings for the machine I worked on were dated in the mid 70's. Anyway, it worked when removed and I'm interested in hooking it up as a display piece in my office. Does anybody out there have any information on these units? I 'm curious when they were originally sold. 60's? 70's? Google search turned up very little. Has anybody else worked on these, or know anything about them?