Posted 5 Feb 2022 Hey, (Programming a M224 with Machine Expert Basic) I'd like to get some input from you guys about a logical task: I have 8 contactors controlled by my PLC outputs, they heat a water boiler. throughout my operation, I require a different amount of heaters (I could move between 1-8 heaters in a single operation) I would like to scramble what contactors I put in use every time I start an operation, in order to not constantly use the same heating elements and wear specific ones out. For example, in the first stage of heating I will use contactor #1, next time I start the operation I would like to use contactor #2 and so on.. How would you approach this problem? SBR? Timers? Thanks 1 person likes this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 6 Feb 2022 Hey This is a intresting challenge and idea I like it , How much time can you alot to it? is it posisble to keep a timer for how long each element has been run ? I might go in the direction of making a array of timers and then sorting the timers and using x amount from the unused side Cheers Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 6 Feb 2022 I also went for the timers - what I did was time each contactor, then sort the array of TMx values, stored the sorted array in more memory words and then back-compared the sorted memory word to every timer. this way I could choose the group of contactors that had worked the least (or most). But in the automation system I am working on I do not want to equalize all the timers - since they are heating elements I want them to work for different lengths of time so they do burn out all together. I was thinking in the direction of a shift bit every time the system goes on/off - an arbitrary shift with no regard to how long the heating elements have been used, but I am having trouble implementing this. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 11 Feb 2022 Have you moved forward with this issue , what wast the development? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites