Loading Programs From SD Automatically

[Dbroker]

I know you can download to the PLC a program off the SD card but is there a way to set up to do that automatically based on an input?

Looking at running multiple jigs in a fixture frame and the V700 we use I don't see having enough memory to store multiple job applications. So my next idea is to store multiple jobs on an SD card and download from there but not sure if it can actually be done.

[Flex727]

Yes, this can be done easily. Look under the SD menu and select Clone to place in ladder. With that function you can save and load any type of SD program file. Look in the Help file to see the proper way to implement this function.

[Fernando Castro]

7 hours ago, Dbroker said:

I know you can download to the PLC a program off the SD card but is there a way to set up to do that automatically based on an input?

Looking at running multiple jigs in a fixture frame and the V700 we use I don't see having enough memory to store multiple job applications. So my next idea is to store multiple jobs on an SD card and download from there but not sure if it can actually be done.

yes but also you are describing something like a recipe?, I made a program that runs based on recipes, and the recipes are stored on the SD card as data tables. If your logic allows you to do it like that it will be faster, downloading an entire new program feom the SD will take like 15 minutes 

[Flex727]

9 hours ago, Fernando Castro said:

downloading an entire new program feom the SD will take like 15 minutes

It's actually only about a minute or two, but Fernando is right - it would be much better to figure out how to do what you're wanting to do using Data Tables to keep everything confined to a single program.

[Dbroker]

Yes I am talking about a recipe. Instead of manually downloading a new recipe to the PLC every time the job changes, I would like to have it done automatically based on a particular input the PLC recieves. 

Fixture is powered up. Using the power up bit and a physical input the PLC changes the recipe and clones/downloads from the SD the new job recipe.

[Flex727]

Just organize all your possible recipes into Data Table(s) and select them that way.

[Fernando Castro]

7 hours ago, Dbroker said:

Yes I am talking about a recipe. Instead of manually downloading a new recipe to the PLC every time the job changes, I would like to have it done automatically based on a particular input the PLC recieves. 

Fixture is powered up. Using the power up bit and a physical input the PLC changes the recipe and clones/downloads from the SD the new job recipe.

I also don't think you need to use the SD card at all, you can store a lot of data tables with a lot of variables and a lot of steps inside the PLC memory.

 

I use 1007 steps each one with 8 variables per recipe and other 3 data tables ( 14 x 5 ) to store machine specific parameters.

In my case we were doing a lot of experiments and needed to be able to remotely manage new recipes for many PLC, s so SD card explorer was the easiest way to do it.

also, I do not recommend installing new programs for each fixture you may find old parameters stored on addresses in the PLC memory (every previous value is retained unless you specify a startup value, and even doing that that it may be tricky for counters and timers) it may cause some headaches to trouble shoot.

 

I had a recent post on where I described all my headaches trying to automate the program upgrade of my PLCs.... Now I do a lot of screenshots each time I do a PLC upgrade

trust me I gave up on that.... And I do not give up easily