hotwires

Mark S. Thanks you, the screen shot you provided helps bring the picture of the third party hardware into focus. Still intrigued by the 300,001 and 400,001 decimal MODBUS address. I'll have to process this for a while. I'm sure the addition info you posted will accelerate an answer to your troubles. Please clarify: "When I read the analog Inputs I use the read input registers (4) and use a value of 0 and I get back the value that is in register 300001. The offset because the module uses one as the first register." where you say "value of 0" do you mean address of 0? have you tried registers periodic, write, (16), address 40001? Or 40000 accounting for offset. Unilogic's valid MODBUS address range is 0 to 65535, so the 400001 is out of the question. Modscan is great idea. It's referenced in the automation direct manual (see photo). This is an @Joe Tauser question. My best battles are fought and won with gear that is at my fingertips. Or someone lifetime of real world experience.... which I'm still working on.

serial or TCP/IP MODBUS? I was reading this document. So you can read but not write? The Unilogic MODBUS setup is fairly straightforward, most likely an addressing issue. Third party PLC is probably getting the write request packet(s) and just doesn't know what to do with it, or writing to the wrong place?? http://www.simplymodbus.ca/faq.htm 300001 and 400001 (decimal) are a typo? An extra zero? Max analog write address appears to be 49,999

SMB 3.0 may have something to do with it. It prevents Win7 PC's and printer/scanners from seeing Win10 PC's shared network folders. Spent hours fighting an issue with that recently. Win10 has a setting in windows features (checkbox) to force support of "SMB 1.0" Disclaimer: less secure, however if it makes things work in a LAN that is relatively well isolated from WAN then why worry to much. My experience with Win10 shared folders being invisible to NOTwin10 machines was not Visilogic related, so it's worth what you paid for it. This is Microsoft We are dealing with, headaches come at no extra charge!

@Cara Bereck Levy may be able to help you. Sales is not Her specific department, however history has shown that She is very quick to respond and assist in any way She can. @Joe Tauser is an authorized distributor and PLC expert in my Land. UPS ships worldwide. Unitronics is an excellent choice.

I disregarded IP address range because of quote above. I guess that's a statement, although it does end with a question mark. I thought that address looked like Microsoft's "dummy" address. Any two devices on the same physical LAN and common subnet should be able to communicate. I didn't see or confirm the IP address the phone had obtained. 169.254.x.x is not an address pool I would expect to see in a DCHP router. It would be a good measure to put router, plc, and phone in a more traditional address pool like: 192.168.x.x or 10.0.x.x I have an app on my iphone called "ping lite" that runs IMCP ping command. Very helpful in determining if basic network communication is working between phone and other device (PLC in this case).

Have you checked the internal battery? Never used Jazz series, I know Vision has a system bit that shows 1 if battery is low (SB8). SB300 resets PLC in VisiLogic. I had a V430 lose display for a while. Finally got it back after O/S upgrade, download and burn of ladder, and initialize PLC from info mode. The boot screen would always show up, just not the HMI home screen of program. Display black with no back lighting. Never figured out the exact cause.

You must set PLC name in rung 1 at the right of FB's you already have. APP will not work with no PLC name defined in ladder. Name is your password of sorts, I would suggest making it something more unique than SM43 if it is going to be port forwarded to the public internet. Another note: socket 1 is set to 20256 by default. While redefining socket does no harm, it is not required. Happy coding. -dB

Latest BSOD was driver related. Highly suspect MS is self sabotaging itself via unsolicited driver updates or other thrid party software. Could be faulty memory or other hardware. Very ELUSIVE. Can't squarely blame it on UniLogic. uninstalled uniL and still getting them. Very low time laptop, so not much of a baseline for prior reliability. Doesn't make me want to go find another Win10 laptop and try again anytime soon though. Not that I trust anything Microsoft all that much, Win7 is fairly predictable.

On a V430 two serial ports. Port two can have a second (optional) serial board installed. V1210 has two included serial ports and option for a third. Not sure about others. Specs would reveal. I have used the two included serial ports on a V1210 simultaneously one to a PC and second as a MODBUS master. Please note that the mini USB port (when actively connected) takes over the primary serial port. A bit of an inconvience when wanting to be on online mode and have serial port also working out RJ11 jack. Sounds like two on the V130 also.

