Luke.S

A few things that run through my mind: Are the terminating resistors set (or physically connected to the terminals if not built in) at both ends? If you configured the serial card with a ladder program, is it definitely still in the PLC memory and being scanned? Is it possible the communication driver in the HMI somehow got uninstalled?

What model of PLC and motion controller are you using?

From the PT_100 it looks like you're controlling an atmospheric temperature. That could fluctuate quickly in a duct/pipe in which case you might want a shorter sampling time. If the RTD is measuring from a large volume like a tank it will probably fluctuate more slowly so you want to increase sampling time so you don't wind up your integral. You need to tune with Kp to get the kind of response you require. I haven't seen that small PID block before but the normal one on your previous post... ...is stuck on pre tuning. The reason for that is probably because all the gains are zero so there will be no response. Or the the PLC is not correctly connected on the feedback or actuator side. If you are actually attempting to control a real process with this and your actuator is a heater of some kind, please make sure you monitor the temperature of the heater outside of the PLC and hard wire a redundant overheat alarm to shut off the heater power (MC). Otherwise this could be very dangerous if your PID goes funny or the PLC fails in some way. P.S. The StartPID bit needs to be turned on which it isn't in that picture. 

Good to know, thank you. I'll give it a try. Might save some precious setup time.. only for the mechanical engineers to delay it again :)

Is it true that you can virtually link up a simulated Gx works project to a simulated GT designer project on your PC? Without data coming from the PLC, the inputs and lamps are all just blank. If it were possible to debug the HMI and PLC together before the panel is ready, that would be very useful.

The only thing I can think of is the output d should be an array of "ANY_16" with 2 elements. Make sure your output can use 2 words (the second one is just for processing I believe).

I've been wondering about this too. I thought it was included but I always get an error when I try to start the simulator. Maybe I need to reinstall GT designer from the disk and check the option to install it somewhere.

Mitsubishi has an instruction specifically designed for ramping single word integers to soft start analogue outputs. Search for RAMP in the instructions section of the programming manual. It includes a constant to inc/decrease the rate. If CPU you're using doesn't have it you can also do it by adding a constant to a device every scan until it gets within say 10% of the "SP", then switch to the device containing the target value. You can adjust it by making the constant bigger/smaller.

Go to the Mitsubishi FA website for your region, find the product page for GT Designer and click on the downloads section (usually on the left). The latest update download will be in there. You just have to run it.

There will be a Current Feed Value and Machine Feed Value in the axis monitor data of the motion controller (assuming you are using Q or iQ series here). These can be accessed via buffer memory - look up the address in the motion controller applied manual. These values tell you how many degrees, mm etc. your axis has moved in the current positioning operation and overall respectively. How this is interpreted would depend on what control method you are using and whether it's absolute or incremental. It may also be possible to get the cumulative feedback pulses data via buffer memory too if you look it up in the manual. Or you could get the raw encoder pulses the old fashioned way from the LA, LAR, LB, LBR terminals of the servo drive. But that requires an expensive high speed counter card capable of receiving line driver output. You may also need to change some parameters in the drive to do this. Btw, the servo motor does not communicate directly with the PLC. It feeds back to and is controlled by the drive/amp which is connected to the PLC. PLCs generally are not fast enough nor have the DSP capabilities to keep up with a high precision servo motor.

Are you using function blocks and if so, did you register the local labels for them? Right click on the FB in the library and click the register option.

Probably the most common and simplest way to do it would be to nest each program in a master control which is enabled by the bit you require. e.g. (b_TESTMODE)------[MC N1 M0] | your program | --------------[MCR N1] --------------[END]

Are the D registers etc. displaying "0" or is not in monitor mode at all? If it's the former, it's possible that the data is not in the plc, not being scanned or does not match with your copy in the tool. For the latter there should be a communication error when you press F3.

What is the data type of the time format in the S7? It looks like binary coded decimal. Mitsubishi often use BCD for time displays by default. But maybe it doesn't line up exactly with Siemens format. You might have to shift the bits into the right place.   Maybe Siemens has a function to convert it into decimal or other formats. Then you can shift and mask the bits to get it into different registers for hh, mm etc. I don't have access to Siemens software so unfortunately I can't explain more.

