Joe Tauser

You can use the Linear function as many times as you like - you just need to load and unload each variable's data before you call it. When I said post your code I meant upload your program. Joe T.

Set your PID block up for Output Range Low = 0 and Output Range Hi = 1000. This will give you an output of the PID block of 0 - 100.0%, which is what the lower PWM block input is looking for. I think the PWM block is misunderstood, as the posts in this thread wander around a bit. It can certainly be used to control a mechanical relay if applied properly, but as Aus points out you don't want it running too fast. The first parameter (your MI 247 with triple question marks) is the total cycle time. A total cycle time of one second is fine if you're driving the DC input of an SSR with a transistor output, but that's way too fast for a mechanical relay as Ausman points out. If I'm working with a relay I typically use a 10 second cycle time for PID. Now to answer your ??? question for the value of MI 247. If you look at the Help on the PWM function block, you'll see that the "units" of the PWM block are 1 unit = 2.5 ms, which is totally confusing and not very intuitive. But that's how it is. So.... 1 sec Cycle Time for direct SSR use 1 / 0.0025 = 400 10 sec Cycle Time for mechanical relays use 10 / 0.0025 = 4000 Also, don't be afraid to post your code so we're not bogged down in trying to guess what you're trying to do. We don't know the whole story until we see it. Joe T.

Have you tried running an OS update? Joe T.

You're going to have to put a small sequence together. I've posted several times about a programming process called a "State Machine" that makes this easier. Here's a post in the Visilogic forum that talks about it. http://forum.unitronics.com/topic/5609-advice-on-main-routine-structure/?tab=comments#comment-21891 If you can post your code we can have a look and help get it working. Joe T.

Moved to correct forum First look at the Modbus examples under Help- There are example programs for the V130, which will have the same Modbus commands as the V570. If you can post the programs you're using we can look them over and see what's going on. Also, what kind of cable are you using to connect them? Joe T.

I have one at the secret development lab. I'll post it later. Joe T.

Start by registering on this web page - https://www.schleuniger.com/na/en-us/products/strip/wire-stripping/rotarystrip-2400 And downloading and post this manual- Also +1 to what Ausman says - call the manufacturer directly and tell them what you are trying to do. What part of the world do you live in? Joe T.

No. One way they made the Jazz lower cost was to eliminate the TTL-RS232 converter chip and circuitry. The target for this product is OEMs, and if you know anything about dealing with that market they value low cost almost above all else. A JZ10-16 is not that terribly old. I have a couple in stock. You don't mention what part of the world you're in, but a JZ-PRG programming port is $47.00 US. Joe T. P.S. - @kratmel - you are hardcore indeed. That looks like a hackulation I would try to build to save a nickel. The mega heatshrink is a nice touch. 😁

A good place to start is Help->Examples. There you can see many, many PLC programs doing various tasks. After you've done some self-study by reviewing this examples have a try at programming and post your program. We can be of much more assistance if we can see what you've done on your own. Joe T.

A UniStream can talk to a USB port if the receiving device is emulating a serial COM port with it. Other that that we would really need to know much more about the communication capabilities of the wire stripper. Can you post links to some information about it? Joe T.

No, there are no analog outputs specific to 4-20 mA. You'll have to program the 4 mA offset. @Cara Bereck Levy - I dropped one of these modules in a test program and saw some dropdown boxes listed for each output in the configuration. Their function is not described in the manual - is there a more detailed document for these? Joe T.

I'd stick with the sensor you have as it has a nice, flat, easy-to-clean diaphragm. The specs show it is rated for 100 C media, or the temperature of the fluid. They also say the maximum compensated ambient is 70 C. This is the maximum the housing and subsequent electronics can withstand. Your process connection is probably pumping heat into the housing faster than it can be dissipated. Uh, no. Think about this configuration. You're measuring head pressure, and sensing element must be at the level of the pressure you want to read. If you go up, the weight of the fluid in the tube will counteract the head pressure of the tank and null it out. And you can't use air as a transfer medium because it's compressible. Have you ever siphoned water out of a fish tank? If you put a tube in the tank, water doesn't come out of the end while it's above the water. Water doesn't come out if you lower the end below the water level, either, because it's full of air which is "springy". It's only after you suck on the tube to fill it with water AND put the tube below the water level can you take advantage of the hydrostatic pressure (head) to get the water flowing. The pressure sensor MUST be at the same level of the port. You can use a long length of silicon tubing to get the heat out, but you'll need to put a tee and a valve at the end where the sensor is so you can purge the air out. This is very true and if you were making beer to sell and had to worry about the FDA inspector then you would need to install a sanitary fitting. The diaphragm in the link I posted is filled with silicon fluid and sealed when attached to the sensor, which lets you get away with moving the sensor around as there's no way the volume can change in the pressure transfer conduit. So you are going to have to take this thing apart and clean / sanitize it from time to time. So keep your tubing as short as you can so you can run a round brush through it and then throw everything (but the sensor) in the dishwasher to get it hot enough to kill the bugs. If all this is a problem I'd look into another technology for level sensing. The only problem is you can spend a lot of money in a short amount of time on harsh-duty food grade sensors. Here in St. Louis, there is a reason companies that sell that sort of equipment have dedicated salespeople for Anheuser Busch. Joe T.

