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Ausman

MVP 2023
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Posts posted by Ausman

  1. It's good that you've successfully learnt about separation.

    With all that running (now) ok in the cabinet, I'd put a logging temperature system in place to check internal temps for the first few days/weeks/months of actual use.  Either a separate logger, or program the plc to do it.

    Personally I look at the pics and see way too much heat being generated, unless there's a heat exchange system in there somewhere that's not shown in the pics.

    cheers, Aus

  2. I would be increasing your timeout in the ComInit to a few seconds, and also match your D10 to that amount.  D10 & D2 are not shown here, but shift timeouts upwards and no retries to see if things work.  If that then works, decrease your timeouts appropriately so that things are stable.  Many people here do no retries at all, on the grounds that if it doesn't work, check it again in the next few lots of reads. 

    However, I still wonder at your methods of testing.  You may actually be using the 232 system, instead of the 485 pins on 1 & 6.  Kratmel's ask is relevant...screenshots?

    Also, try changing your network ID to a number higher than 1 that isn't a number elsewhere in your network. 

  3. Could you please put up screenshots of your ComInits, for both 1 & 2.  And in doing this, you might find a teensy weeny little thing that is the issue!  That's what I find when I'm finally asking about a frustrating question...the typo suddenly stares me in the face, saying "Here I am...I've been waving at you all day!"

    I am suspecting that perhaps your timeouts on 1 are shorter than on 2.  What do the status bits on using both ports say when trying things?

    As well, you say 

    On 4/29/2024 at 3:20 AM, kvlada said:

    Modbus comms worked perfectly fine over RS-232

    yet you are doing 485 on the plc, which at the speed you have is not a fast process and allowances have to be made accordingly.  But also please explain the "232" setup. 

    cheers, Aus

  4. Merle, the point Gabriel is making is that hardware scaling is essentially fixed and can't be adjusted easily.  Ladder versions can.

    JR, side question....Are you sure that you haven't got mixups in various settings, so that 4-20ma and other mistmatches are happening?

    FYI.....Although this was made for Visilogic, perhaps it might be useful for your "play" and diagnostic purposes.  I'm sure the fundamentals are similar.  The whole point for me making it in the first place relates to Gabriel's similar use, where minor tweaking of some numbers in use gets things exactly right.  Online interaction and adjustment can then be done.  In my case in Visilogic, after tweaking I change values to permanent.

    https://forum.unitronics.com/topic/3540-linearization-calculator-for-all/

    cheers, Aus

  5. I don't think it will help because I don't know what level of OS the passwords are stored on Unistream gear,  but wondering if pulling the battery might resolve this? 

    You will likely lose machine custom settings, though, via a battery out. 

    A careful look at the program might give some pointers as to whether it's worth trying.

    I'd also think of doing a system wide search using wildcards on any related puters for anything Unilogic related, in case the "protected" project is sitting in a squirreled away folder somewhere related to the tool/project copies.  If the password was changed at the project level, then a copy must exist somewhere.  It might have left with the employee, but perhaps not.  

    Also check the SD if it has one.  Might be on there if you're lucky!

  6. 9 hours ago, Merle said:

    but more a protocol issue I'm dealing with

    Yes, I get that, but perhaps the protocol or something else has an error that relates to baud rate in use, and the way to check is to run different ones to see if it changes something.

  7. I'm addicted to drinking brake fluid, but I can stop whenever I want.  

    What is Forrest Gump's password?    1Forrest1.

    (Still here?  ok...here's more...)

    I have a side job making plastic Draculas.  There are only 2 of us doing it, so I have to make every second count.

    What do you call a pony with a cough?  A little horse.

    (Ok, you can go arrgghhhhh now!  But there will be more......    😉)

    cheers, Aus

    • Haha 1
  8. I've been squizzing at the specs for that module, and a question is what baud rate are you using?  Does changing the rate change the timings you're experiencing?  Start low and speed up for the tests.

    And questions which might sound insulting, given it sounds like you know what you are doing.....  Are the correct resistors in the correct place, and/or the  unit's termination set correctly?  Is the cable a quality one? 

    cheers, Aus

  9. I've got a few 130s and none have had a failure. 

    But perhaps there is another element in play here.  Nearly all the time my cards are not doing any actual "work" apart from maintaining, or trying to maintain, the connection.  The only use is a daily login to check a few things, and other slightly longer times when there will be a program update etc.  Vastly different to an installation that might be running the cards non-stop with large constant chatter between systems.  So the question is whether the amount  of card usage might heat things up too much?  That is something I don't know and can't answer.  Logically a device constantly doing "work" must generate more heat than if doing little, but perhaps not.

