GerryM

Not all of them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Syracus...peraryLight.jpg

It depends if you're Irish or not. Red on top is normal for me. Green on top if your Irish.

This is probably what you need, however for some reason you need to be an opc member to download it. http://www.opcfoundation.org/DownloadFile....=283&CU=104

This is a good guide for whether to use a M-G Set or a semiconductor package: http://www.georator.com/GuideFreqConv.php They also sell them, although I have never purchased one yet. I have bought a three 60 to 50Hz M-G Sets from these people, about 7 years ago: http://www.sievertelectric.com/index.html They were attractively priced and work fine, still running. One thing I remember about static packages is they don't handle inrush as well as an M-G Set. Be sure to discuss that with whom ever you purchase from.

The links Dan provided tell you what dlls to use. In VB add a reference to OPC Automation. Then follow the OPC references on how to use the OPC objects. Dan's links provide the info. on where to download the correct OPC reference material. The above information is only good for VB 6 and earlier. If you are using VB.net then you need to join the OPC foundation to get the correct dlls or buy a third party component such as www.metadynamics.com or http://www.opcsystems.com/ or others. If you are not experienced with VB programming I would buy a SCADA. It will take you a long time to program it if you want something other than a simple display.

ISA 5.5 is for the process industries. That is the only one that I know of, and it really has no major recommendations anyway. They seem to stick with the same colors as the NFPA 79. Red for emergency, yellow for caution, green for safe, etc. They simply state using well defined color combinations so that lettering, symbols, etc. are well defined, easy to see, and not cluttered. http://www.isa.org/Template.cfm?Section=Sh...;Productid=2644

Why is it not an option? A VFD will change the pump output by the affinity laws: N1/N2 =Flow1/Flow2 ; (N1/N2)^2=PSI1/PSI2 Depending on your hydraulic requirements it may or may not work. Pnematic actuators are usually a little larger depending on what you need. They are generally faster, fullstroke in 3-6 seconds depending on the size of it. Electric actuators at least the ones I have take a long time to open, 30-60 sec.

Same with my company, we bought a new compressor and the VFD was added immediately after, within a month or two. The old compressor is now a backup. I don't know the details beyond that, it was someone else's project.

So will the lights go out when you're takin' a dump??? At my plant they added a VFD to our air compressor. It paid for itself within a year. The manufacturer or dealer, I'm not sure which, supplied it as an option.

The only thing I can think of, without getting into details, is this: If you are using the programming port then connect your laptop to the koyo plc and using the programming software, from Automationdirect.com, try to connect to it. The software will search for the correct baud rate, etc. Once the setting are found use those settings in your HMI.

Jesper is right on as far as maintaining the software goes. Another point, in alot of cases, is programming time. The commercial packages tend to take less time programming, and once programmed startup faster and are more reliable in the long term. The offset to programming time savings would be the initial cost is higher for the commercial software. In my experience, as the HMI gets more complicated the commercial software becomes more viable. If you already have vb.net and the hmi is simple go ahead and try it, just have a backup plan like jesper recommended.

I don't know for sure. I'm the only one in the office this week. One of our other guys, who knows in detail, left the company last quarter. He left notes, but I don't know where they are without digging for a while. Our problems were related to consistent and round diameter. We found that the tooling design wasn't the best and the project took off from that point of view. Along the way it was discovered the trims weren't correct because there should be a small tension between stands and we had the opposite in some cases. My involvement was to replace ampmeters with ones that had an appropriate scale & resolution, add diameter measurement, add a display for the operators, and collect data on all that to a database.

That does sound better. Glad to see its coming together. I also have a tube mill. It has three sections with three DC motors and three old reliance drives. Each motor drives 3-4 stands interlocked through a transmission. We have only two trim pots and a master to worry about. We don't have the master controller, I think each drive accepts a master and trim signal somehow. I'm not sure what the procedure is for adjusting them, I know they use an ampmeter to assist there trim decisions. When you're done I would just make sure your operators have knowledge of how to trim the speeds. Your electricians may need to train them. This statement is what scared me the most:

All the master controller does is supply the overall speed reference to the line. If your GV3000's are setup to operate with a voltage reference(0-10V) then it should work. The more important question is will you still have to adjusty the trim between stands #1-8 for every setup change? I assume 'yes' since different tooling usually equals different operating characteristics. So in the end how is that different than what you are doing now? I think you need to go back to the engineering stage, as you said here: "it was never engineered ". As an example: Your GV3000 may be able to be networked and controlled that way. Maybe its better maybe not, but i would say the whole thing needs to be engineered to find the best solution. Is this the unit you are referring to: http://www.reliance.com/pdf/drives/instruc...20controller%22

BAM, that's the reason for me, under 50V. I also had a cap. issue once with a multiconductor tray-cable, only 150 feet long was enough to induce a current from a 120V circuit to hold a solenoid on.

This is the way I remember it: There is no such thing as idiot proof, only idiot resistant!!

Some software programs, HMI programs alike, use databases to store information such as I/O mappings, etc. If that is what you are playing with its best not to touch it or you may lose some information.

I use VB.net with OPC and Automationdirect PLCs. It works fine speed wise and everything. Except for reliability you're much better off with a dedicated HMI such as what you are trying to replace. They are also a little easier to program and maintain. The reason I even use a computer is for databasing. If I didn't need that I would be using an industrial HMI. Perhaps you should list WHY you want to switch to a different HMI. Then you will get more help I think.

NFPA 79 applies to industrial machinery. It is complimentary to the NFPA 70.

In the U.S., Automationdirect.com sells Koyo PLCs. I am not sure how their products relate to the one you have but they may have information that can help you.

Thanks for the tip!

What are you designing your web pages with? If you are using anything microsoft(such as frontpage) then the windows server may work better. If you are using asp then you need to specifically ask for that. Most anything else will run very well on linux.

Yes, good idea!!!

If you want cheap and are only collecting a handful of values then: You can use the programming port with an rs232 cable, then communicate using the dde-server and something like excel or a vb program, etc. I also think one of the serial ports can communicate using modbus RTU, but i can't remember check the manual. Otherwise if you want speed and/or have the PLC on a plant network then an ECOM module would be nice. You can use Modbus TCP with that, or the opc server, or the dde server, or something like Dataworx.