Timers in structured text

[Bobodopalus 2]

HI everyone

ive decided to try and use a structured text function block for an machine output calculation, to put it simply i want the machine to say how many units its outputting per minute so i thought it would be much nicer to have a basic maths Structured text block rather than a long bit of ladder for some simple instructions.

i have 2 inputs, one is the start of the machine cycle, the other is the end of the machine cycle. every cycle is one unit output.

i want to time the gap between input 1 and 2 then just a bit of simple maths 60/(cycle_time) for uniters per minute.

i want this to be to 2 decimal places for a reasonable resolution.

the main problem im having is the timers in structured text, im a little confused how they work

i would do this in ladder by having input 1 set a bit and then input 2 resetting this bit(i assume i can set a bit by using an if statement [if input 1 true, timer{bool}true])

this timer bool would then activate the timer, again how i would do it in ladder would be to have a timer1 count down from &500 then use a maths block for 500-timer1 and this would give time elapsed

this is the bit i really dont know how to do in structured text and would appreciate any help in the matter.

otherwise i can just do it in ladder

 

added my idea of what it would look like

IF Cycle_start=TRUE THEN
    Timer_start:= TRUE;
ELSIF Cycle_end=TRUE THEN
    Timer_start:= FALSE;
END_IF;
TIMHX(Timer_start, Cycle_timer,Timer_time);
Cycle_time_bin:= 500-Timer_time;
Cycle_time_real:= UINT_TO_REAL(Cycle_time_bin);
Cans_per_min:= 60.0/Cycle_time_real;

Edited 20 May 2020 by Bobodopalus

[Bobodopalus 2]

after a bit more fiddling i got the timer to stop and start , the IF statement wasnt working as expected

IF Cycle_start=TRUE THEN
    Timer_start:= TRUE;
END_IF;
IF Cycle_end=TRUE THEN
    Timer_start:= FALSE;
END_IF;
TIMHX(Timer_start, Cycle_timer,Timer_time);
Cycle_time_bin:= (500-Timer_time);
Cycle_time_real:= UINT_TO_REAL(Cycle_time_bin);
Cans_per_min:= 60.0/Cycle_time_real/100;

 

the thing that needs adjusting now is i need to record the time the timer ended on as it resets on cycle end, i need to snapshot it before it resets and the cycle_time_bin isnt working do i need some symbol attached to the 500? i tried & but that gave an error

[Bobodopalus 2]

after alot more fiddling and this probably isnt the best way of doing it i got it to output what i wanted. for whatever reason dividing on the cans per min line gave an incorrect final answer but moving it to Cycle_time_real seemed to make it work :/

 

heres the final working code if anyones interested

IF Cycle_start=TRUE THEN
    Timer_start:= TRUE;
END_IF;
IF Cycle_end=TRUE THEN
    Timer_snap:= Cycle_timer.PV;
    Cycle_end_bit:= TRUE;
END_IF;
IF Timer_10.CF THEN
    Timer_start:= FALSE;
    Cycle_end_bit:= FALSE;
END_IF;
TIMHX(Cycle_end_bit, Timer_10,1);
TIMHX(Timer_start, Cycle_timer,500);
Cycle_time_bin:= (500-Timer_snap);
Cycle_time_real:= UINT_TO_REAL(Cycle_time_bin)/100.0;
Cans_per_min:= 60.0/Cycle_time_real;