bagged2drag

Yes, I actually noticed the bit about the screens being unreliable, or more precisely, not very durable.   I have 4 machines; 1 is 2 years old, the others are 1 year old, and areas of the screens are already "wearing out."  I have had to increase button sizes etc.   I am actually thinking of resorting to electro-mechanical buttons for some functions in fact, as it is so problematic.   One other oddity with the Siemens HMI is use of the CF/SD card slot.  I'd like to export data regularly, but it seams as though doing so is very cumbersome and not actually "built in" like most HMI's (need to use vb?). You have any advice on this?  Maybe some available source code/etc?  Where does that code need to reside, etc?  I am assuming on the host os of the HMI?

Thanks Joe.  I haven't revisited this but I appreciate the advice.   I found the tag name database connecting the hmi tags to the plc tags in our other equipment.  That is generally the route I go now, and I just search for the tag in the dropdown.    I'm still much more familiar with Rockwell projects, but this Siemens is growing on me a bit.  Still seems cumbersome vs rockwell when writing ladder, but the HMI aspect seems a bit nicer than factorytalk view...  

Thank you much for the reply.    

Hello, Has anyone over connected and configured an Omron plc via Ethernet or EIP to a Mitsubishi PLC?   Our vendor is trying to retrofit our mitsu robot system and is integrating an NX series Omron.  They only need 1 word of data each way, but are unfamiliar. Any help or resources would be appreciated.  Kris

Has anyone configured a Festo Modbus device (controller) to work with a Fanuc robot?  Working with someone; they configured the robot and Festo device as expected, but the Festo Device is not seeing any I/O data from the Robot.  Both devices are un-faulted (ie, seem to be communicating as they should).  Is there an offset in the data?    This is generally a straightforward operation; at least with most devices I have worked with in the past.    Both devices have 4 words input and 4 words output.   

2 subjects here.   First, I am pretty new to function blocks.  I somewhat get that you can create a function block and use it in multiple places to control similar functions.  I am working on a program that someone else created.  It uses a function block to control a variety of servos.  What I don't quite understand is how it is determined what outputs to use.   The system uses profinet.   I watched a couple videos, but they really didn't explain anything....they just showed how to make a simple function block with no dialogue.    More importantly. and unrelated, I need to somehow export some data (scrap and production counts) to a CSV or via ftp to a computer.    I am using TIA Portal V13 with WinCC Comfort.    I've done similar functions in the past using Automation Direct and Proface HMI's, and they were much more intuitive than the Siemens.    Thanks,

I am in a similar boat as you AndrewG.   The basics of the siemens software isn't so much different than something like logix5000.   Navigating and finding where the functions are is not near as intuitive, from what I've found.  The integrated HMI software is pretty nice however, but again, seems to be a bit difficult to do what is normally considered mundane functions (data logging, etc).   I have also found much less response to the Siemens platform vs AB - this could be a regional issue however.   I wish I had more to offer, but I am learning as well.   

It may be a silly question, but where does one begin when looking to do a risk assessment?   I have found some general guidelines to follow when doing one, but I am looking for either a template or cheap (free) software to use to conduct a risk assessment.   I know this is an important aspect when determining machine safety etc, but it seems that, though everybody knows this, there are few resources available.  

I am looking into some insight.  We have a piece of equipment that came into our facility provided by a 3rd party, but brand new.  We recently ran into some electro-mechanical problems (DC brushed motor went bad, armature shorted to ground).  The motor still works because of how it failed, but it caused the dc controller to fail in the on state.  We learned that the drive was not tied into the safety circuit in any way so even though the control power was off and e-stop was pushed, the motor still turned on and ran even though it wasn't getting the input to "run." Looking at the electrical prints, I see that the motor control, along with numerous other components on the AC circuit, were not tied into the safety circuit in any way (no mcr, and in some cases(such as vibratory feeers), not even a control relay driven off the plc).   My question is this:  what are the requirements for safety in these regards, and what would you think is the best way to approach such a problem?   Of course, I would expect all motion to stop with an e-stop regardless, but should this be done on a safety rated  level, or just single channel components? I err to the dual channel path myself, and have also chosen to shut down the equipment until the vendor fixes it, but that comes to a huge loss to our business.

