panic mode

not sure i understand, it f the value is already in real format there is no need for any conversion. can you elaborate?

why not simply read the product datasheet?

perhaps this helps: https://www.myomron.com/index.php?action=kb&article=1572 no offense to the laptop, but industrial grade products are just built with different constraints in mind. wide temperature range, interference immunity, operation 24/7/365 for many years, includes bunch of software (fieldbus drivers for wide range of PLCs), form factor, scratch, dent, dust etc resistance. it is not comparable to consumer grade products. and try getting exact same product, off the shelf 30 years later. this is why military and lumberjacks do not use Prius for work. yes someone may drive Prius into some harsh landscape but that is not recommended or planned environment for it. this is where rugged vehicle would be needed and they cost good deal more, special drive train, fancy communication gear etc. (not just standard AM/FM radio and MP3 player).

it is simple really - your Costco laptop is cheap volume product meant to be disposable. it is not an industrial grade product meant to last and have support for 30 years while performing quietly in a harsh environment. to get help in a forum, consider offering some detail such as exact product model and software you use to program it. and read the manual. it explains functionality and how to accomplish what you are after. perhaps lookup text library. it allows you enter texts to be displayed and in different language if needed.   https://assets.omron.eu/downloads/manual/en/v1/v106_nb-designer_software_operation_manual_en.pdf

have not used Omron in long time so my best guess is that it is a 64-bit value (8bytes). if you prefix literal with DT# it should be in seconds and format may be YYYY-MM-dd-hh:mm-cs. which would make everything single byte except year. not sure if BCD or BCI coded. again, just a guess, not confirmed. you may also try DTToSec instruction, then rest should be easy. good luck

NEMA 10-30 is not grounded. it's been deemed a hazard and replaced by 14-30 long ago. there are adapters or retrofit sets for this like this to add ground connection. note that NR-J3 calls for ground to be connected.(PE = Protective Earth). https://www.evseadapters.com/products/nema-10-30p-to-14-30r-dryer-adapter/

I don't think connecting N would make any difference but it is not used in circuit shown. Question is if the N terminal is even connected to anything at all (internally). Personally i would not bother, it it was needed, manual would show it....  

thanks, i missed that part  

Can you not simply follow the documentation and wire circuit as shown? Because it shows nothing connected to N terminal. And yes, you will NEED to connect power to L1/L2 as well if you want the motor to move. Without power on L1/L2 drive will boot but it will show fault.  

check schematics... AC need to be on both of them... L11/L21 is used to power the logic portion of the drive (low power, used to boot up and run control circuitry). this portion is normally powered continuously and makes it possible to do a diagnostics etc even if MC (Master Control) is off. normally this is converted to some low DC voltage such as 24C,12V, 5V, 3.3V and low current (just for powering IO, encoder and CPU controlling the IGBTs) L1/L2 is supplying high power section (intermediate bus, inverter power stage, motor) and can be switched off for safety reason, for example if there is an emergency stop. in other words, this circuit is powered intermittently. this is converted to high voltage DC bus, high current something like 300VDC, several amps. if this is disabled (by MC) then motor is not able to run even if control circuitry is telling it to run at ludicrous speed.    red lines are indicating high current conductors (transferring power to motor). everything else is quite low current.  also MC is highlighted in yellow. top branch is typical cat1 start/stop circuit. it is just an example. modern safety often uses redundant circuits (Cat3/Cat4) but this is determined in safety review of the application.

everything has its uses. learning anything (including programming) has to be done with a goal in mind since learning programming is time consuming. one should strive to reach the goal efficiently unless the journey of learning is the goal itself. one of the challenges with learning is how soon one get to apply learned skills, for example how much one has to invest before being employable or at least avoid frustration and loosing interest. you want to motivate them with series of milestones and successes. and teaching someone how to turn on an output or use timer in ladder is quicker than teaching someone how to do the same with Arduino. also programming PLCs in ladder makes you employable very quickly.  learning to program MCUs is great and highly recommended but it is not for everyone. Arduino meant to make entry into MCU world simpler - and it succeeded. it lowered barrier of entry by making a lot of things simpler but still for plenty of people syntax and debugging options are a big turnoff. also consider is actual area of application or final goal as not all programming is the same. if you want to do databases or 3D graphics, time spent on Arduino would be nice though rather poor investment. if you want to program PLCs, ladder is a great way to start as it is simple and quick to learn (low barrier). databases are another rather low hanging fruit to be employable in rather short time (and build other skills like programming while having a job). on the other hand Arduino skills are not exactly what employers specifically look for. for industrial automation position they sure would not mind seeing it on a resume as a bonus. for embedded engineer job positions, they would be likely to scoff or laugh at it - unless this is still just a bonus/footnote and not a core competency. don't get me wrong, i encourage everyone to learn electronics and programming, and love Arduino. just offer another view. reason i mention this is because of own challenges. i tried and failed in convincing my son to give it a try - he just wasn't interested. <sigh>... i am happy for you that your kids are not like that. learning programming at any level is beneficial. i see programming today more as a literacy. it allows better use of tools we have and more and more tools are - computers. 

that should be FX2N-32CCL and not  FX2-32CCL Btw. not sure what you mean, those are CC-Link communication modules but as far as i can glance from manuals both of them can only act as slaves ("stations"). for any fieldbus to work, there also need to be a master, for example Q PLC.     

