Hoops123

Hello Members, I'm working with PLC USC- B5-T42 and HMI USL-050-B05. I have created an enegry saving mode that switches certain things off when the machine has been idle for over 30 minutes. In order to wake the machine back up again I though i would use the "touch bit" . The touch bit however doesnt work, I can press all over the HMI and the bit doesnt change state. Is it the case that the touch bit only works for the built in HMI and not via VNC?

Since this is my first experience with Unitronics servo motors, I'd like to offer a brief overview of the nearly completed project. The primary objective was to construct an automated heatstaking machine that could operate autonomously once components were loaded by a collaborative robot (cobot). For the heatstaking process, a 2-axis motion system was essential, and we chose the EtherCAT version. Additionally, we implemented PID temperature control for the heat elements, utilized PWM LED control to facilitate a color transition (from blue to red) to indicate temperature changes in the enclosure, and established Modbus communication between the PLC and the cobot. To meet maintenance standards, the machine also needed to support 10 user-defined recipes and provide descriptive alarms. We accomplished all of these requirements seamlessly with the USC-B5-T42 Unistream PLC. Over the past few weeks, the machine has undergone trial runs without encountering any issues, confirming that all hardware components are performing as anticipated. The motion programming proved to be straightforward, especially for individuals familiar with PLCopen motion control function blocks.

Thanks Aus, it was an endian problem, unistream does have a swap bytes FB which done the job.

I spoke to soon on this one. I thought it was working but I just didnt look at the result properly. Each pair of letters in the string are switched. So the cobot has a program in it called "320rpm" reading this over modbus (as above) and displaying the result on the HMI I get "23r0mp" Anyone have any ideas on how to fix this one?

Brilliant!! worked a treat. Many thanks

Hello, I now have a few unitronics PLC's on site, I am getting more familiar with them but still fairly new. I have an application where the PLC talks to a cobot over modbus, everthing works great, never had any problems with it. This morning i was asked if I could display the "current program" running on the cobot on the unitronics HMI. I thought it would be as easy as just reading a string data type.. I'm now thinking that to read the string, I read each interger in addresses 7701-7799 assuming that the numbers are Ascii code(manual doesnt say) then concatenate them to get the string. Does anyone have experience of reading strings from modbus slaves??

I think the next version of Beckhoff's Twincat will have an LLM function block. I beleive you type what you want the FB to do and it has a go at writing the code for you.

OK thanks for letting me know

Anyone know what -321 is?

Hello, Could someone who has experience of these servos please share with me the hardware they selected for the surge protection and the noise filter. I have never had to add these to a project before and it would be nice to see what other people have used. BR

Thanks Fernando, this is the first I have heard of Node-red, I'll look into it.

Thanks for your replies! The part number is WND-WR-MB from a company called Continental Control Systems. Maybe this is a sign of things to come. I opened a chatGPT account and asked it to write the C# code and it did. Just starting to test it now.

We use USC- B5-T42 for our projects but in this instance my question is just regarding modbus as I cant do anything with the macines that we have bought in. The energy meters are independant of the machine we just put the CT on the power in cable.

Hi, Has anyone attempted to convert modbus RTU to TCP using C# or any other PC based method? We are about to purchase 40 energy meters that use modbus RTU for each of the machines on the shop floor, we are told by the saleman that we have to purchase modbus RTU to TCP converters to get the data on the network. At $200 each multiplied by 40, i wondering if I can get around having to buy them. Each machine has a normal PC connected to it, so I'm thinking I can send the RTU to the PC via a serial port then covert to TCP to get the data on the network.

Thanks Kratmel. And I just happen to have two PWM outputs with nothing to do, until now.