    And a side note on "duct" tape.  I've mentioned this before but a repeat.  "Duct" tape in Aus refers to a wider tape that is similar material to insulation tape.  Invariably this stuff slightly retracts over time and leaves a horrible sticky residue on removal, especially when subjected to any heat elevation.  If you are cutting squares of it to put over holes, it will likely not stay in place that well.  The better thing to use is what we call "Gaffer" tape which is also known as Race tape and perhaps other names around the globe.  It is cloth based and is much better for permanency in situations like this.   The other alternatives for covering openings, which I've had to do sometimes after removing a card and not having a replacement "breakout" piece, are:

    1).  use a small cable tie to hold an external cover in place, with the tie run through dedicated holes or existing slots nearby. 

    2). tiny silicone dabs which are large enough to hold the cover piece, but small enough to enable ease of removal if needed.  Over the years I've actually found that this is the best of the lot, but "needs must" applies at the time!

    cheers, Aus

  10. I'm a Non-Unilogic user, but I agree with Joe that it sounds like a retry length issue, which can be a problem if not correctly set up to allow for the time errors take to run out of attempts on the current request before trying another.  Are you sure that retries and numbers of them are being allowed for, or better yet for testing purposes, there are none?  Perhaps there is a setting squirreled away somewhere that you have forgotten?  Or don't know about?  We all learn something new each day!  😉

    Question for my learning...is this 485 or TCP? I don't know the table source due to not having Unilogic.   If  TCP, could the plc be dropping the ethernet connection for some reason, and it's not actually a modbus issue at all?  If 485, bump the timeout UP a bit and see what happens. And also, is this involving the device that does addressing in hex?  Just curious.....

    cheers, Aus

     

  11. I think that before doing anything else, you need to use Info mode to find what O/S is in the PLC.  This will then tell you what version of Visilogic you should be using at present for best compatibility.   https://forum.unitronics.com/topic/5839-new-visilogic-version-to-what-os-list/     Once you have got all the info you want from the plc you could then update to latest.

    Please also read this to ensure that all is well with your actual installation of Visi:      https://forum.unitronics.com/topic/7917-visilogic-doesnt-work-properly-after-installation-what-install-as-administrator-really-means/

    cheers, Aus

     

  12. I can't see why this would be too hard.  Each of the 3 attempts is handled on it's own for display purposes, with it's own unique display based on the variables' maths.  Then a fixed time after the attempt for the next one to happen for each participant.  Then the over/under time averaging of their 3 attempts can be simply compared to the previous one to decide who is the current leader.   If the previous one is better it remains as the leader, if the new attempt is shorter times, it replaces/updates the old details in the MIs which retain the data.  At the end of the fun it gets the email entry, which is really the only thing I see needing a data table, perhaps routinely saved to the SD as a progressively named file.

    Of course this sounds easy, but I do think the reality won't be too hard to achieve, with very little head banging on brick wall/cursing/etc.  I'm assuming that you'd simply put Remote Access or Operator onto a big screen nearby, to save any need for complex display conversions.

    cheers,  Aus

  13. On 4/6/2024 at 2:43 AM, Merle said:

    Most device manuals will list addresses in hex

    In my use of modbus devices, I've never encountered this.  All of them never mention hex numbers in their manuals for register work.

    If you do have a lot to work with for some reason, do an excel sheet that does the conversion for you.  It's not hard.....HEX2DEC etc

    cheers, Aus

    • Upvote 1
  14. Later Edit:  I thought this was in Visilogic's area.   Tired...sorry.    But in some ways the fundamental idea might work for Uni.

    I don't use PID, but perhaps simply running the output through an intermediary MI that is stored, I would think that you could get a very close thing to what is wanted.  Perhaps even holding the previous MI output value for a little while on restart until things stabilise a bit at around the stored output.  I know this is my "simplified non-user" impression, but it might be worth a try.  On the other hand, I might be talking absolute nonsense!

    cheers, Aus

     

     

       

     

     

  15. For the moment with what you are trying achieve, I would not be using Version Swapper at all. 

    If possible, try what Saragani has given you on a completely new installation of Visilogic 9.8.96 on a PC that has not had any Visilogic installation at all, or one where all Visilogic references (including version swapper etc) have been completely uninstalled using something like Revo Uninstaller or similar.

    cheers, Aus

    • Thanks 1
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