Blogs

Automation World's 2013 Leadership in Automation--Please Vote

Cast your ballot! Unitronics has been nominated for Automation World's 2013 Leadership in Automation Program. This allows automation professionals to recognize innovation, leadership and excellence among suppliers of automation software, technology and products. Voting is Easy: Please take a moment to help us win! Click here to vote: http://www.automationworld.com/leadership/leadership/profiles/unitronics-inc?utm_source=leadership_magnet&utm_medium=referral

July 9, 2013

Control Engineering 2013 - AND THE WINNER IS: V570-57-T20B-J!!!

Unitronics is proud to announce that the V570-57-T20B-J has won the Control Engineering 2013 Engineers' Choice Award in the category of Hardware - Integrated HMI Controllers. The general awards page is here: http://www.controleng.com/events-and-awards/engineers-choice-awards/2013/winners.html The V570-57-T20B-J page is here: http://www.controleng.com/index.php?id=95&no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=82129

March 28, 2013

Control Engineering: Choice Awards: Vision570

Our Vision570 has made it to the finals in the category of Hardware - Integrated HMI controllers. If you'd like to cast a vote for the Vision570, go here: http://www.controleng.com/events-and-awards/engineers-choice-awards/2013-engineers-choice-awards-finalists.html

December 18, 2012

Unitronics Distributors Conference Report

Unitronics Distributors Conferences: Networking for Mutual Benefit in the Industrial Automation Sector This year, the Unitronics’ Marketing Department is holding two separate conferences, one for our global partners and another for Unitronics USA. Mixing business with pleasure, swapping stories from the field and technical tips, conferences are fun—and of great practical benefit for all. The first, the Unitronics’ Global Distributors Conference was a resounding success. It was held in Paris,

April 25, 2012

TELESTAR (Italian)

TELESTAR

Visit the TELESTAR Blog: http://blog.telestar-automation.it/ Visita il nostro sito ufficiale www.telestar-automation.it

unitroni

April 1, 2012

CanOpen and the things that creep up on you

So after a lengthy wait, I finally got the go-ahead to execute my long awaited CanOpen rebuild project in November. I can't go into the details of the machine itself, but I wanted to share a few critical learnings from contending with it during the installation and commissioning. 1. AC Tech Servo Drives - worked like champions, but I ran into an issue with the OEM limit switches. These were two-wire proxes, and leakage current wrought havoc on my sensitive new drives. This was addressed by

January 3, 2012

Thoughts on Linux

Like alot of people, I still use Windows XP for running my work-related programs. I know, lost in the 90's, but it works well for me. About a year ago, I had a PC crash that set me back severely. I didn't lose any data - for years now, I've kept all my project data in a single folder, and copy-pasted to my backup hard drive regularly. However, it took three days to reinstall all the software after I recovered the PC. That got me thinking - there's got to be an easier way to do this. As the

September 23, 2011

Protective Covers for Unitronics Vision Controllers

As has been noted elsewhere... Protective Lexan Covers are Now Available for All Vision Controllers. Even though the Unitronics Vision controllers are very economical, there’s no sense damaging them when you can easily apply a durable protective cover. We now offer a self-adhesive Lexan protective film custom cut for each Vision controller from Unitronics. This includes the V130, V350, V280, V290, V530, V560, V570, V1040and V1210. These protective covers are resistant to the following chem

Matthew

August 9, 2011

Simon's Blog

PLC Scan Time (Enhanced Family)

A lot of my time is spent explaining/verifying/demonstrating. The attached program shows the scan time for a V1040/V1210 and also demonstrates the logic required to do the same for any of the Enhanced family of PLCs. ScanTime Tester.vlp

Simon

August 5, 2011

WEBINAR - Modems

Recorded Live: Wednesday, June 22nd 2011 Presented By Anthony Nicolaides Applications Engineer - Unitronics Inc. This webinar covers the basics of implementing modems with Unitronics controllers. WEBINAR - Modems <iframe width="960" height="750" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/t7W7Jt3H3f8?rel=0&hd=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

June 22, 2011

WEBINAR - Troubleshooting Tips

Recorded Live: Wednesday, June 8th 2011 Presented By Anthony Nicolaides Applications Engineer - Unitronics Inc. This webinar covers the basics of implementing troubleshooting tips with Unitronics controllers. Use search to find HMI buttons Show program sequence in help Solved by paralleling three nets in to one with a single coil Show disable/enable net function Online view, set and reset a bit in online mode Contact on a button instead of a positive transition contact Timer r

June 8, 2011

WEBINAR - Web Server

Recorded Live: Wednesday, May 25, 2011 By Jas Lettieri Applications Engineer - Unitronics Inc. This webinar covers the basics of implementing a Web Server with Unitronics controllers. Overview Requirements Demo Projects WEBINAR - Web Server <iframe width="960" height="750" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/aW-tqbOvE8M?rel=0&hd=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Questions by Attendees Q: Can the Simple Webserver display Trends or bar graphs? A: NO, the

