Mendon Systems

From your pictures it appears that your serial cable might not be correct. Check the pinout of the connectors against the manual.

This is a fairly quick tip for anyone who needs to write data to a COM port within a Maple Systems macro. There is a timing issue with the OUTPORT() macro instruction that causes dropped data from a buffer overrun at baud rates below 38,400. The simple workaround is to add a DELAY() instruction in the macro for every 16 characters of output. DELAY(25) works well for 9600 baud. Here is a short code segment from a much longer macro: macro_command main() char Comma[1]={44} char CrLf[2]={13,10} char Slash[1]={47} char Month[2] char Day[2] char Year[4] //Process date from system clock GetData(Clock, "Local HMI", LW, 9021, 1) DEC2ASCII(Clock, Month[0], 2) OUTPORT(Month[0], "Comm3", 2) OUTPORT(Slash[0], "Comm3", 1) GetData(Clock, "Local HMI", LW, 9020, 1) DEC2ASCII(Clock, Day[0], 2) OUTPORT(Day[0], "Comm3", 2) OUTPORT(Slash[0], "Comm3", 1) GetData(Clock, "Local HMI", LW, 9022, 1) DEC2ASCII(Clock, Year[0], 4) OUTPORT(Year[0], "Comm3", 2) OUTPORT(Comma[0], "Comm3", 1) DELAY(25) // Send delimiter OUTPORT(CrLf[0], "Comm3", 2) end macro_command

I had a requirement today to use 2 wire AC prox switches in series and of course they did not work. I am not 100% sure why but I suspect that the current draw from the 2nd prox in the off state was not sufficient to keep the triac (or whatever) in the first prox turned on. I was able to resolve the problem by installing a 100k ohm 1/4 watt resistor from the output of the first prox to the AC common. The second prox connects to a relay coil. I had a similar problem with a prox connected only to an AC input module and was able to solve it the same way. Yes, I know that a relay connected to each prox would have worked but I did not have the room to install them and the resistors are about 1% of the relay and socket cost.

That type of control will only work if you are not expecting the stepper drives to be synchronized. The exact requirements will depend on the PLC you use and the stepper drive RS232 protocol.

Yes!! I agree that would be a much cleaner solution and also is much easier to follow the logic.

I have experimented with it a little bit on an HMI5070TH that I had here for another project. It works OK using a VNC client on a PC but WAY to small on a cell phone. The complaint that I have about it is that there is no way to detect when the VNC is connected to disable functions that should not be permitted from remote access. My worst nightmare is some kid with a cell phone app gaining access to a customer's system.

Just for reference, I had the same error this morning because the PLC had run out of comment memory. I had to increase the number of comment blocks to resolve it.

Excellent tip Steve. Thank you for solving my problem also!!

Has anyone been able to get an NS terminal to save more than 1 data log file. All the documentation says it will save up to 999 log files, but all I can get it to do is overwrite the existing file.

Yes, I have that information. We are beginning to suspect this is a problem with the simulator in CX Designer and not with the actual NS terminal.

Thanks. That solves my problem!!

Does anyone know of a way to save the current values of the registers that are linked to a data block?? The intent is to adjust settings on a process until everything works well, then save the current settings as a baseline for the next time a similar material is run.