For reference, post the make an model of the sensor so we can see it's specs. This isn't something you can program around. You need to modify the installation of the sensor. Isolate the sensor from the high temperature fluid. You're most probably raising the temperature of the electronics inside the sensor to a place they were never designed to operate and it's screaming at you. I am a distributor for Dwyer and the low end sensors I typically use top out at 175F. You will eventually destroy the amplifier in the sensor if you keep taking it above 200F. This is how the big boys do it at breweries, oil refineries, and other places with nasty extremes: https://www.emerson.com/documents/automation/product-data-sheet-rosemount-dp-level-transmitters-1199-seal-systems-en-73226.pdf Now if I was rolling my own brewery and I was on a limited budget and knowing what I know, I'd make a simple 1/4" extension pipe a foot or so long to move the sensor away from the tank and the heat. I'd keep the pipe fairly level to the opening so as not to screw up the reading. Then while I was increasing the temperature I'd figure out a way to keep the fluid in that pipe relatively cool, like attaching a heat sink of some kind or even throwing a wet rag over it with a fan on it. Joe T.

This is what I do as well, but I have to remind myself to do it. Yes. 😀 Play nice, you two. Don't make me call your father. 😤 The timer "interrupt" in the download sequence allows each timer to be uploaded or downloaded separately. This would be extremely tedious for all other memory types and is not practical. @Cara Bereck Levy A better solution would be to integrate the Export / Import PLC Operands in two places: 1. Call the Export PLC Operands as an option dialog when the file is saved. Then you get a real and true full copy of the PLC as it is at that point in time. 2. Conversely, call the Import PLC Operands as part of the Download chain, like Timers does now. A simple Yes/No checkbox would be fine. Joe T.

Remind me what a .ulri file is. Elaborate on what you're trying to do - what does "h&w" config mean? Was your old PLC an SM70? On the Samba series, you don't have a lot of hardware configuration options. There's no expansion modules and the hardware config is more or less dictated by the model number. Joe T.

One of my pet projects is the Biodiesel program at my kids' high school. I've been working with them for many years teaching the students about automating a process such as making biodiesel- https://unitronicsplc.com/testemonials-category-carrousel/?category=Education&tid=6511 I am the consulting engineer for wiring and programming. I am also local to the school. Being a distributor, I was able to offer them hardware at my cost. I don't know if you've gotten a quote on the controller you picked out but you're looking at about $1,800 worth of PLC hardware with what you've picked. There are much lower cost Unitronics alternatives to achieve the functionality you're looking for. Look at the Samba series. I would recommend you find somebody in your engineering department that would be willing to help with wiring diagrams. This is very difficult to do by "collaborating" with diagrams over the Internet. Sometimes you really, really have to just meet in person. You can ask questions here, of course, but Flex pointed out that we are regular people with day jobs volunteering our knowledge. You might want to call Unitronics and determine who the distributor in your area is. They may be another resource you can use. Joe T.

Yes, it is possible. I've done this using port forwarding in Sierra RV 50 cellular modems. You will need something that presents a static IP to the Internet. Joe T.

Both. Open up UniLogic and at the bottom you'll see a tab called "Timers". When you're online with the unit you can click on one of the timer type tags you've defined and drill into it to see the preset as well as the current value. If you have a screen open, you'll see something called "Timer" in the toolbox. You can use the Timer Box object to drop something that will display timer information on the HMI. What you see is totally configurable from the dropdowns in the object configuration- I encourage you to make a test project in UniLogic and play around with it. Joe T.

You can also configure port 2 on the V570 to do RS485. Look at page 6 on the specification guide - https://myzone-kza3sadj.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/V570-57-T20B-J_INSTAL-GUIDE_02-15.pdf You'll need to make or buy a cable with an RJ12 six pin connector using pins 1 and 6 to connect to your drive. Unitronics offers a small stub cable for RS485 - MJ10-22-CS65. Joe T.

Unitronics starts counting at zero. Conventional Modbus starts at one. Try changing your address in your driver page to 28671. Joe T.

You may want to go back and look at the accuracy specs on these modules- Translate this as +/- 5 counts on the A/D converter is within specification. The error will generally be very repeatable - Ausman and sgull have mentioned the best practical solution of just accepting some inaccuracy and programming around it. These aren't lab instruments. Joe T.

That feature is there to protect the programmer and machine builders. There's no way to get it off the PLC if upload was not enabled. Joe T.

Unfortunately, the only thing I really know about CANopen is how to spell it, but I may be able to help a bit. One of my favorite tricks for trying to make Vision act a little more realtime-ish in a motion application is to use the 1.25 ms interrupt routine and put what logic I can in there. I tried configuring a V1040 with the necessary init blocks and the interrupt routine. Then I tried dropping a CANopen SendPDO block into the interrupt and the compiler choked on it. I'm guessing this is because the CAN port is like other ports and only serviced at the end of the scan. Maybe a Creator can chime in on this. For problem 1, you could store the last value of your ML in a buffer register every scan and compare the new ML value to it. You can tell if it's going up or down by whether the new value is greater than or less than the buffer value. Then copy the new value to the buffer. I think you're probably limited on problem 2 by the scan time. Joe T.

Think back to your youth to when you took algebra. Hopefully you took algebra. And you may be still in your youth. A linear block is just that - a line equation. It creates a unique Y for each X. For your application I chose a timebase of one minute, so your entire x axis is 180. Make a one minute timer to increment an MI every minute to feed the X value of the block. So X1 = 0, X2 = 180 , Y1 = 0, Y2 = 1000. Let us know if you still don't understand how I got the values for the Linear block. Your homework now is to implement the above into a program and post it here with any more questions you have. Joe T.

@dtwbb - Ausman is not a Unitronics employee. He, I, and most of us on the forum are volunteers answering these questions out of the goodness of our hearts. Please look at the top of this web page - If you click there you will be directed to actual real and true Unitronics Support. You can also send your request to support@unitronics.com. You can also contact the the distributor you bought the product from and ask them to help. Joe T.