ACC Automation: PLC & Industrial Control Learning
Practical Tips and Techniques
We will now look at the Click PLC Modbus TCP remote io. The Click PLC can use remote inputs and outputs from Stride. The Stride Field I/O Modules are simple and compact. They provide an economical means to connect inputs and outputs to an Ethernet Modbus TCP communication network. Every module operates as a standalone … Read more
We will now look at logging data with time and date in the Click PLC. The Click PLC can perform indirect addressing. This means that I can ask for information to be moved to and from locations in the PLC using a pointer that will indicate the address. Stephen Covey in The 7 Habits of … Read more
A PID (Proportional, Integral, and Derivative) control is possible with the Click PLC. The Click Programming Software version 2.50 now includes PID. This features 8 full-featured control loops with an easy graphical user interface (GUI). PID will run on all of the Ethernet-enabled Click PLCs. We will be using this PID along with a Factory … Read more
A PID (Proportional, Integral, and Derivative) control is possible with the Click PLC. A sample program was written for this PLC by Bernie Carlton in the following thread from the Automation Direct Forum. This was based on the math/process presented by Tim Wescott on is paper titled PID without a Ph.D. We will be using … Read more
A dusk to dawn sensor usually is discrete on/off of the lighting control. If we want to vary the lights to mimic more of the sunset and rise, we would use an analog output to control the lights. I was recently asked about such a program. Every day they wanted the lights to go off … Read more
Productivity PLC – PID Ramp Soak Instruction The purpose of a ramp soak instruction is to make gradual, controlled changes in temperature (Ramp), followed by a temperature hold (Soak) period. We will be using our Proportional-Integral-Derivative PID Instruction that we looked at last time to apply the ramp/soak instruction. Using the immersion heater in a … Read more
PID Loop (PID) Instruction (Auto Tuning) – Productivity 1000 PLC A Proportional-Integral-Derivative algorithm is a generic Control Loop feedback formula widely used in industrial control systems. A PID algorithm attempts to correct the Error between a measured process variable and the desired setpoint by calculating and then outputting a corrective action that can adjust the … Read more
We will now look at communication between the Productivity 1000 PLC (Modbus TCP Server) and AdvancedHMI (Modbus TCP Client). Advanced HMI is a powerful, adaptable HMI/SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) development package that takes advantage of Visual Studio. There is no coding required and you can simply drag and drop items onto the page. … Read more
Firmware is usually PLC operating system code that is written into a read-only memory. The BIOS (Basic Input Output System) of a PC (personal computer) is a good example of firmware. It provides a low-level interface between the hardware and software. The firmware for the productivity series of PLCs must be downloaded separately from the … Read more
The Ethernet Click PLC high-speed counter has seven different modes of operation. In Part 1 we discussed the High Speed Count Mode, Interval Measurement Mode, Duration Measurement Mode and Frequency Measurement Mode. This 100 kHz counter can accept Up, Down, Up/Down, Pulse/Direction, or Quadrature (with Z) inputs. We will be looking at the last three … Read more