Joe Tauser

There's no easy way to do this in Unitronics. It would require a change in the OS to insert commas in the numeric display object. The only way I can think to do it would be to break the number into exponential pieces and display them in separate numeric fields and have static text commas in between them, with hide bits on the commas based on the value of the source. A pain in the butt. I'll put a link to this post in the "We're Listening" section. It would be a nice feature to have. Joe T.

I'm assuming the fan is on a VFD. The fan ramp can be done with a linear block driven by an MI counting time. What is the ramp rate? After the fan reaches speed, use two timers alternating each other to trigger the reverse input on the drive. I'm also assuming you've programmed accel and decel times in your drive to handle reversing the fan. If you're not too shy to post your code it would be very helpful. Joe T.

Sent you a private message. Joe T.

About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design I have a first edition copy of this book, written by the father of VB- https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1118766571 It is mandatory reading for anyone who I hire to do programming. I love how it makes fun of bad design in well-known programs. Joe T.

We are a UL 508A shop. In UL land, unless the word "Type" appears on the item it is NOT Type rated regardless of the actual NEMA Rating. This is UL's way of saying "Yeah, it probably does seal as well as you say, but you have to pay us a bunch more money to verify that." So the panel does indeed degrade to Type 1 when you start cutting holes in it as far as UL is concerned. Joe T.

It looks for the zero crossing point of the sine wave to trigger another circuit that creates a square wave at the voltage the PLC is looking for. Google "zero crossing detector". Joe T.

I've never used PuTTY for serial port interaction - I use this one: https://sites.google.com/site/terminalbpp/ As for the Modem Init failure, copy all of the text from your post into an email and send it to support@unitronics.com Joe T.

You can not connect that sensor directly to a digital input. You need a converter. Something like this: http://www.kep.com/productPages/flow-instruments/AMP-1.html Shameless self-promotion - if you're in the US, I have them in stock and can sell you one. Joe T.

That sounds like an issue with the integrity of the CANbus network installation. 1. Are you using real and true CANbus cable (Accept no substitutes! Or if you're like me and don't want to pay big bucks for the wire and use CAT5 instead, dial the baud rate down. This is NOT Unitronics' official position, but it does work for testing. Buy the real stuff when you ship it.) 2. Is it terminated with a 120 ohm resistor on each end? 3. Is the cabling daisy-chained or starred? Starring is bad. 4. What is the baud rate? Joe T.

+1 PLCs are not motion controllers, unless what you're trying to drive only has one axis. Even then they're really not good at it. PLCs are not really good at crunching numbers, either. Yes, we can do it, but it's so much easier in a higher language. Joe T.

If you dig into the specs on the LC1 / LC3 modules, the resolution of the A/D converter is 24 bit or +/- 8,388,608. The span of the module is -20mV to +20mV OR -80mV to +80mV based on software configuration. To answer your second question you need to know the excitation that will be used and the mV/V output of the load cells. But the module itself doesn't change. It has no idea what's connected to it. Joe T.

Phase 1: Don't try to write the PLC program yet. Sketch out a flowchart of your program on paper. This sounds like a simple step, but even if you think you have the program operation clear in your mind it's much easier to have a plan to refer to. It's a good to play with the software to get familiar with it. Go through all the drop-down menus and look at the functions available, even if you may not know yet what they do. Know that they're there. Phase 2: Google "State Machine" and get familiar with the concept. This is my preferred method of programming a sequence as it is by far the easiest to troubleshoot. You use the flowchart you created in Phase 1 to make it. Your program won't work right the first time (mine never do and I've got 30 years under my belt) but it will be much easier to find problems in the small chunks of code that the state machine runs on. Look at this post for an example I did- http://forum.unitronics.com/topic/4333-when-set-coils-turns-on-it-turns-the-corresponding-reset-coil-on-also/?tab=comments#comment-15823 Phase 3: Profit!! No, really- write code and post it with questions. There's nothing more frustrating than try an answer programming questions from people without being able to see the whole picture. Good luck! Joe T.