I've not been on a project rich enough to use an R CPU yet but I imagine it's much the same as the Q series; you can set the auto refresh devices on the CC-Link settings dialogue. No programming needed. On the FX5U side it's a bit more complicated because it does not have a native CC-Link module (yet?). I assume you are connecting the FX3U-64CCL to the FX5U via an FX5-CNV-BUS converter. In this case you have to make a program to access the buffer memory containing the remote device data in the 64CCL directly with FROM and TO commands. Just follow the programming example in the 64CCL manual. Bear in mind that M8000 (always on) etc. will need to be exchanged with SM400 etc. for the 5U. The manual was written for FX3 series. There are no parameters to set in GX Works 3. Just the switches on the 64CCL unit itself. But make sure you don't read or write to devices which are out of the range you are using (depending on no. of stations occupied, cyclic setting) otherwise the unit will return an error. 

Sorry if this is really obvious and you already tried it but is Gx Works set to display comments in the display menu at the top? When you read a new file from the PLC it tends to reset all Gx Works settings.

Yeah some things in Mitsubishi can be a real headache to work out the first time but once it's up and running it is a solid platform and very flexible. I'm pretty sure that the SD card is proprietary.

It sounds like coils are being used more than once in a scan. Look for instructions with k4Mxxxx in them (writing bits in blocks of nibbles) or FROM instructions batch writing to bits. They often cause trouble. Or maybe a HMI or other device is manipulating them in some way and it hasn't been documented properly in the code. 

You can directly specify a buffer memory location on the newer HMIs with G and the unit no. in the numerical display settings GUI. I haven`t used those particular VFDs but it should work with them. To clear the alarm history open the user alarm that you created and check Buffering Data Clear Trigger Device and set the bit you want to use for that action. To use fixed scan you need an interrupt pointer at the top of a program file which is set to standby (instead of scan) in CPU Parameter -> program setting. This interrupt pointer must be enabled with the IMASK command beforehand. The IMASK command takes the bit pattern stored in a set of registered specified by the user and masks the interrupt pointers with it. So only pointers whose bit you have set to "1" will be enabled. First you need the DI command (disable interrupt), then execute IMASK, then the EI command. For example below I wanted to use interrupt pointer I28 so I wrote hex 1000 to the register for I16 to I31 so that b12 would be on. Make sure the IRET instruction is at the bottom of interrupt program too.

How a card is addressed is not related to the programming tool. Those d registers are special registers (like SD on Q and iq) for adapters which plug directly into the main CPU in the case of FX3 series. The card you are using plugs into the bus and its location is not fixed so it must be accessed via the correct buffer memory address exactly the same as in Gx developer.

You probably can't do it with Gx developer unless you can write the in built ethernet settings with a ladder program. With GX Works 2 you can set the PLC's I/P address in PLC parameters. Then go to the network center in the control panel on your PC and find your LAN adapter. Click on its properties button and then open the TCP/IP settings. Select "use the following IP address:" and enter the same address as in the PLC +1 (assuming there's nothing else connected on the LAN).

The HMI probably has a diode or transistor for reverse polarity protection so unless there was 24VDC +\- 20% on the earth wire it should not have worked. It's hard to say what happened without the diagram of the full circuit. Is the ioniser also powered by the same 24V PSU? Is the PSU output floating (neither of the terminals connected to earth)?

Did anyone make any changes to the PLC or HMI settings recently? Or write any program data to them? Is the serial cable securely plugged in and not damaged anywhere?

Is it connected by ethernet or serial port? PLC/HMI Manufacturer? Model no?

Hi Ian, You don't need to choose the QJ71 in I/O assignment. I don't think it even appears in the drop down lists. Just showing that 2 channels are being taken up by the network card will be enough there. You can enter a name for it just to document. The important settings are all in network parameters -> CC IE. As long as the QCPU knows where the start I/O no. of the card is, it can access data from it via buffer memory. Regarding the HMI, I put all my alarm flags in consecutive M coils then make a user comment list in the Same order with the strings to display. Then create a user alarm which can be set to use n consecutive bits (starting from my first alarm M coil). Then set that to use the comment list created. These functions are on the nav tree.  Then place an alarm display object from the objects menu and set it to use the user alarm created. If you'd like an example let me know. As for importing labels, I'd like to learn about that too if anyone knows how.