TP without PLC-program

at our companie we are thinking of making a test-device to test our machines if they work how they have to do and my boss wonderes if such thing is possible without having a program downloaded in the PLC.
my guess is that it is impossible but we dont know how many fancy tricks Siemens has build in in there PLC's.
so to get back on my question is it possible to test a machine with a TP without having downloaded a program into the PLC???


my appologies if this sort of question is asked before or if it sounds so silly that you won't even bother to awnser

No

yah allready thought that but wasn't sure

thank you for reply

Do you mean test the machine hardware or test the program without downloading it to the PLC?

If its testing the program you can buy a emulation product that simulates a running PLC.

If you want to test the indivdual pieces of hardware I guess you can hardwire each IO point to a voltage/current source and see it operate in the field. Probably would defeat all safety devices though so its up to you!

no its for hardware because for the software we allready have such simulation program. but sometimes we build machine that are about 10-20 m. long(dont know how mucht feet that is) so then we can hardwire the components but then we cant see what happens. thats why we want such device so we can also see at teh end of the machine what happens and we only need 1 person in stead of 2 for testing the machine.


does someone has an other idea what we can do to be able to test the machine with only 1 person?

Sounds like you are trying to confirm your I/O. You might could set up some type of wireless connection from the PLC to a laptop, and then you could make switch "x", and confirm that the Input for switch "x" did or did not come on at the right input. Kind of clunky, and I am not sure that there would be much benefit.

I have always confirmed I/O with two people, and some type of communication between the two, radios, cell phones, etc...

Just a thought

Ken

i dont totally understand you ken but it has womething to do with inpus i agree. becuase when we have a sensor on such machine that has to messure some hight we have to place it on some certain hight so it can detect the product. but we can place the sensor but not configure(i think thats the word im not sure) it. so the person who has to write the PLC-prog must first find out where the mcanics have left the sensor, then configure it the wright way with help of the mecanics and maybe an hour later he can continue prgramming. so if have some device for testing such things without the need of a plc program it saves us a lot of time and work

You may need to buy a SIGNAL GENERATOR, also called a TRANSFORM, or INSTRUMENT TESTER. I have a Fluke brand Model 789 Process Meter that I use in the field to test sensors without being connected to a PLC. With a device like this, you can send or receive current or voltage signals to the device and test or set it to specifications.

might be a great solution but do you have some more info about that generator so i can go to the boss with it and explain it to him

.. is it possible to test a machine with a TP without having downloaded a program into the PLC???

Click to expand...

A problem is that the PLC will not scan the i/o unless you have downloaded a hardware configuration to it.
So you need at least a minimal program with the hardware configuration.
For the analog i/o you may have to program some analog scaling routines.

You can then program the TP to display the raw i/o addresses.
You can set outputs on the TP, and they will remain in the set state because there is no program in the PLC to reset them.
BECAUSE OF THE ABOVE, EXTREME CAUTION MUST BE OBSERVED.

However, I think that the whole excercise is ineffective. This because testing with two guys will be more than twice as fast as testing with only one guy + TP.