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Replacing Siemens S7-200 with V130 and setting wireless communication


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Aluminium extrusion Machine

 

My customer had a complete automatic aluminium extrusion machine which had a S7-300 in main extrusion machine and two S7-200 PLC in conveyor system.

 

The conveyor system has a trolley which travels 40m in both direction in high speed. There were some hydrollic system on the trolley which use to clamp the aluminium profile and pull it out of the extrusion machine. The trolley use to automatically synchronized with the speed of the extrusion.

There was one more S7-200 plc in trolley system which use to control the hydrolic system in the trolley. Both the PLC in the trolley as well as the main panel were connected to each other through a bus bar system to exchange communication signals while the trolley was moving. Trolley use to have frequent breakdowns due to communication error between the plc.

 

I was given this task to make this system more durable. The first thing i did is replaced both the S7-200 plc with V130 PLC. In the trolley we installed the V130-j-TR20 and in main panel we installed V130-J-TR34 with IO_AI4_AO2. Then we developed a new program and synchronized every thing with the extrusion machine as it was before. V130-J-TR20 was in the trolley and V130-J-TR34 was in main panel and they need to be communicated with each other so that all trolley function should work. The previous system was bus bar system  and was causing frequent problems, so i decided to go for a wireless communication system. I took two simple TP-link routers and installed one in trolley with v130-tr20 and other in main panel with v130-tr34. Then i setup a modbus ip link between them and exchanged all my signal between them. See the link of the video below

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/shriramauto/videos/927412653974856/

 

https://www.facebook.com/shriramauto/videos/927412367308218/

 

https://www.facebook.com/shriramauto/photos/pcb.927396570643131/927395883976533/?type=3

https://www.facebook.com/shriramauto/photos/pcb.927396570643131/927395853976536/?type=3

https://www.facebook.com/shriramauto/photos/pcb.927396570643131/927395827309872/?type=3

 

Now the system is working perfectly and once again unitronics proves that it is the best and most user friendly PLC.

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Hello Sunit

 

Thanks for sharing the foto,s and videos from your application!

Why did you not build V130,s in the cabinet doors instead of mounting them on the din rails?
Now for reading info on the Unitronics screens you always have to open the cabinet.

 

Basic problem where not the Siemens PLC,s but the communication between them using a bus system (MPI?) over the cable trolley system?

 

Now the system is working perfectly and once again unitronics proves that it is the best and most user friendly PLC.
 

If you read this topic in another plc forum you will see that not everyone agrees with your statement.
http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?t=100127

 

I fully agree with you that Unitronics is a cheap system and easy to program.
Also the help file in Visilogic is very clear in how to set up communications and with some effort you will succeed.
Another very positive feature is the info screen that can be used to see what kind of data is send over the available communication ports, serial and or Ethernet.
This is really a very helpful tool when programming and testing communication.

 

Unfortunately Unitronics is according to competitors not very reliable when used in noisy industrial application with for example frequency drives.
You will also find topics in this forum about this kind of behavior.
According to competitors this is because cheap not isolated print plates are used in a Unitronics plc??

 

We have about 20 Unitronics PLC,s in use for controlling small applications and the first one came in our plant at about 2005.
M90,s , V230 , Sambas , V350 and V570 are in use.
Never experienced problems but it can be because they are not mounted nearby frequency drives.

 

My opinion about Unitronics is very positive I just quote what I hear and what is written about the system.

 

Kind Regards
Henny

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Hi Henny

 

I have never had many issues with reliability on Unitronics PLC's.

In the past 6 years I have had one backlight fail on a V280 PLC, the PLC still operated just a bit difficult to read the display.

I consider the reliability of Unitronics to be on par with ant other manufacturer at a fraction of the cost.

 

The issue with "noise" can be applied to any electronic device.

This can easily be overcome by fitting diodes on all DC coils and snubbers on all AC loads.#

These are cheap components and are good standard practice for any type of PLC located in any type of system.

 

I would not be overly influenced by one post in one forum, you state that you have 20 unitronics PLC's yourself with no problems.

 

Regards

Denis

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Hello Flex727 /Sgull

 

I fully agree with both your opinion that Unitronics is reliable and as Sgull already mentioned I never had to exchange a Unitronics device.
It’s also amazing that you can do a firmware upgrade without losing the program and the contended of the MB,s and MI,s??

 

I have never seen a website from a plc manufacturer with so much support as with Unitronics.
When someone has problems with code or whatever moderators try to help as much as possible.

 

Of course my opinion about Unitronics will not change because of one posting on another forum.

 

Only people who have also worked with Unitronics share the same positive opinion about the system that I have and all others in my environment seems to be stuck on big S no matter what they have to pay for soft and hardware.

 

Managers talk about the installed base and how much knowledge there is available and then big S seems to be always favorite.

You can get a  official "certified Siemens TIA  Programmer" but there is now official certificate for "UniGuru" at least not that I know off :D

 

Do you not run into this kind of issues when you come up with Unitronics for a project?

Kind Regards
Henny

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  • MVP 2023

You can get a  official "certified Siemens TIA  Programmer" but there is now official certificate for "UniGuru" at least not that I know off :D

 

 

Unitronics offers a training/certification class to be a Certified Unitronics System Integrator. It's a good class and I can recommend it.

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Everyone has a bad story about every brand of PLC ever offered for sale if you use enough of them.  I have had AB, ABB, GE, EZ automation, Automation direct, Moller, Eaton, Schneider, Siemens all fail at one time or another.

 

There are cases where the Unitronic's PLC has frozen or stopped working.  I have had failures for water, H2S, lightening, power surges, line slaps, ambient heat, transformer explosions.... Etc. can kill anything.  This is all par for the course if you install enough product.  After installing upwards of a thousand PLCs (all brands) I can say that I really like the Unitronics PLC and it is dramatically more durable than other lower cost brands. 

 

Sgull is exactly correct on the use of AC snubbers and DC diodes and many problems are fixed by adding these to coils and contact closures. 

 

Variable speed drives are very electrically noisy and they affect everything on the same ground circuit and close physical proximity.  We have 300-400 PLC units (JAZZ, V350 and V570) installed on VFD applications and the most common thing I have to fight on a regular basis is VFD noise messing with the RS232 or RS485 communications.  Just like everything else in life sometimes grounding shields is good and sometimes it is bad, but I have never had a Unitronics PLC fail to work at all.

 

Thanks

Keith

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Hi all friends

Till now i have used almost 250 to 300 unitronics PLC which consist of V130, V350, V570, V1040. The best in this i feel is the V130, V350. I have got failure in only 3-5 PLC till now.

The best thing about unitronics is its very reliable and has a very strong ladder development software which is free for users. It also has other set of softwares which are very useful for project development. I can easily make my own software in VB or VB.net and connect to my unitronics plc for doing different type of applications. There is a big scope of doing adventurous development in unitronics. The info mode is the best feature in the unitonics plc , i can do trouble shooting in my plc sitting in my office and talking to my customer on phone. The SD card is also one of the best feature in this segment. S7-200 , AB and other big brands do not have such features in this segment.

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