some vison systems can get sub pixel resolution as result of interpolating/averaging. but... i would not count on that. i would want to get at least 2 pixels over the error value. if camera is setup correctly, 20.00mm / 0.05mm = 400 counts but as mentioned i would like at least 2x that so absolute minimum i would even consider is 800 pixels. but that is to see the part itslf without anything around it. you also need to know how precisely part is placed and add some 20% if part is always in same place and features are easy to sense, then 800*1.2 = 960 pixels. if part can move some 10 mm in the direction of measurement, then 20+10mm = 30mm therefore 30mm/0.05 = 600 counts, and 2x that is 1200 pixels. and add 20% is 1200*1.2=1440 pixels again, this is my rule of thumb, other things could be a factor too.    

as stated, you need to make sure interface is electrically viable.  but it is unclear what the fan output really is and what is this "5V"... in fact it is also unclear what the polarity of your PLC inputs is as obviously from the screenshot, they can be PNP or NPN.  normally fan can be powered by some voltage source such as 5V or 12V or 24V for example.  in my experience the pulse output tends to be the NPN open collector type and usually it is 30V tolerant.  if that is also your case, you can connect it directly to your PLC. if the fan output is an open collector type (And 30V tolerant), supply voltage of the fan itself and voltage at the output do not need to be the same. in this case fan can operate on 5V or 1V for example while output is connected to 24V input. if the fan is open collector NPN but PLC inputs are configured for PNP, you can still use direct connection by adding pullup resistor. this need to be chosen carefully to match both fan output and plc input specs. 1.5k 0.5W would probably do just fine. if the fan output is not 30V tolerant or it is not an open collector or it is not referenced to 24V supply that PLC uses for I/O, you need to add intermediate circuit as an interface. this could be an optocoupler (with 30V tolerant output) and with one or two resistors.  on the fan oupput use something like 330 -560 Ohm 1/4w resistor in series with optocoupler input (essentially an IR LED). connect oprocoupler output to PLC input. optionally insert some current limiting resistor in series with the optocoupler output to protect it in case you make wiring mistake. note that optocouplers are polarized devices so it matters how you connect them... if you do not know fan output current rating, it is good idea to assume it is low. in that case optocoupler with higher CTR would be nice (Darlington)   

did you check it out or just just brushed it aside? you stated that you cannot find real exercises and examples and that page has some: https://canadu.com/lp/doc/index.html  

some examples of real applications often used as training exercises are - traffic light - elevator - pick and place - pump controls (equalizing aging) - conveyor tracking - automating robotic cell - product stacker/destacker etc.      

there are companies offering PLC training. they have developed set of exercises that can be applied in reasonable amount of time on trainer sets they use. but everything ultimately boils down to some commonly used patterns: - start/stop logic - toggle  - watch dog timer (sense timeout) - sequencers and state machines - initialization logic and retentive data - etc.   once the fundamentals are covered, "real applications" are on the menu and they are just application of some of commonly used patterns.  download section has bunch of examples for different platforms. many code samples are platform agnostic. i certainly don't wish to dive into special instructions unless i have no other choice. i would usually rather write something that can be easily ported to any platform. but that is because for me there is no one standard platform so i don't get (or need to) specialize.   

what do you mean exactly? websites and resource to practice programming Java, Cobol, ASM, Fortran? you posted this is Allan Bradley PLC forum so hopefully it is an AB product. You just did not mention it.... and what do you mean by "same" as real project? people do real projects for pay. are you offering to pay? if you do, you can have someone else program it for you.     

when only tool available is a hammer, all problems look like nails. if all management can comprehend is price, hit them with the highest price tag alternative you can find and... they may see the light... 

unlike normal 24VDC supply, test outputs produce waveform that contains brief diagnostic pulses (they are "off" state in the output signal). each test output has different phase (diagnostic pulses occur at different times). if input is fed from wrong output or there is a fault in wiring, input would see no diagnostic pulses or see them at wrong times and that is what would trigger fault.  

never used that specific product but things are quite standardized and likely will apply here. wiring will of course depend on product and required performance rating.  for Cat3 you can supply both contacts in a contact pair with 24VDC. for Cat4 using 24VDC is not sufficient, you need to to use test outputs. there are always pairs of test outputs. they provide "mostly 24VDC" but contain diagnostic pulses that are out of phase. this allows checking if contact pairs are wired incorrectly or if there is a fault.  it is normal to wire it as you have shown: test output 0 would be supplying first channel. that is first of the contact pairs on each input (button1 and button2) test output 1 would be supplying second channel. that is second of the contact pairs on each input (button1 and button2) some units may have multiple terminals for same test output ("test output 0" / "test output 1") but this is just to make wiring simpler. it that does not mean that one has to use them all. even if multiple terminals are driven by separate outputs (but are still labeled same way such as "test output 0"), wave form is the same on them so input channel would be unable do tell the difference. if the terminals are labeled differently then one can assume that waveforms are different too (out of phase).      

not gonna happen. in laptops CPUs are not socketed. replacement (if possible) would require desoldering of the old one, then soldering new one in assuming you have proper tool. old laptops are upgraded by replacing entire laptop. you may try to gain some improvements by exchanging that slow HDD with SSD and adding more memory. in my opinion just not worth it. 

tuning servo without load tells nothing about operation with load. but keep in mind that during tuning, servo may move erratically, out of expect range and of course crash. make sure to have at least working limits set correctly. hardware limits are preferred.

i would start by downloading and reading manuals. nice thing bout Mitsi documentation, each manual refers to other related manuals.