Fountain Fun

I am in the planning stages of programing for a fountain I want to build. I purchased an AB SLC500 for the project. I have purchased 40 solenoid valves (NO) and I have some normally closed valves for flow control. The start looks good so far, but it is now time to get down to the real programing. There are several teqniques that can be used but I am looking for the ideal way.
SO far I have used intergers and programmed timers to get the effects I want. I am new to programing and would love to have some advice as to the best way to build flexabilty into the program. I have heard a little about SQC but not sure how to use this programing function.

The functionality would be as follows;

The 40 outside nozzles would cycle along the outside jumping every other one. The nozzles would be aimed at an angle to give the effect of "Jumping Nozzles". Latter I would add inside nozzles and lights to add to the effect. My goal is to provide about 1 hour of entertainment without repeating any sequence.

Can anyone provide me with guidance as to the "Best" way to acquire these goals?

Thanks,
Dave

My email address is [email protected] if anyone wants to see the program so far or has some advice.

As far as programming goes you want to create an image stack that would drive the outputs. Like a big drum counter driven by a timer.

There's another thread I'm current involved with, where a student is programming an image recorder. It seems that would be approperate for your application. Here's a link to my most recent post explaining the programming steps for recording and playing back a 16 bit image:

http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?p=152720#post152720

Basicly how this works is you use a series of buttons to input the image and time, by "playing" it like a paino. Then it will play it back again on the outputs. I dont know about the SLC500 but the DL06 I used has enough memory for about 1 hour, changing the image on the average of once per second.

Just remembered this,

Last summer I was at an assisted living home, and they had a large courtyard garden. So in this one area they had a walk where about 30' of it was covered by spraying water. So as you walk along an approch the water plumes, they shut off in front of you and turn back on behind you. So you can walk the entire 30' without getting wet, but entirely surrounded by water plumes. Really neat...

Just got off several weeks of long hours and I am back to my fountain project. So far I have been able to get the effect I want. I am using three timers per nozzle to get the effect I want to use. The first timer starts after a "done" bit is turned on from a previous timer. The first thing is to time the length of time the nozzle sprays, then to time the amout it stops and the third timer will put in a delay before the next timer starts. Once the effect is established all I need to do is figure out an easy way to change witch nozzles fire and when. My second pump will run about 15 other nozzles down the center for larger effects with lights. (NO MUSIC, I HAVE NEIGHBORS).

I hired an individual to start clearing out the area the first part of June. It will probably take the rest of the Summer to install the blocks, wiring, plumbing and liners.

My goal for the programing is about 60 minutes of unrepeating fun. (Maybe three times of something in a row, but not more than that. Thanks for any input you guys may have for me, as I am crossing a lot of new territory for this project.

Thanks,
Dave

DFJ,

I think I can save you some time. As a result of assisting a student on another thread I came up with a program that can record and playback up to 3600 different 16 bit patterns. Each pattern can be as short as 1/10s or as long as 999.9 seconds. (hours & hours of fun). The catch is it's for an AD DL-06 PLC. The PLC costs about $240.00. You wont need to buy the PLC programming sofware because the code is short and can be edited with the download demo version from AD. Or I could send it to you in a downloadable file.