Logix5000 SFC Tutorial

[whatjusthappened 0]

Does anyone know where I can find a good tutorial on SFC programming in Logix5000? I have version 17 installed. I tried reading the manual from Rockwell but a video tutorial would help me a lot. Thanks

[Pulsar2003 0]

Hello, I was lucky to have learned PLC programming at school. It was DirectSoft with Koyo PLC. I had to learn AB's. Personality I find their software more user friendly. Go on Ebay. Category: Buisness and Industrial. Electrial and Test Equipment. Industrial Automation, Control. Control Systems and PLCs. Allen Bradley. On the left side of the screen you will see a down arrow and TYPE, at the lower part of this rectangle you will see: Choose more... This will open up another dialog box and choose: Software. Personalty I've purchase a few tutorial from PLC_TRAINING. You have DVD and CD with exercises. I would suggest that you buy the bundle with RSLogix 500 and 5000. There are basics that are covered in the 500 that will not be explained in the 5000. For just about $100 US it's worth it. Keep in touch.

[KidPLC 2]

Hi whatjusthappened, Sorry can't help you with a tutorial but I personally do allot of programming using SFC, I am happy to help you out where I can, feel free to fire all questions that come up to the forum. I am not sure what field you work in but maybe pick one of your processes and spec a system and do an SFC for it then put the code on the site for people to critique, you will certainly get some constructive feedback from that which in turn will help you to better develop your SFC skills. Cheers KidPLC

[whatjusthappened 0]

Thanks guys for the replies. I was just looking for something simple and quick that explains the different components of an SFC, how they work, and maybe gives an example. I'm pretty familiar with Logix5000 but I've never done SFC programming. I do have the "SFC and ST Programming Languages" manual. It's just that I learn a little better if I see it done. Maybe I'll try it in a test program and post the code here for critique like you suggest KidPLC. Thanks again

[paulengr 44]

That's just about all you need to do. Just remember that an SFC is not a "first class citizen" in terms of IEC 61131 languages. In other words, unlike Ladder Logic, Structured Text, Instruction List, or Function Block, you really can't (without abusing the syntax) "write" your entire program in an SFC. The SFC has some capabilities can have little snippets of structured text on the diagram. But it's not designed as a full blown programming language. The idea here is to have a few "flags" which indicate the status of your system which the SFC follows. The SFC calls individual high level functions one at a time. Look in AB's sample code database for "Power Programming" (under Tools & Resources) and "SFC" with the "Technologies and Functionalities" drop-down (leave the other entries blank). Also check out some of the presentations for this subject that they've done at their automation fairs. Don't worry about the over-reliance on Phase Manager. Phase Manager is effectively just a pre-programmed SFC with limited capabilities. It was more or less designed simply to satisfy the S88 folks, but missed the boat in terms of becoming a true full blown state machine system. SFC's are intended to be slightly generalized state machines (they allow parallel steps) but don't quite live up to the simplicity of a true state machine. Typically what you'd actually do with an SFC is to start with a high level description of a sequence of events such as "add ingredient A, add ingredient B, add ingredient C, run mixer, dump batch". Or if you have an assembly line where you have a walking beam or a conveyor tying several individual stations together that all have to finish their steps before the conveyor can be indexed, each of those becomes a "step" on the SFC but they are written in parallel. The code that the SFC calls is usually very simple and very high level because the steps in an SFC only execute when the SFC calls them. Your low level code that runs continuously is usually located in a separate program. The SFC program and it's subroutines usually sits at a "top level" in your program design issuing commands and monitoring status bits from the lower level code that runs in a separate program. As far as writing SFC's goes...just try playing with the editor. At first it will drive you nuts trying to use it. But once you get the basic idea, it's fairly intuitive on a ControlLogix system. It is anything but intuitive on a SLC or PLC-5 and I do not recommend using SFC's on either platform.

[KidPLC 2]

Just completed my first machine using Phase Manager and I personally liked it. I used the Rockwell power programming info as a base and went from there......I think it is worth the effort. I have alot of machines that employ a rotary table and static stations which is pretty typical in manufacturing and assembly and the static stations are all programmed using SFC which works really well. There are a couple of ways to approach the programming of them however once you get it worked out they are very easy to impliment although they are the heaviest of the languages on memory. My predecessor just about managed to program quite a large machine in only SFC so yes it is possible and yes I agree with Paul in saying that it is not the best way to go for everything, ladder is still the most memory efficient.

[Greg S 0]

I ran accross this hands on lab for the SFC and ST programming. You will need to be connected with the internet and then open RS Logix 5000 next click on the "help" pulldown menu and pick "Resource center" then pick "sample code" type SFC in the "under title/ description" box and click search. Click on the "Programming in SFC and ST language" download and you can use this hands on lab. Maybe this will help. The zip file is named MMS_043879.

[whatjusthappened 0]

Thanks guys for all of the replies. I will keep in mind the thoughts and advice from paulengr. I didn't know about the hands on lab. I'll have to check that out.

[pdext 0]

Here's a quick video on the basics on SFC Programming using RSLogix5000. It's for those wanting to learn the basic on SFC using a ControlLogix PLC. Enjoy! pdext