I am reaching out to both local vendors and Siemens directly to get a definite answer.   I looked at the electrical schematic for the relay.  It shows only a single relay, not redundant as one would expect for safety rated.   It also has a mechanical means in which to energize the relay manually, which I thought to be a big no-no for anything safety rated.    Thanks,  

Thank you Joe.  This is an area in which our operators have direct contact to the walking beam indexer when the machine stops.  Your statement reaffirms what I thought; it should be protected with a safety rated contactor.     Currently, the machine builder wants me to tie in to the control relays in place (siemens contact adder p/n 3RH2911-2GA31 on a relay siemens p/n 3RH23712FB40).   From the info I see, neither of these are safety rated (they do get 24v control power from a safety relay though - no 110v is tied in anywhere).  Does that constitute being safety rated then?  I would think, no, but maybe I am wrong here.   The one is a force guided relay.  documentation from Siemens doesn't indicate either is safety rated.      

My other question: if his method is satisfactory, Is it ok and normal to wire in both AC and DC power on the same contactor?  I know physically it is possible without issue, but is it considered safe practice?  He wants me to tie the AC power that supplies power to the dc controller.  

Thank you.  That is somewhat the direction I expected as well, but I wanted to verify.   The vendor which built the equipment wants me to just wire in to an existing control relay which is currently tied in to a PILZ safety relay.   The control relay they want me to run the power through is a Siemens 3RH2911-2GA31.  Although pulled in from the safety relay, this contactor itself is not a safety rated device.    This would "get the job done," but I am not sure his recommendation is correct.  I have the understanding that the power should be controlled from  a safety rated contactor.       

Wondering if anyone can give me some ideas here:  We had a couple, what we are guessing, electrical surges in the past week.  These surges have taken out a half dozen robots servo controllers each time.  We have the electric company hooking up to monitor to see if it is an external issue or internal, as well as getting an electrician in to check things out.   Meanwhile, while our maintenance was checking things out, there is pair of receptacles tied to  a single bus.  Each receptacle is individually fused (3 phase- 3 fuses).  One feeds to the robot, the other is not hooked to anything.  1 of the fuses was blown in the unused receptacle after both instances of the electrical surges.   Our maintenance confirmed there is no short to ground, so I don't see how a  fuse which is completely open could blow without some sort of short to ground.  Any ideas?  

I am working on a system with a siemens plc and HMI using TIA Portal V13 and WinCC. I wanted to remove to buttons from the HMI so the operator no longer has access to them. I removed them in the project (saved them on a temporary screen). When I uploaded the changes to the HMI, the buttons still exist. I also tried the simulator and I had the same results. Do I need to manually un-register the buttons somewhere? Also, I made a new screen and changed one of the screen change buttons to direct toward it. When testing it, a blank screen showed up instead of the screen that I directed it to. I have done a lot of plc/hmi programming in the past, but I have never experienced symptoms as such.  I am new to the Siemens world.  I have traditionally used AB products.   Are there a lot of nuances with WinCC that I am unaware of? Kris   

I a tried upgrading logix5000 from v17 to v20.1.   While 5000 is launching, it shows at the bottom that versions up through 20.1 are installed, but once it is fully loaded and logix is up, when I go to the help- about, it only shows version 17 even if I choose the dropdown.  Does anyone know if this is normal?  Alternatively, would somebody have a file they could send me that is v20 so I can verify it works? When I did the update, most of the upgrade selections seemed to fail, but when I tried to reinstall, it said everything was already installed.    Kris

So I was able to log in to rockwell.  But to get my activation, I still have to enter the product key.  I am looking on my old computer to see if I kept a digital copy of it.  I am hoping I did, but I had a lot of files that got corrupted when I backed up my data. 

I was trying to figure out how to rehost it.  I did the rehost aspect successfully, but when I try to "get activations,"  I enter my sn, but I don't have the product key any longer (i was dumb and didn't keep it: lesson learned).  So I am unsure how to get the activation now.   I found the email I have from setting up the original techconnect, but I no longer have access to the email server I set it up on.   I also tried to create a virtual network adapter so I could choose that for the host id, but it doesn't show up.  How exactly do you set up the host only networks?   I have both an xp and win7 32 bit vm on my laptop, and from the sounds of it, it may be better to use  32bit version of win7 anyway with factorytalk view, when I set it up.    

Thank you both for the reply.   Right now I am unable to upgrade to anything beyond 20.01.  At this moment don't have the capital to purchase a new version of logix5000.   I actually have the installer for 24 (logix designer), but my 20.01 is installed on a winxp virtual machine, so I can't install 24 on it as it's not compatible (unless someone knows a workaround).  I didn't know the perils of putting my license on the vm when I had gotten the computer a number of years back, nor did I know the hassle of dealing with factorytalk activation (I was brand new to programming at the time).