Walkerok

Use a binary image on you HMI screen. One picture is off and the other is on. Then make a bit in your ladder logic to turn the images on or off at the correct time. If you are wanting to make this specifically for an input then you do not need to do anything but make the binary image and the linked variable is input you want to monitor. Keith

Yes you can make an XY graph of data on screen provided youare using an enhanced vision product. (V350, 570, 1040, 1210, 130) You can also save the needed data to either a data log or a .CSV file on an SD card depending on what you need to do and what model of PLC you are using. Keith Sorry I did not pay good attention to the point that you have a V230. The V230 does not have that capability...or if it does I can not find it.

To make a stationary (Not moving accross the screen) animated image you have to have the same picture over and over again with the subtle changes you need to sdhow the animation. You then link all of the images into an "Image by pointer" block. The you take a timer and set it to time over and over again when the event happens that you want your animation keyed to. I have found that .2 seconds seems to work out fairly well and .1 works also which allows you to use the 100ms pulse SB7 instead of the timer, but depending on the animation faster or slower pulses will make you images look better. Every time the leading edge of the timer times out (becomes true) you increment an MI from 0 - ??? (where ??? is the number of your last image in the "Image by pointer block). This is like doing cartoon animations in that if all of your pictures are not exactly the same except for the iten you want to be in motion it will not look good on screen. Keith

Since you are using a E4XB, I am not sure my information is true, but I have had this issue with a E6B. There would be one or two features of the E6B that would not work correctly but all logic was correct. The problem turned out to be that the plastic holder of the snap IO module was not constructed correctly and there was approximately a 2-3 mm empty space between the circuit board of the E6B and the plastic screw post that the one screw mounts into to hold the circuit board to the plastic holder. When the screw was tightened down the circuit board would flex and it made a surface mount component come loose from the board. In my case the board had to be replaced. I do not know if this was an issue for any board except the E6B, but take the screw out and see if there is empty space like I described. If so you may need to contact your distributor/rep and get them to help you. Keith

Im am not sure exactly what you need to do, but lets say that you have a need to say measure the length of something perform an action then reset the counter valvue so that you can repeat the process over and over again (or something like that). This line of thinking should also work for any time you want to reset a counter. It is just as simple as picking any event, input, counter value, etc and saying that when any of the conditions you care about are true that you direct store a value of zero in the memory location your high speed counter is inputting to, So for example you have a counter going into MI0 and when the counter gets to 2010 you want to reset the counter to zero or if input 0 becomes true you want to reset the counter. Keith

Hi David, Ok now I can help :-) Your variable speed drive will have the ability to perform signal following based off a reference value. Since you want the PLC to tell the VFD how fast to go. You will be setting up a PID loop in the PLC and you will use the output from this loop to output an analog signal the drive is able to accept. If you have watched the webinar on analog inputs anf output you have the baseline you need for getting signals in and out of the PLC. What is not in the webinars (at least I did not see it) is training on setting up a PID loop. There are a few examples if you go into visilogic and click help, examples, version 900, project examples, PID. Now none of the examples are for a color model but do not let this stop you from looking at them the operations are still the same. In the examples things that are unclear are: 1) that the function blocks for PID have been consolidated depending on the controller to only showing "PID auto-tune" Even though the section is labeled autotune it has the main PID blocks as well 2) The configuration block when you go to place it in a net has the word autotune in the block. ignore this. this is the block that configures your overall PID loop (including the ability to make an autotune function) 3) The PID RUN block still has the word A. TUNE in it. ignore this. This is the block that tells the PLC which PID loop to run if you have multiple loops 4) While not confusing you will want to run your loop in "direct cooling mode" 5) The configuration block will not allow you to use constant values directly so you must difine MI and MB values for everything even if you know exacly what value you want. You can then force the Mi or MB to a value using the power up function attached to all MIs and MBs A special note here: since you will be running mixing blades to create turbulence in water you will more than likely want a minimum value output that is greater than zero (motors do not like parking at ultra low speeds for extended periods of time) Pay attention to the turndown ability of the motor and if it is VFD rated. If the motor is not VFD rated you generally have a maximum of a 10 to 1 turndown. Without information 20 - 25 Hz is the lowest speed a general motor will tolerate for long periods of time without creating a dramatically shortened motor life. If you are very conservative 30 Hz is your lowest speed. Also if the VFD you have to work with has a torque vector mode you will definately want to use it and if your VFD has an energy savings mode you will want to turn it off. This will prevent stalling your mixing blades at lower speeds. Thanks Keith

