Wiseco

Hi, I just wanna share something that's happened to me this week and want to know your thought about it. Here the topo : We have a CNC machines in USA that we want to link it to our headquarter DNC's server in Canada in passive mode to get programs from. Passive mode is that we output a program out of the machine that tells the server which program to get ready to send and when we hit input on the machine, the server send the program. To do so, the output/input method only work in RS-232 communication on this machine. With the distance, RS-232 is not possible. So I bought an Ethernet serial server device that would do the bridge. That device works on 10vdc-50vdc. So I plugged in the source out of one of the 24vdc power supply that the machine has. Now that when things get ugly. I have to say that I have some basics in PLC and electrical stuff, enough to get me going in troubleshooting. But one thing slipped out of my knowledge. I checked the electrical diagram to check which power supply to get source from. 2 was big DC power supply that feeds coils, lights and stuff. The second feeds switches and proxs. There were also 2 small ones. The first is to supply the Devicenet devices, so I though I would not want to mess with this one. The other one feeds the probes on our machine so again, wouldn't want to touch this one. The electrical diagram shown that the first 2 big power supply has there Positive grounded. GROUNDED. I question myself why for a little bit but thought that most of the switched and prox would work on PNP. I didn't tought it would bring that supply to be ZERO+ and 24NEG. Tag was written POS24 and NEG24. Big mistake and lack of knowledge there. So I plugged the network device on one of them, after his breaker of course. After getting everything wired, I turned the power up. Click, the breaker tripped. Hum... but the device was getting power as the ready light has lit a little. So I give it another shot. Click. Now that's no good... I double checked everything, POS was on POS terminal and NEG was on NEG. Checke with a mutlimeter, getting 24vdc. The rest was the 2 RJ-45 ethernet cable and the RS-232 cable. So I unplugged everything except the supply. Put back the breaker on. Things was getting supply, all was going good. So I thought that the only thing that would make a short would be the RS-232 cable, there's no way ethernet cables would make the supply tripped so I did bring the cable near the housing of the RS-232 port. Bzzzz. A little spark. So that when I suspected that the problem would probably come from the supply because the device has nothing to get grounded. So that's where I reach the multimeter and checked both of the RS-232 housings. 24vdc. Oh my...That's when I suspected the power supply itself. It was giving NEG 24 so my device was getting 0+dc and 24-. The ethernet serial device was still working cause the polarity was good and there were 24v delta between supply terminal BUT the ground of the device (housing and signal reference) was NEG24v. I decided to get a clean supply so I hooked it to the devicenet powersupply which gives a real POS24vdc and NEG0vdc. Now, I've been a week to try to get things working without success. I think I've fried both of the RS-232 port. I've checked physically to see if something would be fried but nothing on both RS-232 devices. I tryed the loopback test which mean to jump port 2 and 3 (RX TX) but it didn't give me any response on both devices. Am I right that I've screw things up? Is there any other test that I can run to see if there some hope getting things work? I don't have access to an oscilloscope or a good multimeter to check the signals. Learn the hard way or my mistakes they say? Well I sure learn something out of it. Please give my your opinion on that, good or bad. Thanks, Phil

Does the recipe function on C-more panels aren't suppose to do that??

It's an old Metalmeccanica machine, don't have the manuf. year. It's a simple one, with limit switches and 2/3 pos valves. I have finished the prog last night so it will be ok for my request. Now it's time to put this PLC at work! As I don't have the hydraulic schematic, I will have to find which valve does what. It have 15 valves 24vdc on it. It have a pressure booster too. By now, I saw that playing with AD stuff seems easy. But as I was used to work with GE Fanuc stuff, Proficy Machine Edition seems alot better than Directsoft software. But hey, the price isn't the same too! Maybe you could help me Clay. As I'm a newbie on PLC work (working with PLC on my own project and company) I would like to have someone to look at my ladder to check if safety isues are ok. I mean the "start cycle and stop cycle" thing. If you're interested to review my ladder, it would be great. Let me know. Thanks! Phil

Hi, l'm working on a project and its involve an old injection machine. I don't have any schematics or manuals and the machine is unoperable so the best would be to rewired the machine with a PLC. I got a DL205 260 in hand. Here is the configuration of it. 1x 32 inputs 24vdc D2-32ND3 2x 16 outputs 12-24vdc D2-16TD2 As I didn't touch a Koyo PLC yet, I will have to learn memory register and stuff and it will take me too much times for what I have. I would like to know if someone have ever make a simple program for an injection molding machine. If yes, I would really appreciated if I can have a copy of it. It would save me and my project and I would pay for it! I usually worked with GE fanuc PLC and I bought this first AD PLC and setup for another future project. So with a copy, I would work on it and customize the prog just for my test so I could see if the part work. I got a 12" HMI too with this PLC. Contact me on my email wiseco@gmail.com I hope to find someone good enough to do help me on this!

