FesterMT

Load different programs on power up with compact logix

6 posts in this topic

Hi All, Just wondering if anyone here has any experience with automatically loading different programs to compactlogix. I am open to any suggestions. So far we have been putting sd card slots on the main panels since the extender cables are limited in length so the customer needed to swap sd cards on a tooling plate change out before powering up. One of our customers now would like to change the tooling plate and have the plc automatically load the proper program for it. We don't want to have multiple subroutines because sooner or later the plc memory will run out. We also have put smaller plc's on the tooling plates themselves to hold the specific programming for the tooling plate and handshake with main frame but this particular customer does not want this.

I would like to know if anyone has done anything with wifi sd cards in CompactLogix or loading the program automatically from a pc to sd card and then switching the sd card to the plc via some kind of sd card switch before powering back up.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

How many tooling plates do they have that it would consume the entire memory of the controller?! That aside, the customer wants what the customer wants.

I assume that you're using the similar data types and tags for each of these tooling plates, and further assume that some plates may have more tags than others. Likely, the majority of the storage you're eating is in the tag data-base, and possibly in some of the nuanced (or major) differences in the way each plate is used in the process. Just guessing, but am I on the right track? If so, have you considered using the recipe function in your PanelView? Factory ME & SE have recipe functions that allow an operator to write data to enormous amounts of tag sets with the touch of a button. Individual tooling plates would have their own recipes, the base project would use a generic code, calling specific sub-routines as needed per plate. Each time a plate is changed, the operator pushes the appropriate touch screen button to load the correct settings to the controller, rather than load a whole new project.

I personally don't know of any automated means of downloading from PC to controller but I'm sure someone who was determined enough could come up with something.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks for the reply,

As you say the customer wants what the customer wants so they would like to assume that the machine frames can accommodate an infinite number of tooling plates.

We do try to keep the base logic common for clarity however there could be any number of features on future tooling plates, the 2 we are finishing right now have degating on 1 and leaktesting on the other with devices like ethernet ip (IO link) multiport blocks, technifor pinstamp, Cincinnati leaktester and zebra printers but it's not uncommon for other tooling plates to use barcode scanners and cameras for quality inspections or servos so there could be a lot of aop's for other devices.

We could just drop in a high powered processor with lot's of memory but cost is a big factor.

On the surface this seemed like something that should be do-able so I am not sure if this is an AB thing or this would be just as hard with other brands but we use a lot of other brands so I am going to investigate.

I haven't used recipes with Factory talk and didn't really think about that but it sounds like it would help with the memory consumption so I am going to consider that. We are also loading separate panelview programs with usb on the tooling plates so I am not sure if that will affect the use of recipes.

Thanks again for the advice.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Again, the idea would be to have one base PanelView program per machine, that can handle multiple tooling plates on that machine. Here's how the recipe works:

You'll have a set of tags that you want to write data to. This is called the "Tag Set". These will be the same tags for ALL of your plates on ALL of your machines. (If you're not using a particular tag with that plate or machine, then it won't be in the subroutines for that plate and will be ignored, regardless of its value).

You'll have the data that you're writing to the tags. This is called the "Data Set". 

You can write up to 50 data sets to up to 50 tag sets. So that means I can have only one tag set being written to by up to 50 data sets. Or, one set of plate tags receiving data from 50 different data sets. BUT, you are not limited to 50 plates per machine.

When you pair a data set with a tag set, you get a "Unit", and you can have up to 2,500 Units per PanelView program. This should be way more than the total number or plates you would ever put on a single machine.

1 person likes this

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

there are different ways to handle this. if you are dealing with a machine, setup your parameters list (variables that can change) and call your "recipes" from the plc. Rockwell has sample code that would give you a good start. Also, the panelview (me edition) has a me recipe plus configuration, you just have to make sure that on a runtime download the recipes are not overwritten. I made those csv files and kept a backup just in case... 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This really does sound more like a recipe application rather than a new program situation.  Many places have a hard time keeping up with one application for a PLC.  I think you would find it to be an organizational nightmare to have several programs for a single machine.  Also keep in mind any changes to the machine would require changing all of those programs.  I think you want to avoid the multiple program path at all costs.

3 people like this

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!


Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.


Sign In Now