adccommunitymod (AutomationDirect) asked a question.
Created Date: February 19,2008
Created By: Pfitom
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The C-more display is very easy to program basic things and has a lot of advanced capability if you can figure out how to put it together. I'm looking for a way to allow a user to select a speed setting such as: off, low, medium, & high. Instead of writing bits based on the selection, I want to write the actual RPM's to a register. So if Off is selected, I want to write the value of 0, if low then write a value of 10, medium =25, etc. Additionally, the value in the PLC can be changed elsewhere, and I need to reflect the current state on the selector switch. I have tried to use the recipe button and that works great to write a value, but I haven't found a good way to show current active recipe. The recipe button does have the annoying feature of displaying the message on the screen that it is writing 1/1. Can this be shut off? I have tried to use a radio button to set a bit internal to the display and event to cause a write of the correct value to the PLC. I can also create an event that based on the value in the PLC sets the bits correctly, but that seems to create a circular reference that at least in simulation mode drives the display nuts. This also seems to have the annoying downside of having to step the radio button through each value until I get to the desired setting causing the motor to momentarily speed-up. Seems like this should be a pretty simple scenario, what am I missing? Using the events mostly works, but is going to get ugly when I have a lot of these.
Created Date: February 19,2008
Created by: Terryc
What I 've done in that situation is to use a recipe button for loading the value. Then, put an indicator light on top of the button, with visibility determined by the value of your v-memory location that you are loading data into. When Speed Setting = 10, your light will become visible on your 'Low ' button.
Created Date: February 20,2008
Created by: RefineryGuy
What I would do is set up a momentary contact in your ladder, so when the button is pressed (C0), it loads k0 into v2000. C1 is pressed it loads k25 into v2000... etc...
I dont ' know how to post ladder, otherwise I would show you what I mean.
Created Date: February 20,2008
Created by: Pfitom
Thanks for the responses so far.
I'm going to try adding an indicator to the recipe button to see if I can get the visual I need. Any way to get rid of the downloading recipe message? This is a distraction to the user.
For the PLC logic, I'm familiar with the proposed solution and have used this in the past. This solution has two downfalls from my perspective. The first is it takes a number of rungs to accomodate if there are a lot of these and they provide no value in the PLC other than to compensate for an interface short coming. The second, and more important reason is I want to be able to provide two (or more) different interfaces optimized for different users/use cases.
The PLC has no value beyond running the machine therefore I do not want to have to modify the PLC based upon the interface. By having the PLC work with a desired RPM value rather than bits, I can have one interface that uses the selector switch as described in the original post and I can have a different interface that allows the user to actually set the RPM value. Regardless of how the interface is designed, I don't have to modify the PLC. As long as the machine does what it is suppose to there is no value in making modifications to the base machine design.
The interface is what the user sees and experiences, so there is value in easily modifying, which is what attracted me to the C-more programming environment. I can take this concept one step further and have one interface specifically for the machine builders which gives them the capabilities they need to build and test the machine. Meanwhile, I can provide the customer the interface that is meaningful to him. I can even finish interface design while the machine is being built & tested, cutting lead time.
Created Date: February 21,2008
Created by: Terryc
I 've done it several times with the indicator light on top of the recipe button, or with a multi-state indicator near the recipe buttons, but it would be a lot easier if the recipe button could change appearance like an indicator light does, based on the value of a tag. Could this be added in a future revision of the software?
Created Date: March 01,2008
Created by: dieselvette
What I 've done in that instance, if there's only a few settings on the selector switch, is to have multiple switches on top of each other in the same area on the same screen - each of which appear only when a certain internal bit is set. Each switch contains all the same functions, but each looks different based on the current setting & each one only appears when it's setting is current (using the "Object visibility option " in the "Options " tab for that object).
For example, Switch0 is present when the RPM is set to "0 ", and if the operator uses Switch0 to change the RPM to 100, (which sets an internal tag, say "RPM100 " to ON) then Switch0 disappears from the display (because the internal tag "RPM0 " is now OFF) and Switch100 appears, reflecting the current setting of 100 RPM. Meanwhile the correct information (depending on how the PLC is programmed - discrete or values) is sent to the PLC based on the operator's selection.
I'm not sure if this idea applies to your scenario, it could be a little time consuming to program if there are a bunch of functions you need that I'm not thinking of, or if your PLC program is such that only numeric values are used for each setting.
Created Date: March 02,2008
Created by: a agnone
I have done some simple stuff like using a up down arrow button to increment/deincrement a v-memory from 0 to 10. Then have a meter on the display, using scaling, to show the value.
As far as the recipe button not displaying, I have not had that problem. I have the first column as a ASCII text and lets say I used V1400. I put a text object with V1400 and it shows what recipe was chosen.
Created Date: February 19,2008
Created by: Pfitom
The C-more display is very easy to program basic things and has a lot of advanced capability if you can figure out how to put it together.
I'm looking for a way to allow a user to select a speed setting such as: off, low, medium, & high. Instead of writing bits based on the selection, I want to write the actual RPM's to a register. So if Off is selected, I want to write the value of 0, if low then write a value of 10, medium =25, etc. Additionally, the value in the PLC can be changed elsewhere, and I need to reflect the current state on the selector switch.
I have tried to use the recipe button and that works great to write a value, but I haven't found a good way to show current active recipe. The recipe button does have the annoying feature of displaying the message on the screen that it is writing 1/1. Can this be shut off?
I have tried to use a radio button to set a bit internal to the display and event to cause a write of the correct value to the PLC. I can also create an event that based on the value in the PLC sets the bits correctly, but that seems to create a circular reference that at least in simulation mode drives the display nuts. This also seems to have the annoying downside of having to step the radio button through each value until I get to the desired setting causing the motor to momentarily speed-up.
Seems like this should be a pretty simple scenario, what am I missing?
Using the events mostly works, but is going to get ugly when I have a lot of these.