PLC for House Lighting Control

Hi, I have just begun a project for a new house and plan to use a PLC to control the logic for the lights in the house. The project is pretty simple really, but I need some advice on the selection of the correct PLC unit

My Inputs are basically 2 inputs per output channel. These are simply momentry close switches, Switch 1 to enable to output channel and Switch 2 to disable the output channel.

If either of the two input switches are held for 2 seconds or more however, If the output channel is Analgoue then a counter should be incremented or decreased to determine the level on the output, AKA - Dimmer.


The Output channels will be either
1) Logic - On/Off and fed to an OptoIsolated Mains Relay for the target light
2) Anagloge - 0v-10v and fed to a Dimmer power pack for the target light


Finally, the PLC should be able to report the status of the programmed channels via ethernet or serial to a PC so the system can be remotely monitoried; and vice versa, the PC should be able to tell the PLC to alter the status or setting on any of the programmed outputs.

I have currently 30 OptoIsolated relays [logic outputs], and a 24 Channel 0v-10v Dimmer pack [Analogue outputs] for the house.

For inputs I will need a minimum of double the outputs as I have 2 inputs per output - Currently counting approx 120 Digital inputs.

I would like to be able to extend this.

I am a PC programmer, so not afraid of the task; and my dad has a number of S5 CPU devices in the garage, but i dont know if they are any use, or have programming tools for its eprom.

Help and guidance appericated.
The Shappa.

shappaeye said:

... I have currently ... a 24 Channel 0v-10v Dimmer pack [Analogue outputs] for the house....

Click to expand...

I need one of those...can you tell us more about it?

As for the PLC, you could choose a model from nearly any manufacturer that would work. I would use interposing relays to protect the actual PLC outputs from the current loads of the lights themselves.

I have being doing some home work, and this appears to be a potential laundry list, anyone have comments?


1 of PC-DSOFT5 DIRECTSOFT5 PROGRAMMING SW LADDER LOGIC EDITOR FOR DL 395.00 395.00
1 of D2-32TD1 32PT 24V DC OUTPUT MODULE 112.00 112.00
3 of D2-32ND3 32PT 24V DC INPUT MODULE 112.00 448.00
1 of D2-260 CPU 30.4K WORDS W/16-LOOPS FLOATING PT MATH 299.00 299.00
3 of F2-08DA-2 8 CHANNEL 0-5VDC OR 0-10V DC 12 BIT ANALG OUT 269.00 807.00
1 of D2-ANLG-M DL205 ANALOG I/O USER MANUAL 19.00 19.00
1 of D2-09B-1 9 SLOT BASE WITH INTERNAL 110/220 VAC P/S 199.00 199.00
4 of ZL-CM40 40 POLE CONNECTOR MODULE 49.00 196.00
1 of D2-USER-M DL205 PRODUCT USER MANUAL INCL IBOX 36.00 36.00
1 of D2-INST-M DL205 INSTALLATION & I/O MANUAL 17.00 17.00
1 of D2-BASECVR DL205 BASE(-1) EXP COVERS QTY 3 PER PACKAGE 5.50 5.50


thanks guys

I won't offer advice on what PLC to use, I will leave that to others who wish to promote their favourite PLC, but I will offer advice on what PLC NOT to use......

shappaeye said:

and my dad has a number of S5 CPU devices in the garage, but i dont know if they are any use,

Click to expand...

I wouldn't use an S5 if I was you, that's my opinion. In case you are wondering I do have plenty of dealings with S5's, that is the reason why I am saying keep away from them.

edit... I was going to delete this post as I see from your reply that it looks like you have decided on an AD PLC.

Paul

Thanks Paul,


No decision made; but when i looked at the S5's i saw a few CPU's but not a lot else; and figured I would do worse than look around for options.

The first hit on Google was DirectLogic, so Decided to try a price out; comes in at less than 3K$ which is cool. I dont have any idea however on the quaility of the product, or if I would be better suited looking else where.

(I still need to figure out a Switch to mount on the wall; I like the Lutron Slave Switches - they are not expensive, but dont know if they have some magic logic that would need to be put in the bin!!)

still open for directions

thanks

Unitronics. For the price of the PLC and software alone, you could have a PLC with touchscreen HMI, free software, and you could interface it with your cell phone and PC network.

www.unitronics.com Look at the Vision 280, or the Vision 290.

Dali

I would suggest that you are going at it the wrong way. Standard PLC is not suitable for lighting control, unless you use a specialty module. The only PLC module that does light controls as far as I know is made by WAGO. It's a DALI module. DALI is a network specifically designed for light control. There are other competing networks on the market here in US but the DALI (which is big in Europe and making inroads in US) is the best as far as I can tell. The way you are approaching it is to have individual wires to each light! Do you really wanna do that? DALI requires that you use compatible (DALI ready) lights. However the wiring is easy, only a two conductor cable. WAGO has also come up with some software that will allow you to hook it up to your PC.

TimothyMoulder said:

Unitronics. For the price of the PLC and software alone, you could have a PLC with touchscreen HMI, free software, and you could interface it with your cell phone and PC network.

www.unitronics.com Look at the Vision 280, or the Vision 290.

Click to expand...

Thank you, this is indeed very interesting and also looks like it would be quite easy to program. I think its not going to work for me however, as the number of modules needed to get 24 Anagloue 0v-10v outputs looks quite high.

But the bigger issue appers to be a limit of 128 I/O in total.


this is a real shame