DonNH

I'm struggling with some of the ARCL function blocks - I had a program where all the ones I was using seemed to work correctly, once I figured out when I needed to keep the input on - I was using the Connect, WaitMsg, Goto, & ExecuteMacro function blocks. I've rewritten that program (using the new 1.70 library), but now the WaitMsg block and the QDropoff block that I added don't do anything when triggered - nothing on any of the outputs. I've reviewed my input & output variables for data mismatches, etc. but haven't seen anything which appears to be amiss. Any thoughts on what would keep these blocks from functioning?

Finally broke down and read the manual - I had clicked everywhere except the very top (title bar)           Hiding/Showing the Menu Bar, Toolbar, and Status Bar          You can hide or show the menu bar, toolbar, and status bar.          Right-click the title bar in the main window and select the items to display from the menu. Checkmarks         will appear by them. To hide the items, select them again. The checkmarks will disappear.  

So, my toolbar row (right below the dropdowns at the top of the screen) has disappeared. It's a pain to have to use the dropdowns for everything, like when I want to go online/offline, synchronize, etc. I've looked at everything in the View dropdown and it's not there.   ???

I'll have to see if I can get the updated version from my Omron contacts, hopefully with some description of what the changes are. I have that question within a few other questions that I'm waiting to get responses on. Omron is being very sluggish with responses - either directly from the applications engineers I have contact with or through their support portal.

Thanks. Nice that they make it such an obvious process ;)

Crossbow - I'll sneak in a semi-related question here . . . . I've tried giving a descriptive name to a PLC - worked fine on one that I did right out of the box, but when I try changing one after I've already saved a program to the PLC, I get an error when I connect saying they don't match, and asking if I want to change the name on the computer's file to match the one in the controller - no option to go the other way that I can see.  Is this another one where I want to check or uncheck one of the "Do not transfer" boxes?

Crossbow - did you see my question regarding the ARCL file versions?  I'm wondering if I should be asking my Omron contacts for updated files. I already have a bunch of unanswered questions pending with them - might add to the pile.

IO_Rack - thanks, this looks like a more robust way to do this - I'm working with a limited vocabulary of commands at this point, so it's nice to see applications for some of the other options, such as using arrays, and the Clear and Up function blocks. At this point I'm running both conveyors at the same time, so I can simplify this, but may have applications in the future where I'm sequencing them.   Str8jCkt - I'll play around with these timers a bit more - between these timers and some of the ARCL function blocks, I'm having a tough time figuring out how they behave with pulse vs. continuous input.  Seems like in my working program noted above,  the TON timer is triggering OK from a pulse(edit - I need to verify that the input to this isn't being held by another timer). I'll play with it a bit more today, but the program that IO_Rack put out there seems to be a more robust option.

Actually, just breaking it up into 2 rungs solved the problem (see 1st image).   However, the equivalent (unless I'm missing something) simplified version run in Simulation doesn't work (see 2nd image). TON timer T1 only outputs if I hold the input T1x on for the full 4 seconds, not if I pulse it. 

NX1P2 unit. Conv2_timer triggers and turns on motor O_C2in_run for 4s. Looking to have the output conv1_station_Done variable become True when motor turns off, to use for triggering the next step in the sequence. On_timer_conv2 should trigger its output at the same time as Conv2_timer shuts down, which should trigger timer_conv2 and hold conv1_station_Done on for 6s. In actuality, On_timer_conv2 seems to start the countdown, but never triggers at the end of its 4 second Roll_Time. Does the TON function block not like to be held on? Is there something it doesn't like about having the two timers activate at the same time? (one off / one on) I'm sure this is a common type of action - there must be a simple solution that I'm just not seeing.    

Are all the files you received labelled as 1.70? The ARCL files I was given in March of this year are labelled 1.4.3, and the ones on the Omron site are labelled 1.4.1. All of the input names seem to be Execute. Maybe the newer rev has more of this figured out. I'm finding it's semi-random on whether they need to be held on -- I have several WaitMsg blocks, which seemed to be fine just being pulsed - I use a large value for the timeout if needed. Then I made changes elsewhere in the program, and one of the WaitMsg blocks stopped functioning - didn't appear to be starting or finishing. I put a 5 second pulse before, which didn't help, then changed that to 60s and it works (time from triggering the block until the message (arrival at a position) is issued is about 35s if there's no delay along the way. I also have a number of GotoGoal blocks - most seem to work fine, but a couple will start the robot towards the goal but not finish the block when they arrive - will mess with these next. So, I guess I need to go back and latch all of these function blocks.  

There's no real documentation on these function blocks (Omron's ARCL blocks) so I'll have to figure that one out. The ones I've used don't seem to mind being held on, so I'll probably just do that.  

And a couple "style" questions - probably both personal preference, but interested in people's thoughts: 1) Combine the two above rungs into one, to keep things shorter? 2) Use latching circuits to turn on the process, use the Set and Reset as shown below . . . or, since this will probably be a separate program/task . . .  turn on that task from outside? I think I've seen an article somewhere discussing the pros and cons of using Set/Reset, but I haven't seen any discussion of where it makes sense to run/stop programs.    

Looks like maybe that does work as shown, but the output from the timer is a short pulse so in simulation it doesn't show up? I added a 1s pulse timer to the output of the first timer, and it looks like it's now working. Not sure if I need to leave the pulse timer in, but it shouldn't hurt. Will try this out once I get my PLC reconnected to the network.

So my quick interpretation of what you said is this, but it doesn't appear to really do anything in simulation so I'm thinking I'm still missing something.  Too tired for me to think much beyond that.