Why not using a cavity melt pressure transducer? Ok you'd have to modify the mold but if it could work... What machine are you running? Is it an old machine or a young machine with a good control? What king of product are you making? How many cavity? Many things could correct this issue instead of wanting to detect it. If it's not consistent, try to know why. It could be a pressure rise in the water cooling channel which will cooled too much the mold which will played against the melt from flowing forward. That was just an example but try to know why it happen and what cause that. Maybe it's a venting problem too! Which would be very easy to correct. Try to post a pics of a short-shot part with an indication of his gate location. Another thing, try different injection profile, different melt temp, and always get a cushion in front of the screw. If it make flashing on the part even with a low holding pressure, your mold need to be repair, is simple than that (I assume that if you get many short-shot it's beacause you don't want a high holding pressure for whatever reason) I know many poeple that try every thing and don't want to hear that their molds are damaged and need to be repair. But a very good, well maintained mold will makes money.

Thanx woman! Just to bad it have not more illustration but it will help me.

Proficy (the new name for Cimplicity) does have many software module. Your customer should check which module does he have or check with GE. But to answer, yes it would be possible with the right module which I don't know

Ok Thanx alot PdL! Yeah my ducts will be 3 inch deep. Cables will be much straight with the duct that goes to my output module so they will not be kinked I think. As for my SSR, Automation Direct says to put 3/4 inch between them but as I don't have the max load, maybe yes I could mount them next to each other. What's do you all use to draw the electrical schematics?

I don't know why you wouldn't place outputs vertically, I do not think that a relay module would produce much heat... As for the multicore I was thinking to leave them outside if it would cause problem. My main worried is for the SSR that drive my band heaters. It will be the first time that I will played with SSR so I don't know how much heat they generate. I choose a 25A SSR but I will drive a load max 8A so I think the heat will not be a problem. I would probably put them on the bottom of the panel instead of placing them near the PLC. Also, I want to know another thing. I will have the interface (HMI and pushbuttons) mount on a mobile stand. Does all the pushbutton must be hard-wired or I could use a distributed I/O? I know that an emergency button must be hard-wired to a master control relay but is it the same for every pushbutton? I meen directly connect to the PLC or they can go through a BUS?

Yeah I have check all pictures of chakorules panels and they are neat! Here is the begining of my panel layout in the pdf. Sorry if it's not very neat. Now I want to put everything in this panel like power transformer, control transformer, line filter for my plc, power supply for my 24 vdc...etc everything! So this is why I want to know some guideline to avoid something bad like i.e. a transformer place too near of the PLC... As I go further in the drawing of my panel, I see that I would need a bigger panel than expect. Is there some kind of standard that I could check online? I know there is a book called NEC but don't want to buy it as I would probably build 10 panels in my whole life so... An online way would be cool! Panel_Layout.pdf

Hi, I'm building a panel for one of our plastic molding machine that we refurbished. As I don't have any certification but have played with automation stuff for the past 5 years, I would like to have some guidance on how and what should I take in consideration for the panel layout. It will be my first complete panel building. I saw some panels that have their PLC at the bottom of the panel maybe for the heat dissipation I think... but most have their PLC in the top. What's the purpose of having the PLC at the bottom? Maybe some example photos of panels would help me alot. I don't really know where to put inputs terminal block, outputs, control relays, transformers...etc. After the completion of my panel, I will post picture of it to see what you think about it. Thanx! P.S. Sorry for my lack in english.

Why don't you call a GE tech? We use GE Fanuc PLC in our plastics machinery. They're all stand alone so I can't help you with EGD by now, but me when I have problem with Fanuc PLC, I called the tech and everytime, I get results that I want. But, I got some pps file that I get on a GE Fanuc seminar that explain a bit the working process of a Fanuc PLC over ethernet with various communication mode (EGD, Serial, Master/Slave...) and if you can't get answers from GE Fanuc, I could send those files. They're in french but with drawings, you could understand I think. Edit : Hey! I found a pdf file that could interessed you! gfk1563a.pdf