burnerman

I would have thought that the learning curve for establishing communications between the two platforms will be much steeper and longer than learning how to do the number crunching in the CompactLogix. I can't imagine that there is anything that an FX3U can do that a CompactLogix can't. If you get stuck on anything I'm sure that there are people here that will be willing to help.

PLC LAW #15 MAKE SURE YOU ACTUALLY UNDERSTAND THE QUESTION IN THE DIALOG BOX BEFORE HITTING "OK" For example "all changes will be lost, are you sure you wish to continue?"

Try THIS link (you may have to register and login to access the page)

Paint drying ovens: Reduce heat losses a. through the walls - can you improve the insulation? If you can't put your hand on the outer skin of the oven you're losing too much heat. b. through openings - have you got adequate door seals / air curtains? If you can feel a blast of hot air out of the door then you're losing heat. If you blow smoke near the door and it's sucked straight in then the burner's heating up all that air that the oven's sucking in and then just throwing it up the chimney. Are your burners set up correctly, do you have them maintained regularly? Do you turn the burner(s) off when there's no product going through the oven?

Is this it?

Try this http://www.landinst.com/infrared/index.htm

Check the minimum output load requirement in the manual for the output module. The optocoupler is probably not drawing enough current to drop the voltage caused by leakage on the output circuit. You may need to fit a load resistor in parallel with the optocoupler or use a relay instead of an optocoupler.

Has anyonyone any experience, good or bad, with OPTO22 / Factory Floor? A colleague of mine suggested we might consider it instead of a PLC / HMI. The system we are looking at has about 24 analog and 48 digital I/O, on the HMI we need a couple of operator screens, alarm handling, a couple of charts (historical as well as real time trends) and the ability to print batch reports and periodic reports - any recommendations for a good low-cost HMI package to work with a Mitsubishi Q or SLC500?

Passwords are fine - to protect against unauthorised tampering with a program that may be dangerous for the machine or personnel. But programmers, have a heart, you're probably not going to be the one who, in ten years time, is trying to upgrade a machine or install a new processor. In any case, there's more than one way to skin a cat! Do you not think that anyone else is clever enough to write a program to do exactly the same thing? Maybe even better than you? If a customer has paid you to design, build and program a machine then surely he has a right to be able to access the program. Then it's up to him who he gives rights to. He needs that privilige, if not just for health and safety reasons but also to maintain his machine long after your company has gone to the wall.