IF the inverted contacts you added to valve control outputs handles the outputs logic in all possible conditions THEN it would be redundant to also keep vector fill and on delay for "scalingandalarms" subroutine ladder call. That was a solution for testing with no live inputs, just force loaded bits/registers via online mode. I try to think of things sequentially as they happen in the first scan and then in all subsequent scans. It could be that all outputs energize for a single scan then inverted contacts set them off in all subsequent scans (until pressure restored and user resets). This could all happen so fast that your solenoid valves never make a complete physical opening. Sounds like you have everything doing what you want it to, just be sure it happens in the sequence(s) you want.

This depends, IF for any reason the PLC resets (power failure and program downloads that require reset) will it have current (4 to 20mA) at the analog inputs on the first program scan, at least one channel above the critical low set points? The purpose of the vector fill is to load imaginary raw tank pressure values (THIS HAPPENS ONLY ON THE FIRST SCAN because of SB2 contact) that will prevent all three tanks from latching into low pressure lockout states (user must reset). You won't get real pressure data into the PLC until the timer ahead of "scalingandalarm" subroutine call has expired and it's contact goes TRUE. You could put an SB0 contact ahead of vector fill and and SB1 contact branched around (logical OR) TD8's contact. Then you can load program and observe behavior. IF you are getting all outputs on due to ALL TANKS critical low pressure THEN you can take out SB0 ahead of vector fill and remove SB1 around TD8 contact and adjust TD8's time value low enough to let your transducers stabilize at power up. I would also recommend a physical Emergency Stop mushroom head NC switch coupled to PLC input that would UNCONDITIONALLY CLOSE all valves IF activated by user. You could construct logic that would sample (delta) differential in system pressure over (defined) segments of time to detect a massive leak or open in the gas piping THEN trigger an ALL STOP on valves. I haven't done much change of value versus change in time logic, but the potential is there! A very sudden drop in tank or system pressure (downstream) could be interpreted as a rupture or massive leak. Obviously your tank pressure transducers are on the tank side of the solenoid valves. My best advice is to always LIVE TEST every possible (and even impossible) scenarios of Input conditions the PLC could encounter and take note of the results. I try to use as many logical FAILSAFE's in the code as possible. Then address falsing issues and adjust or remove as the live machine testing goes forward. I don't really have time to sit down and construct logic from scratch to show you how I would have coded your application. Joe T's index/pointer example is a great approach. I probably would have used several compare FB's and S/R bits, a bit banger as Joe put it. The community here is always happy to help others help themselves. Happy coding. You've chosen the right hardware, software, and support network for your project. Very happy with the price, performance, and support that I have always received from Unitronics.

@thecarb This version if you want the OPLC to make an audible pulsed BEEP when alarm is active. Lots of other little things I'd change.... but I have to stop somewhere. Happy coding. *FILE REMOVED*

@thecarb Possible solution found. Try the mildly edited code attached. I duplicated your issue (not sure if you were testing with sensors live and connected, I was not). Here's what I believed caused the "all outputs on condition" I observed on a fresh run of JoeT's program: Powered up, MI2,3,4 at ZERO. Scaling SR runs before values can be forced into MI's (pre scaled values) and thus SETS MB3,4,5 putting outputs into cyclical ON states. I put a vector load on power up that loads D#4000 into MI3,4,5 then I hold off ScalingandAlarm subroutine with an on delay timer for 10 seconds. This allows time for pressure transducers (if powered on at same time of PLC) to initialize and output current. Perhaps OPLC was grabbing zero values on transducers at system power up and MB3,4,5 are latching then must be USER reset. All happens before you can wink. Could be filtering on AI's or speed of successive approximation capture. Don't know those specs of the top off my head. Good luck Carb. -dB\ *FILE REMOVED*