May 25, 2011

Motoman CanOpen Example

Greetings all! Motoman is a Yaskawa-based robot company that offers CanOpen as one of their protocols. The documentation for their card is good for the wiring and installation of the CanOpen adapter card, but documentation about how the robot interacts with the card, and how CanOpen commands are processed is non-existent. Literally, it doesn't exist. I've begun a project requiring interfacing a V570 to a Motoman robot via CanOpen, and the attachments here cover my findings. There's an

tmoulder in CanOpen

May 16, 2011

WEBINAR - Vectors

Recorded Live: Wednesday, May 4, 2011 Presented By Anthony Nicolaides Applications Engineer - Unitronics Inc. In this webinar we will cover utilizing Unitronics controllers for: Vectors Vector tools Vector Search Indirect Addressing WEBINAR - Vectors (1) <iframe width="960" height="750" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/4xzxv8CQ7i4?rel=0&hd=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> WEBINAR - Vectors (2) <iframe width="960" height="750" src="http://w

May 4, 2011

Analog input resolution, scaling and protection

Caution: This approach can be risky. Analog voltages greater and 15 VDC can fry an analog input on an E1B module. Use with caution, and at your own risk. I had a project where I needed to use a potentiometer with an E1B snap IO to measure an angular position. The problem I ran into was resolution. With 10 VDC applied to the pot, and the E1B resolution of 1024 units for full sweep, the portion of the pot I needed was only seeing 22 units. I had an idea - I put full 24 VDC to the pot, then

April 26, 2011

WEBINAR - CANbus + UniCAN

Recorded Live: Wednesday, April 20, 2011 Presented By Anthony Nicolaides Applications Engineer - Unitronics Inc. This webinar covers the basics of implementing CANbus + UniCAN with Unitronics controllers. CANbus networking PLC to PLC communication PLC to EX-RC1 communication (Remote Expansion I/O) Bridging RS-232 and CANbus networks WEBINAR - CANbus (1) <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="960" height="750" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/lrNgxu1Pnoo?rel=0&hd

April 20, 2011

CanOpen Basics

As a supplement to the example program I posted earlier, I've put together this PDF guide. It explains how the program operates, and goes into some light detail about CanOpen itself, as implemented in Unitronics. Hopefully, it will help give the new CanOpen-er a boost in the right direction. Like everything in this blog, this is open. If you see a correction or think something needs covered that isn't, let me know and I'll add on to it. Hope it helps! TM CanOpen Primer.pdf

tmoulder in CanOpen

April 8, 2011

WEBINAR - Analog I/O

Recorded Live: Wednesday, April 6, 2011 By Jas Lettieri Applications Engineer - Unitronics Inc. This webinar covers the basics of implementing analog I/O with Unitronics controllers. Types of Transducers Linearization Trends Meters WEBINAR - Analog I/O (1) <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="960" height="750" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/SberZBEWW9c?rel=0&hd=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> WEBINAR - Analog I/O (2) <iframe title="Yo

April 6, 2011

Wago 750-307 CanOpen Node Example

Notice: This is an example program, instead of an importable module. The way CanOpen is confgured in Unitronics makes an importable module for this impractical. The program is an example of communication with a Wago 750-307 IO node. The node I used to develop it has 16 digital inputs and 10 relay outputs. Refer to the documentation of the node to see how to set the Unit ID for the node, the program looks for node 1. I designed the NMT section of the program to mainly to handle automati

tmoulder in CanOpen

April 6, 2011

Simon's Blog

Updated Demo box with V1040

After a lovely chat with our friendly Unitronics Desk Manager about promoting the new V1040, I sat down the next day to prepare our demo box for a trade display and realised it only has the V570 fitted! This is the Unitronics factory demo with the V570, V350 and Jazz. After some quick action to find a piece of panel material, the afternoon was spent cutting and soldering to migrate the existing V350, Jazz and peripherals to a new panel that also accomodates the V1040. The modem was moved insi

Simon

March 23, 2011

Simple 1-Node Modbus TCP Master

This is a little Modbus routine I wrote to connect to one remote node, in my case a Dalsa IPD vision device. It's not designed to connect to several devices, just a one-to-one such as my camera setup, a single servo drive or VFD. As such, it is really optimized for maximum communication to that single device. The module reads the vector of addresses from the slave constantly, as fast as possible. Writes only take place when a value in the Tx Vector is changed. So the PLC always has the fres

March 23, 2011

WEBINAR - PTO (Pulse Train Output)

Recorded Live: Wednesday, March 23, 2011 Presented By Yair Stein Tech Support Engineer - Unitronics Ltd. This webinar will cover new options for motion control - Pulse Train Output (PTO) You can implement motor control by controlling the high-speed outputs of certain Vision controllers using PTO functions, controlling up to three independent axis. In this way you can, for example, build speed profiles that are appropriate for stepper motors. Note that the PTO control functions are open-loo