Emerald

OK.  Thank you for helping so far.  What would you suggest I use instead?  I did some research and it seems an Arduino would be a good option.  Can you recommend one for this task?   I'm confused about your comment that my logic is no good.  You say it should never display a "corrupt" result.  Since that is the only issue I am having and you seem to indicate it is a programming issue, why are you also saying speed is an issue?  Your comment implies (even if you didn't mean it to) that if a programming error is fixed then my problem will go away. I programmed with ladder logic.  What I did is when someone rings in, it disables all the buzzers until reset by the "host" of the show.  Also I made it so that pressing and even holding down the button only sends a quick pulse, rather than being able to hold closed a contact.  The thing is that if two people ring in at exactly the same time it activates 2 relays at the same time and both send instructions to the outputs resulting in more than one set of lights lighting up.  It activates 3 relays at the same time really.  It activates lets say the relay that makes a 12 display and the the relay that makes a 14 display, as well as the one that disables all the buzzers.  Since they all activate at the same time they all happen. When I programmed this I assumed (incorrectly) that as soon as someone pressed a button it would disable the buttons, but instead what happens is that after a person presses a button there is actually a delay (milliseconds only I would guess) allowing another button to still activate it's relay.   So which is it?  The programming is wrong? The Relay is too slow?  Both?  Could you elaborate on the answer you give please? Thank you again.

I used a digital display that tells which section of the digits to light up.  If pressed fast enough both 12 and 14 get triggered before the function that locks out anyone from pressing any other buttons.  So a 12 and 14 superimposed become 18.   Do you know why I cannot set the PLC faster?  It claims to be able to operate much faster but wont take the changes.  Is there some sort of limitation I am not aware of?

Hello, I used a Schneider Electric SR3B261B PLC to create a trivia machine (as I call it).  Basically 20 buttons that let contestants ring in to trivia.  There is a display that shows the number of the person who rang in.  It works pretty well unless people press the buttons at exactly the same time.  Then it shows 2 results at the same time.  Usually resulting in a display of 18 when really it was 12 and 14 that rang in, for example. The PLC has options for: "Adjustment of the basic cycle time of the module."   and "Type of Hardware Input Filtering." Which I assume would make the PLC operate faster and avoid two inputs triggering at the same time.  If I change the setting and update the changes do not keep.  I appear unable to change it past 20 x2 ms  and slow (3ms). Is that a correct assumption that changing this would fix it? Why can I not change this?  Is it because I have so many inputs (14 or so) and Outputs (16 or so)? or because my program uses nearly all 240 lines of ladder logic allowed? What can I do to fix this?   Emerald