UPDATE: downloaded (converted) N Switcher program into a V430 i had in the shop. hardware AI's were paired to arbritrary MI's, forced MI 1,2,3,4 with D#4000, switched to AUTO mode and observed (in online mode) all three outputs on. left to tend to another matter and came back, decided to pull power supply and move setup into my living room. didn't observe HMI prior to removing power. plugged back in and HMI flickered white and then black. online mode worked. downloaded original program back in, No HMI. boot screens with black and red backgrounds show up fine. new download status lines listed something about "HMI display on PLC does not exist on Current Project". trying system upgrade now. all black and red boot screens display fine on hmi. HMI Has worked fine from day out of the box until I unplugged AC supply (which is no big deal). happens when power fails or troubleshooting. OS update finished, still black HMI with no backlighting. Oh boy. Trying a download and burn now. weird. 10 sec screen press brings HMI to life (info mode). Commanded INIT from info mode and HMI came back in regular program. WHAT A WILD RIDE!

I will load Joe's program into a V430, use online mode to force AI memory integer values, and then actually live test it on the OPLC. I'm not real good at evaluating program flow by looking at the ladder screens. Live test may reveal something. Will post results late tonight. What language is HMI screens in? If scan goes from left to right within a rung, I am getting impression all three outputs could end up on in auto mode when all three tanks are below critcal setpoint (which Joe stated, cyclically). Will find out when running live on V430.

RobertW: If you have specifics you can post on forum or call Unitronics support. Both helped me greatly when tranlslating a large program from Visilogic to UniLogic. If you are starting with Unilogic it may actually be easier, I really had to retrain my brain away from all the terminology and form of Visilogic. It's not bad once you get the hang of it. You have a powerful support team to assist you, be NOT afraid to use it Sir.

Make a six minute time base: T0 T0 (360sec) ----|\|---------------------( )------------- T0 O1 (motor) ----| |------| |------------[inc uINT32]- This counts tenths of hours. Add decimal on HMI numeric display and you have an hour meter.

Term screening in relation to shielded cable is new to me. Not sure what "being a goose" means either.

Screened must be the Austrialian term for shielded. Screen makes me think of the second grid in a pentode electron tube. The British call electron (vacuum) tubes "vavles". Which makes sense, they are valves for electrons.

Term "explorer" reeks of Microsoft.

I just take a 6 min timer (time base) linked to contact (true for one scan then timer self resets) + (logical AND) with motor output contact then drive an INCREMENT DW FB. While output is true the DW (Uint) increases in tenths of hours. Add decimal point shift one left and you have HOBBS hour meter. A reset numeric can be triggered elsewhere in ladder to clear the time count. -dB

Aus, I've nagged them about a lot of things, with persistence. Only seen one thing change because of it. My wishlist didn't make any hits on the last UniL release I haven't given up entirely. Some of the requests are probably out of the question. Not impossible, just not something (presumably) worth the time it would take to develop. But wait... VisiLogic has IT!

The impression I got was no, something like: most Vision hardware is maxed out on space allocated for firmware memory. Except for V700 there is only four sockets. Could use more sockets and SSL/TLS email! I agree on Vision being a solution good for most applications. Only thing that got me to use a Unistream was customers desire for a 15" screen. I have found several things I like with the UniStream lineup. However there are some (very useful) FB's in VisiL that are not found in UniL. Would love to see something in between the two in the model line. Price is a big factor in most of the projects I end up doing.

Aus, Thanks. and yes I made the correction to Win 10. Win XP and 7 are the two most stable MS OS's in my humble opinion. Need to finish my entire cup of coffee in the morning before I start posting. -dB

Joe T. , The 0x19 BSOD has a wide variety of published causes. No way to say for certain that UniL was the trigger. It was only visible programming running at the time, background processes are numerous. Has Avast premier antivirus (some suggest AV can cause BSOD). Connected via ethernet, direct cable connection, laptop static IP to the same network as Uni15.6 panel. First compilation and download was successful (slow) made program change and subsequent compilation ended in BSOD. Just uninstalled UniL for now. Not sure I'm ready to fight that battle yet. Still have plenty of Win 7 machines around that work great. Side note, HP laptop was giving several (frequent) message popup's about "app" trying take control of image and sound default viewers and that windows has set them back to the "default apps". my personal instict (before this event and after) is to avoid Windows 10 like the plague. However the day will come where it may be the only option. Would love to see UniL for Linux (also know that will never be a reality... MS is King, good bad or indifferent... still King).