Who did you get the modem from? Surely they can help. If they can't, here's the AT command set reference: http://www.idr.com.tr/files/EHS6 AT Command Set V02.000a (Preliminary version).pdf I'll leave figuring out which one to use as an exercise for you. Joe T.

You probably want to put everything in one Scan block. I would look at the format of the different responses and maybe put the first couple of characters in followed by a variable for different scan block entries. Can you list examples of the different responses you're getting? Joe T.

Theoretically no, since transmit and receive are separate lines. Testing while connected should answer the question and if you want to block the Send block while it's busy receiving use a NC of SB135. Think about it. The ASCII hex values of the string are landing in MI registers, which are themselves numerical representations of binary values. If you know which MI contains the hex status value you can convert it to bits using the Numeric to Bits function. The block doesn't care whether it's being fed decimal or hex data, it's simply transposing the word to individual bit values. You will have to deal with the endianness of the bits in your logic. Joe T.

No. It's a Linux box. Joe T.

Loaded your code into a V570 (it's what I have handy - really need to appropriate myself a V700) and connected it to the PC running the terminal program. This is what came out: So it appears to be working. I added a Scan block and a field on the display to show the raw value of what comes back. Load this in and let us know what you find. Joe T. rs232send_JT.vlp

I found this on the web- +V is 24 VDC Resistive load is 2.2 K. Output pulse goes to I0 Sensor output is the npn HSO on the -E6 I'll leave the rest of the connection details to you as an exercise. This will work in stand alone mode. If you connect something else to the "Output Pulse" without disconnecting the PLC input it probably won't work as impedance matching of two parallel devices with different threshold voltage levels is damn hard. Joe T.

The probability of two failing due to faulty hardware is quite low. The first one shows "Illegal Operand address". Is your application doing data logging or a lot of SD card writing and you've overrun a memory location somewhere? Joe T.

Yes, you are doing it right in the PLC if I read the documentation correctly. The most difficult thing with serial communication is making first contact. Since it's not working, you need to go outside the PLC to figure out why. This is why I almost always use a terminal program to work out the kinks - it's near impossible to troubleshoot low-level stuff with a Protocol block. Every time you want to change something slightly you have to download your program, and you don't have access to viewing a history of the serial buffer . Trust me on this. I've done it many times. Use the terminal program first before you beat your head on the PLC and get angry at it. One of these reasons is why it doesn't work: 1. The cable is wrong. You don't have TX and RX connected correctly or your handshake jumpers aren't there. 2. The baud rate and/or parity and/or handshaking isn't right. Once again, this is why you use a terminal. If there's anything coming through at all it will appear as garbage on the terminal. Unitronics will not display it unless the COM settings are perfect. Good luck. Joe T.

You need an MJ10-22-CS25 cable for the M90. Joe T.

What voltage and/or device are the PWM outputs connected to? You've got to pull them up to 24V to run them back into the high speed inputs, which may or may not be possible. Joe T.

This is usually caused by noise spikes in the system feeding back into the PLC. Do you have any large contactors or VFDs in the system? Joe T.

You didn't show it, but I'm assuming you're calling your COM INIT and Protocol config with a NO of SB 2. If you call them continually it won't work. Start by connecting a terminal program on a PC to your device to make sure your strings are right and you get the proper response from it. Then transfer what you've learned to the Protocol block. I like this one- https://sites.google.com/site/terminalbpp/ Joe T.

Unfortunately, the documentation regarding using the .dll in LabView is non-existent. I looked through it and the closest thing I could find was in the VB6 example - you can see some of the methods there if you open Form1.frm in a text editor and scroll down to about line 500. But I do understand what you are saying - the methods are not listed in a formatted reference. I'd send a request to support@unitronics.com and see if you can get some help from one of the Creators. Joe T.