Hi David, We all have to start somewhere and welcome to the world of PLC programming. The first thing to do is decide what inputs and outputs you are going to want to make your wastewater project live. Hopefully the PLC hardware you have has the IO you will need to get the job done. After that ladder logic is just picking the order and items you need to make things happen the way you want. Not to put too delicate a point on it but it sounds like you are lost at where to start. The boyscouts have a saying: "How do you eat an elephant?", "one bite at a time". Go to the webinars section in the "Support" tab. http://www.unitronics.com/Content.aspx?page=webinars Start off by watching the bottom webinar on buttons and lights to get your feet wet, then timers and HMI jumps, then troubleshooting tips. Watch all of these while you have your PLC with you and connected to your computer for programming and work along with the webinar. Start and stop the webinar as needed and I think it will really give you a leg up. Sorry for the lack of specific things to do but without at least a baseline in how to program we won't be able to help, we would only be able to write it for you and that would defeat the purpose of the project I think. After you get started ask specific questions on items you need to know and I am sure all of us out here will be happy to give solid guidance. When you do write back, make sure you tell us what hardware model(s) you are working with since not all models of PLCs have all the functions and you might need a work around. Sincerely Keith

If I am understanding the situation correctly you have: 1) A RTC to ASCII function block 2) You write this value to a standard DATA table and everything is correct (01/12/12) 3) You write this same information to a Sd card in the form of and CSV file and the information is wrong (11/12/12) 4) you are using the same MI for the date for both the internal data table and the SD card CSV file I do this same function on many of my programs and I have never experienced this issue, however I have had in CSV files where I have specified the number of characters of an entry, my total line length, or carriage return/line feed wrong to where data is not separated correctly and over-runs into the data in the next location. I will say that I have never experienced a problem using the same RTC to ASCII function block for more than one file so I do not see how this could possibly be your problem. I would think that the function block for writing the CSV file is probably to blame. Can you link your program so I can see what your CSV block structure is. If you do not want to do this can you take just a screen shot of the create CSV function block settings. I would say that this is where you need to concentrate your efforts. Thank You Keith

As second note on this. I just tried to activate on screen buttons and text boxes from the enter button. The on screen buttons workd fine but the binary text boxes would not activate with the enter key ws pressed. Im not sure why but this may blow your ability to use the keyad only unless you can do what you want without any binary text boxes you are trying to activate as a switch. Thanks Keith

Thought I might chime on on this topic. I happen to have a V560 in my office and I just tried to use the arrow keys to pick an enterable variable and was able to do so. After the item was picked the number entry pop up comes up after you press the enter button. After the number entry pop up comes up the membrane keys do work to enter numbers, go forward and backwards and enter in a value. However there is no way to prevent the number entry pop up from allowing only entries from the membrane keypad and not from the touch screen. Joe I am not sure why your keypad will not work at all, but it may possibly be due to a problem I had the other day where the firmware on my 560 was off, but not so off as to trigger the Visilogic program to tell you the firmware was out of date. You might try a forced firmware update like I had to do to correct my issues (my problems were completely different but just as anoying) I beleive that is some of what was being for originally. I find the inability to prevent the entries from being touch to be way too tempting for those dirty grimy fingers that we are talking about stoping. So if there were a way to block touch screen entry on certain entry blocks to take away the temptation to touch......that would be good. If we realy want to be hard core I guess the touch screen cable could be disconnected so it just did not function then you can write a dedicated program to use the function and number keys to do everything. Of course this will be a problem if you want to bring up a QWERTY key board and you do not have the touch cable installed, but that is the best I can come up with. Thanks Keith

Hi there, I have taken the liberty of making a rework of your wiring diagram. The only thing I did not show is the positive connection to your level probe controls (but you know that they are there). I stripped off anything about our company on the letterhead (I am not trying to advertise ). If I interpreted your second drawing correctly, the solenoids are not connected correctly, so try this out. But if this is helpful to you let me know here in the forums and I can email you a copy of the autocad drawing if you want it for your files. Thanks Keith LEVEL CONTROL PROGRAM Layout1 (1).pdf

