PaulB

CE is self sertification, but... You have to create document - Technical Construction File. EU standards are describing what have to be in this document. You have to be able to produce this document by customer request or authorities. PaulB

Thank you, Ken. I'll read this.When you are saying Ethernet time out values may be too high. What numbers do you have in mind few seconds, few minutes? Paul.

Ken, thank you for the quick response. Where can I read about "List Identify" and "Device Who" in Rockwell documentation. I've made quick search in 1756-RM003J-EN-P, Logix5000 Controllers General Instructions Reference Manual without results. PaulB

I have a question about functionality of the Ethernet IP network. Is it possible to plug and unplug network nodes on the fly? For example if we have Control Logix processor as supervisory PLC. In that PLC we have program loaded, which has, maybe, about 100 - 150 nodes of Ethernet IP IO adapters in its IO configuration tree. These nodes all inhibited. As soon as you plug one of the nodes to the network it becomes uninhibited. Total number of nodes physically connected to the network always will be much less, maybe, 20 -30 nodes. I know that using SSV instruction it is possible to inhibit or enable module communications. I am not sure how to let PLC processor know that this particular node is connected or disconnected. When you run RS Linx on the computer and browse the network, nodes that are not seeing (unplugged) have red cross over them. When node is plugged RS Linx starts seeing this nod and red cross disappears. Is there any way to pass information about "red cross" appearance from RS Linx to the Control Logix processor? Thank you PaulB.

Another thing I would love to have, when you highlight instruction and press F1, software would bring help for this instruction. PaulB

Panic mode, Please, elaborate on this paragraph. We have application where we are planning to use two analog ultrasonic sensors, Baumer UNDK 30U6103. Each sensor will measure distance to its object. Both of these sensors will not be pointed to each other. But they will be close to each other (12-18 inch). Do you know if they will affect each other measurements. Thank you, PaulB

I've posted this and after that opened your excel file. Indeed mounting height depends on inspection area and it is expressed in tenth of mm. How critical is it? PaulB.

Machine speed of 900fpm and label size of 1.5" are within capability of this equipment. We are able count labels at that speed. I might follow your advice, and investigate vision system for this application. As you said the proper lighting will be the key factor. Do you think camera needs to look at every label or it might look at the some area equal to the width of the web by some number of label, lets say four or six? What I mean if web width is 17" and camera able to evaluate area of 17" by 6" for empty spot then speed requirments become much easier. Do you think camera can be configured to generate output only on empty spot and do not pay attention to other deffects? From what I've heard you teach camera with the "golden image" and it will react on any deviation from this image, so any difference from the image will generate output signal. PaulB.

I don't think that 30 labels per second is correct rate. 900 fpm is 15 feet per second or 180 inch per second. If label length is 1.5" it makes it 120 labels per second. I am not familiar with vision systems. Will it work at this rate? PaulB.

I have attached two pictures. This is material that is one of our customers is using. These are example of film material labels clear on clear. It also may be paper material paper on paper. The distance between labels usually about 0.2". I depends on the label size and die cut size. Labels may be as small as 1.5". It is all depends for what product they are used. For counting these labels we are using capacitive sensor Banner SLC1. This sensor needs to be oriented perpendicular to the direction of the moving web therefore I am not able to assemble array of sensors to "look" at each stream of labels. Another problem with using array of individual sensors that I do not have that many available interrupt inputs on my PLC. I would need to find some sort of device, which will combine the inputs from these sensors and generate signal in any one of the inputs is missing. Thanks. PaulB

We are manufacturing slitter rewinders, which inspect and slitt printed label materials. Roll of material (paper or film) 10"-20" width, 30" diameter, and with multiple streams of labels (4-8) on it, is unwinded, slitted on separate streams and rewinded on the small size rolls. The max speed of the machine is 900 fpm. During this process strobe light is working and printed material is visually inspected by operators. Label size and material varies from customer to customer. We are looking to automate missing label detection. Maybe I am wrong, but I am envisioning this sensor as some sort of "light curtain". Web will pass through this "light curtain". This "light curtain" will be able to detect missing label at the speed that machine is running and provide signal to PLC. I was not able to find any suitable sensor for this application. Is anybody familiar with this type of application and know anything about this type of sensors? Thanks in advance.

Thank you for help. I just downloaded GX developer on my PC. I have read it is 15 days demo mode, so I may play with the software. There are also folder Manuals in this download with the 9 manuals. I'll have "nightstand" reading. I have found old thread: learning Mitsubishi. It is very informative. Panic Mode, exelent job. Again Thank you, guys. PaulB.

Hello everybody. I am getting new job very soon. My new employer uses exclusively Mitsubishi PLC. I am not new to PLC, but most of my experience with the Allen Bradley Control Logix, SLC-500 and old Automax. I have zero experience with Mitsubishi brand. Does anyone can give recommendations how to make transition as smooth as possible, what possible pitfalls I may face, and what significant differences are between Allen Bradley and Mitsubishi? Should I start my learning from reading PLCs manuals or from GX developer software manual? I am not sure what particular models of PLC, and what software is used by employer. Are there analogy in the PLC networking between Allen Bradley products and Mitsubishi? Thanks in advance for advice. PaulB.

There is a question to all audience. There is a SLC 5/05 proccessor. I need to store time how long event, let say some fault, last. It would never last more then 8 hours = 8*60*60=28800 sec (if it more it will reset at end of the shift and start over). I can make timer TON with base time 1sec. to start timing when event starts, and use value in the ACC register. I need convert this value to Hours, minutes and seconds and store them in the words N7:0, N7:1, N7:2. Is anybody knows how to do this? There are probably some COMPUTE instructions involved. Other idea is to use register S:4 – free running clock. Let say use S:4/2 (every 40ms) and start counter CTU and count 25 pulses of S:4/2. It will be equal to one sec. Then build cascade counters logic to count minutes and hours and move values of the ACC registers to the N7:0, N7:1, and N7:2. I am wondering what would be fewer load on PLC. Right now I have average scan time 20ms and max scan time 30ms. Thank you.

Dear all, We have GE Fanuc 16i and 18i CNC controllers on the our machine centers. They have RS232 ports for programming. We would like to create SCADA system which will read information about machine cycles (time power is on/off; machine running time; faults; some operator inputs, etc.) This information would be stored in the controller memory, and at the end of each shift automaticly passed to the SCADA system. Then controller's memory would be reset and will collect information for the next shift. I spoke with the person who does programming of these machines in our place. He is saying that program such things is relatively easy. But he does not know how to pass this information from the controllers memory to the RS232 port. Is anybody has an experience in this type of applications, or knows any good source of information. Thanks. PaulB