Hey all,

I am trying to make a downtime tracking system with a A2SH PLC (that's what's already there) and I was wondering if anyone had a better way of doing this:

I want to be able to store a maximum number of about 30 events that would have a time stamp and error code associated with it (like line stopped due to e-stop being pressed or something like that) and it would record this data into a slot and the next time an event occured it would go to the next empty slot. I will also be pulling that info out periodicly with Citect so I will have to tell Citect what slots are "full" and then tell the PLC that those slots have been "emptied" by Citect reading out the data.

I can do this will long rungs of code with a bunch of M contacts that represent each "slot" but that would be huge, does anyone have another idea of how to do this that would be a little less tedious or use less steps in the program? The program in the PLC is a little over 2K steps and the maximum size is 14K (I think) so I have the room but I'd like to keep it as simple as possible. Thanks in advance for the ideas!

I had the examples how to write an archives on event and with time stamp, but all are written in IEC Developer. Now I haven't time to rewrite them into GX Developer, but I can give you them as pictures. Is it OK for you?

yeah, that would be fine. You can e-mail them to me if you'd like. dkeller@hqm.com Thanks a lot!

OK. I'll send these onto your e-mail, but after 8-9 hours only, because now 2 a.m. at my clock and I want to sleep very much

I have seen custom solutions and to tell you the truth it is much easier to implement a downtime monitoring system from a data side. In other words use something like factorysql or some other database software that already has the downtime functionality built in. All you usally have to do is define a digital input to signal when the event is occuring. The software takes care of duration and start/end time and puts it into the database of your choice. The way that I have done it in the plc is to generate a structure (record for the downtime event) and create a ring buffer of a predefined size. When an event runs it course the start time, duration, and event code can be recorded (could use end time but I have found most operation people are interested in duration and not start and end time). Duration is easier to store than a serial date/time field (especially if it is ASCII). If you have the time it can be a good excercise in data handling and buffering. If you want the easy way, go buy a software package that does the work. Best of luck.

Craig

I've been looking into that solution as well. I've had Mitsubishi come in to demonstrate the MES Interface IT module and their software solution and that looks great. The problem is that my managment wants to do something with the equipment that is already there (basicly they don't want to spend any money) so I am trying to come up with a solution that will work. I've already tried to explain how it won't do what they want as good as a product that is made for that purpose, but no one listens. Trust me, no one is more upset about it than me and I'm sure more than a few of you know how I feel.

Inntele, thank you for the pictures. I'm going through them now to see what I can do with that. If anyone else has any suggestions I'm all ears! Thanks for the help!

Please. We are always glad to help and share their experiences with polite and thankful human