I am curious, I have used 2 wire 1000 Ohm RTDs for about 12 years and have never had a problem with noise (that I am aware of). I have not used an RTD with a Unitronics, but is there any test data that anyone knows of that would show me the relative affect of having a 3 wire RTD over a 2 wire RTD in similar noisy environments. Or is it simply a matter of accuracy in that a 3 wire is more accurate than a 2 wire in all conditions. I know that the 2 wire units we use have always had better accuracy and much lower noise that any thermocouple I have ever used which is why we went that way in the first place. It is completely accidental that I have allways used 2 wire units, it is just what was selected from a companey that has a very inexpensive converter from 1000 Ohm RTD to 4-20ma that we needed at the time and we have never altered what we are doing with that product. Thanks Keith

Just for informational purposes. The link to the following document has some discussion about spark mittigation and noise suppression. It is a document specifically for a product from OKAYA call the spark quencher and has proven itself to be robust and effective in our control panels. You have many choices available when it come to suppression and spark control, but this one is well packaged and not expensive (OK it's more that 2 cents for a 1N4004 diode). If nothing else, give it a read just to view the data charts to different circuits that have nothing installed and with the product installed (the differences are stark). http://www.okaya.com/images/noise/1200.pdf Thanks Keith

As a side question. EIven if the stars were aligned properly on the download this still would not work ....would it? The V530 is black and white and it would not allow its programming to go from a "Standard" vision to an "Enhanced" vision hardware platform (and a color screen not B&W) even if the program were not blocked. Thank You Keith

I need to make a trend that is based off of events. For example whenever MB 0 transitions from true to false I want to use the snapshot of data in MI 0, MI 1, MI 2 to make three trend lines. I do not want time to have anything to do with the selection points of generating the trend lines. This is a V560 and while it is easy to save all of this data to a file at the appropriate points I seem unable to figure out how to show this as an onscreen trend. Just as background, this is a batching process where I need to show the amount if each of three ingredients for each completed batch run and then string those together for multiple batches to make the three trend lines. Thank You for any help Keith

Sorry for posting this topic twice. After 27 hours I did not see the first one post I just figured that I did something wrong and decided to write it again. While the posts are not identical they are pretty much the same conversation. Keith

SSL encryption is quickly becoming a requirement to be ableto send emails from one place to another. With the global crack down on SPAM, Phishing, viruses, …Etc. there is aever dwindling number of email services available that do not require SSLencryption. Eventually we can reasonablyexpect that there will not be ANY non SSL encryption email services available (at least non we would want to use). I realize that there is a real amount of work required toincorporate SSL encryption into the Unitronics hardware but there are twomajorly important reasons why it should be added. 1) The obvious Email limitation where you can notsend to huge number of the email services out there without SSL encryption. We personally have a solution to this in thatwe have our own hosted servers set up to have a dedicated email box that doesnot require SSL and then we just forward the emails to the multitude of useremails that require SSL encryption. Thissolution is not available to many of the Unitronics users and because of thisyou are asking most end customers to have a special non-SSL encryption mail boxto be able to get emails directly from the PLCs. 2) There is also a real security danger when hosinga website on the PLC in that is SSL encryption is not required the passwordsand data are sent back and forth as simple ASCII text and can be interceptedand read by anyone. While we all may bewilling to accept the point that no one is actually interested in stealing the password and datafrom a specific PLC running a specific device, there is a real security issue wherehackers can EASILY steal the information and cause havoc and possibly damage. For those reading this who are knowledgeable in the detailsof how all of this works you are now saying to yourselves well what about thecertificates list needed for the process to occur in the case of email and whatabout the cost and updating requirements for hosting a certificate in the caseof PLC hosted a web page. The approvedlist could be included in firmware updates, but even without this you would getmany years of trouble free usage by just having a good list at the time of newPLC creation. If this is consideredunacceptable then do not require the PLC to verify the public SSL encryptionkey on sending emails and Unitronics can make a self certificate for making aninternet connection from a remote PC. Yes the security would be greatly reduced in email if no certificateverification were required, but at this point solving 80% of the problem ofbeing able to easily send email to ANYWHERE is pretty good also. On the certificate required by a web pagehost, it is very inexpensive to get a signed certificate that would be good formany years. Then it would just be amatter of importing the certificate onto the computer that wants to connect andsecurity has been dramatically improved. Thanks for reading this and I look forward to rebuttals orcomments. Keith

