RalphW

I'm activating cushioned hydraulic cylinders. I'm measuring the fact that the attachment on the cylinder has "grabbed" something and I using a pressure switch to see the spike in the pressure indicating that I now need to stop the cylinders. If I put a large enough pressure switch to mask out the initial pressure spike that I see from pushing the cylinder off of the cushions I don't always see the grab portion. Putting in a "debounce" on the pressure switch doesn't always filter out the spikes. I settled on a 0.1 second, 64 sample, running average to filter it out. It's working in tests, but hasn't been put into production. Ralph

Thanks, That answered my main questions... I wound up writing my own so I could adjust the sample rate. Working well so far. Thanks again. Ralph

Greetings, I have 2 questions, one specific, and the 2nd more general… Specifically: CPM2A, AVG instruction. What governs the sample period? I’m running an application where I want to “smooth” out my reported machine RPMs. I want to sample the max samples, i.e. 64, but I can’t determine what the sample rate the instruction is using. The book doesn’t say and I’m assuming it’s program scans, but I need to be sure. In general: I really need to filter out sudden spikes and drops in a value. The closest I have found with the CPM2A is averaging it out, but my confusion on the sample rates makes me want more. Are there any better "data smoothing" routines? I need to avoid sudden jumps while still maintaining the responsiveness (within 1/2 - 1 sec) of the system. Thanks, Ralph

Greetings, I have numerous PLCs in the field on mobile equipment. What, in the group's modest opinion, would be the best, easiest, and/or cheapest method of remotely logging into a PLC installed on a vehicle? My company spends too much money now throwing parts at problems (i.e. sending out new pre-programmed PLC's) hoping to clear up the problem when we don't really know if the technician is just not telling us everything or the PLC is actually bad or not. Ideally I would like to require all of our distributors (who do not have PLC trained mechanics) to get a set of equipment that would allow me and my co-workers to "log" into a troublesome PLC and troubleshoot the issues. Or even make program distribution downloads if we had to. When my customers have vehicles down...someone ain't making money!!! So...bottom line. How would you guys solve this issue? Cell phones? Internet Connections? VPNs? What? I'm open to any idea. I thought about using cell phones and bluetooth connections, but haven't gotten a chance to get deep enough into it. Thanks in advance. Ralph

That is strange...I have 2 seperate sections of STL statements in the logic I'm looking at. One near the beginning of the ladder and another near the end. If it were isolated from the rest of the ladder I would have understood it...but imbedded like that? So...I have about 8 ladder rungs of logic...a section of STL stuff...a return statement...much more ladder rungs...finally another section of STL stuff at the end. Hence my confusion. I've downloaded the documents you suggested, I even have the manual handy and have been going by it...it was just a wee bit confusing. Thanks, Ralph

Greetings, I have a program that I am trying to translate... I have several rungs that have only -----[sTL S11] (or other status registers.) From my reading, I think I understand the STL function, but I have several questions. 1.) Does any STL Sx have to have a corresponding [RET]? I have quite a few nested ---[sTL Sx] and only see a single ---[RET]. Does the single [RET] serve all of the preceeding ---[sTL Sx]? 2.) What does the [sTL Sx] get you over a basic flag? It seems to me that I could accomplish the same task using SET, RST on a memory location to acheive the same effect. Or am I really missing something? 3.) My understanding would be that when a ----[sTL Sx] rung is encountered unless the corresponding Sx status relay is SET, the following section is not executed. At which point will the ladder logic continue executing? After the subsequent [RET]? (This makes the most sense to me based on the logic I have in front of me since it would only require a single [RET] statement to service multiple ----[sTL Sx] statements. In this case, it further muddies the waters between using the STL and a memory flag.) Thanks so much for you help in advance. Ralph

Thanks for your help gentlemen. I got the programs open. (You have to go ahead and create a new project first.) Thanks again. Ralph

Thanks for the advice so far. I have GX Developer (8.something). I'll have to look at it and see how to import them. THanks again. Ralph

Greetings, I'm new to the site and have a question: I need to convert a PLC program from Mitsubishi to Omron. I have done this before, but not on a program this old. Instead of the current, project based files, I have files with the following extensions: .hdr, .mnt, .nam, . prg, .prm, and .prt. What do I need to use to read these files? Thanks in advance, Ralph