Charlie Maher

Do not make the "RETURN" button have a visibility property. Make it always there. All of the buttons you want to secure would have the visibility set to "USER=x" and would go away after the logout time has expired. I ran into the same issue.

I like the two timer method. You can adjust the dwell for the on or off. If you need to pulse a horn, an equal on & off is usually annoying. With two timers you can have it off for 1 second and on for 100 msec, or any combo you want.

If you need more than 16 or 32 bits, make the array size bigger in the tag editor. You would then have sequence_step[0].0 to sequence_step[0].31, next would be sequence_step[1].0 to sequence_step[1].31 and on and on.

The RPI settings make a big impact on EtherNet. Low RPI values can eat up the bandwidth fast. What are the update rates set to on the HMI's? Is the network a stand alone network or are you sharing bandwidth with the company printers? How much distance is the network covering? Sorry for all of the questions Charlie

Try downloading Docklight, it can show you the data stream. http://www.docklight.de/

I had a project using a Dell server 2003, compactlogix and RSView32. The OPC was (I think) from software toolkit? The longer the system ran, the more OPC tags would vanish. Nothing would fault out, but the RSView devices would start being greyed out on the screen. If the end user re-boots the computer once a week, everything functions normally. The person who did the RSView program, said he looked into it and AB didn't support the Server 2003, at least at that time. You may want to see if the AB supports the server class windows?

"The existing logic consists of: Training logic" Is this logic to train the merge how long the run-out timers should be for each lane to clear out the last box released? If you are going to the effort to re-write the logic to solve merge issues, I would also add two photoeyes to act as jam detecs at the merge points on the second two conv's. This makes your runout timers more accurate and any jams you do have, less of a pile up. It currently looks like you don't have any jam detect PE's. Which surprises me if they were serious enough to write 241 rungs of code.

Bob is right, it starts out as one of those "all you gotta do is..." tasks. There are a lot of variables to play with. Then give the lanes different priorites. Or after a lane times out for lack of product, use the timeout value as part of the clear out timer for the next lane. I can get my hands on a pretty fancy 3 to 1 program, but not until Friday. To be honest, they are fairly hard to follow if you didn't write it. Mine makes perfect sense to me, but my boss hates it.

It looks like your getting HEX values from your example string of data. Does your meter manual have a sentence reading "Monitor, display and store data using the optional PC software"? I did a search and that is what Extech's meter describes. What meter are you using? Is there any software for it?

If you use a memory tag in the HMI, you could scale that tag in the TAG editor. Have it display 10% of the original value with one decimal place. 4500 X .10=450.0

Hello, I hope someone can assist on this. I have a Logix 5561S safety PLC and a third party device (TPD) that is communicating DF1 protocol RS422. The TPD is the DF1 master and the CLX is the slave. This was working through a ProSoft serial in-rack card, but the transfer rates were deemed too slow. The task is now to try the same thing through the CLX serial port. I have a 422->232 converter and the TX & RX lights show activity, so I feel it is working. My question is....How do I map the data that is trying to arrive via DF1 into a CLX. I am trying the PLC-2, -3, -5/SLC Mapping function, but I think the TPD is addressing the data to a decimal # not a file #. I have been trying various combinations and settings of MSG and get errors on the MSG. The TPD maker states that the device is doing PLC5 typed read/write. I am stuck, none of the MSG settings seem to do anything different. Thanks in advance for your comments, Charlie

Ken, Can you describe your setup a little more, where you have a 20 msec reply. The TPD was resending the msg if the CLX didn't reply within 55 msec. They provided newer firmware the waits longer before timeout. I now do have the two talking and the PLC2 mapping is working. Do you know if the CLX mapping creates delays?

Ken, I spoke with the TPD manuf'r and they are addressing it as a decimal number ranging from 0-1263. After looking at their message format and the DF1 manual, they appear to be using the PLC2 format. Just like you said. After a day of testing with DockLight and other utils, it seems that the CLX ch0 is not replying quickly enough to the first message, so the TPD is resending it again and again.... I am in the process if getting updated firmware for the TPD to see if slowing it down helps. Thanks, Charlie

Ken, I have attached the screen shot with the DFCM settings. This was the startup size of registers, which contained the 'whole' data amount. This large amount was used to pass config data to the TPD. After the config was accepted, the read and write register counts where changed to 200 each still starting at 0 & 600. This was an effort to reduce tx/rx times. I am working on you other suggestions, and will reply with info. The Manuf'r did state that the messages were PLC5 typed messages. Should I be able to read these as PLC2? I thought the header or addressing units were different between the types? Thanks, Charlie

Ermanco distributors use "P" #s for the conv's. P15 could be conveyor section 15. We use the 15 for all associated devices (M15 motor starter, OL15 overload, DISC15, PE1501 first PE in conv...) CS might also mean Cable Switch. The auto manuf's sometimes use COS for Cable Operated Switch. Most of us call them pull cord

Full Duplex, which I have CLX setup for DF1 Point to Point I had one in BCC and one in CRC, now both are in CRC and the 422->232 converter TX & RX lights are blinking crazily. The TPD is writing to decimal address 0 thru 455 and reading from 600 thru 1263. Which is a throwback from the Prosoft's internal database structure. I have tried several mapping versions using the 0 & 600 for the file#, but that isn't working. I am guessing this is where the problem is. I did download the Docklight, and hooked directly to the TPD, I am getting DLE and ENQ over and over.