There is currently a question in the vision series of the forums on SSL encryption. While i realize there are a myriad of work arrounds that can achieve that particular writers problems there is a much more important discussion to be had. I realize that the ability to correctly do the SSL encryption is much more complicated than I am going to talk about here, but how about Unitronics including SSL encryption capability?? There are many free algorithms that are available for a multitude of programming languages and while there would definitely be real programming work required by Unitronics it is a very doable feature. If Unitronics suported SSL incryption and included a current table of "trusted root certificate authorities" this would at least give a Unitronics PLC the ability to operate in the mainstream of Email servers until the certificates on the list became too old, then there would have to be a firmware update at some point in the future to get up to date on more recent certificates, but there would be several trouble free years between firmware updates. Would there be a specific customer that would have a problem? Absolutely, but if we work with an 80/20 rule where the main objective is to be able to send emails without special consideration being required by most email recipients this goal would be achieved. In addition when the PLC is being used to host a web page, without SSL being available, all communications with the outside world are unprotected and the possibility of problems (such as the case of the Iranian centrifuge hacking) are dramatically more likely. I know we all think about this as "Who would want to intercept and care about what is happening with boiler number 6 in the basement of a building?" and generally this is very true, but the SSL encryption with even just a self certificate that can be imported on to a users local laptop or desktop would dramatically improve the safety of the communications. Like I said I am not going to do a deep dive on this subject, but it is important to talk about SSL encryption in both the long term and the short term. I am by no means an expert on the subject but I know enough to know I should be at least a little bit worried about the possibilities. Thanks for reading Keith

One of the things we do here when a customers email is not usable, is to send the email to an in house account (we have an email account set up just for machine to machine emails) on our work email account and then just use an "Outlook" rule to simply forward all emails recieved from the PLC address to the needed GMail, Hot Mail, Etc. Thanks Keith

Thanks Joe, I suddenly have words like "forest" and "tree's" dancing through my mind. The answer is elegant and simple, but my brain just could not come to the same conclusion that late in my day. I appreciate it Keith

I am working on a program where the customer wants to show seconds only on screen for a timer. Example instead of 4 hours the customer would want to show 14400 seconds. Using the timer on screen I only see the capability to wshow ss or SSSSSS.ss. Am i going to have to do this the hard way by converting standard MI data back and forth to a timer to be able to show this without the decimal places? Thank You Keith

You did not give very much inoformation, but given what you said it is probably not a programing or processor problem of the PLC. If the relay is question fires correctly sometimes and not other times then I would be suspecting wiring has come loose somewhere in the system or a solder joint or connector has developed a vibration related failure (check that all terminals and wires are tight throughout the entire panel). There is a lot that can happen over several years. It is also possible that over time there has been a solder joint inside the PLC that has developed a crack and would cause an intermittend firing of the relay, if so you will have to go inside the PLC and re-solder the connections (check them all under a magnifying glass). If you are unable to check this or perform the re-solder of affected connections then you possibly would need to install a replacement PLC. Keith

Re-check your UAC settings. I have now had my UAC setting reset from off to on when installing new software (not visilogic) or automatic windows updates. The last occurence of this was just yesterday. Thanks Keith

I noticed in your post that you said that you followed a particular example in choosing port 3. This is probably not your port it is only an example and not a fixed value that is the same for everyone. You need to get to the windows device manager and go to the com port part of device manager and if you unplug the USB to serial adaptor one of the ports on the list will dissapear. Plug the adaptor back in and the port will return. Whatever port that is, is the port number you need to chose in your com settings in the visilogic program. The program will automatically try different come speeds untill it finds one that is good. Keith

The maximum number of screens is 1024 for all of the PLC units you asked about (this information is in the specification documents). I have no idea on a subroutine limitation sorry. Keith