My Own PLC Trainer

Chunky

Member
Join Date
Jun 2007
Location
Manila
Posts
8
Hi guys I am currently at my 4th year in college and i thought of creating my own PLC trainer for my thesis. does anyone know some good PLC Hardware training modules? and im planning to put a microcontroller in my product, is this a good idea? cause im planning to build a mini-plant with conveyor belts and sesors and stuff.. hope you guys can help me..
 
Best of luck

Its a great idea. You can look at some shoebox PLC of u r going for a very small PLC based system only involving a limited number of DC I/O signals. Budget will be a great constraint when u think of making a PLC based system.

Microcontrollers are very good to work with. I have myself made a Microcontroller basded Power energy meter in my 4th year opf instrumentation engineering using atmels 89C51 microcontroller.

Incorporating PLC and Microcontroler is not that difficult but needs a lot of hard work when it comes to coding if u r not using a cross compiler.

Best wishes,

Rex
 
the PLCs in our school are De Lorenzo PLCs its not that big and the formulated exercises for it are very boring so i thought of making a Hardware training module making PLC learning more interactive and exciting. our group consists of 3 members so i think we can cope up with the expenses, and im not that bad at coding.. will i use the Digital Out of the PLC as the connection to my Hardware or use nultiple wires instead?
 
i would like to know how many DI and DO are available to you on the PLC.

Is it a modular or a shoebox PLC? Give me the details of the PLC ( MAKE and MODEL)
 
2 DI and 2 DO... and 24 Is and Qs..i cant recall the model number but the brand is De Lorenzo, and i tried to find the De Lorenzo in the internet but i cant find it..BTW whats the difference of a shoebox to a modular?
 
This will probably sound harsh

A PLC is a microcontroller, why do you need another one?

Never heard of the plc's you have but DI means digital input and DO means digital output, 2 of each will not control much. I have no idea what I's and Q's are from the info provided. I have a sneaky suspicion you have confused some terms and have 2 analog in, 2 analog out, with 24 digital I/O.

I suggest you first determine what exactly you want to do AND what you have (or can afford) to work with. Once you get these details worked out then ask questions (or for suggestions) as necessary.
 
OOPs

Dear friend.
I guess u have a lot to learn from what your replies suggest. As another of our friend has pointed out your PLC has 24 DI and DO and maybe its 2 AI and AO.
the I you refer to is the DI
THe Q you refer to is the DO,
I and Q are the nomenclatures used by some PLC programs in the ladder as O gets confused with 0(zero).

A shoebox PLC is the one in which there are fixed number of inputs and outputs(I/Os). A modular PLC is the one where you can increasde the numbers of inputs and outputs according to the requirement.

I would strongly suggest you to visit some PLant where they have a PLC based control to have a broader view of the system. Then I am sure u will be in a better position to decide on your project.

And to my other friend. PLC is not just a microcontroller but a combination of microcontroller and microprocessor. Microcontroller is better in bit programming and microprocessoir is better for calculations. Hence both in combination to use the best of each.
 
Chunky said:
the Is are the ones that are normally open or closed in a ladder diagram and the Qs are the motors..

LOL, as I said, FIRST you need to learn what you have to work with and how it works.

I will be patient and explain some things, you responded earlier saying you had 2 DI and 2 DO with 24 Is and Q,s.

As I mentioned saying 2 DI means you have 2 digital inputs and 2 DO means you have 2 digital outputs; therefore the comments about Is and Qs made no sense. Your last response saying the Is were contacts in a ladder and Qs were motors also did not make sense.

Again I will try to explain. The internal programming (usually) has no limits on the number of internal contacts or coils you can use EXCEPT the limitations of memory for that plc. It may be possible that YOUR plc has these limitations BUT you need to know, understand, AND clearly state that when asking questions on a technical forum like this.

I know all this sounds harsh BUT you are in your final year before being an Engineer; shouldn't you be able to clearly state (explain) what you have, what you are going to do, and what you need?

I am not an Engineer BUT if ya can't talk the talk how will ya ever walk the walk?
 
ok so the PLC is DL 2110SWS but since i cant find it on the site i searched for the one that looks similar to it, the DL2110A2 looks like the 2110SWS. sorry cause i just thought of this idea over the weekend and the last time i saw the PLC was 6 months ago.
 
Hello;

From OkiePC's link, you can tell that the DeLorenzo unit is a training module for PLCs, using a S7-200 PLC form Siemens, probably a CPU226 (from the number of integrated digital I/Os), with what look like an analog expansion unit. There is also a hand-help programmer of some sort, named "PG 703" that I've never used before; a manual for a "PG 702" programming interface is available on the following links. We generally use MicroWin to program these units.
There is a lot of documentation on the S7-200 series on Siemens' website, documents can be downloaded here:
http://www2.automation.siemens.com/simatic/portal/html_76/techdoku.htm
and the programming software (Step 7/MicroWin) can be downloaded here:
http://www.automation.siemens.com/_en/s7-200/support/tools_downloads/microwin.html

Hope this helps,
Daniel Chartier
 
Last edited:
More research needed

Chunky,
u need to perform more research on PLCs and related systems. Once u r more familiar with various typoes of PLC systems u will have the knowledge to make right decisions on what u wanna do and how u will do it.

In case u need any help u can always mail me or talk to me on yahoo messenger whenever I am online.

Best wishes.
 
ill use a microcontroller for speed varying purposes of the motor for the conveyor belt and for my color sensors and light barrier sensors in the trainer. after reading some books and consulting a professor, i just realized that the de lorenzo module is a training unit for PLCs and is using a PLC from siemens..LOL dchartier was right!.. the module has 32 digitals in and 32 digital outs, and aside from the 64 slots 4 parallel ports comprising of 2 digital out and 2 digital in are in the module. sorry cause i am not that familliar about the practical applications of the PLC, i only know how to make ladder diagrams and some PLC coding and i think that is a good reason for me to build a PLC harware training module LOL..
 
Congratulations

Chunky,

Your enthusiasm is commendable. I am glad u have put some effort into knowing what u want and what u already have.

For making a simple system for motor control and photosensor input u can use a microcontroller more effectively than a PLC. The aspect when u r looking into while making a Project in your final year of engineering studies is the commercial viability of the project that u make. It is very important that the idea you concieve and work on is of commercial value. Then only employers will be interested in you.

If u r really passionate about making a PLC based control system then I suggest you should take some real life control system and make a model of it. That will help a lot. and the more analogue inputs/outputs u incorporate in your system the better.

Best wishes,

Rex
 

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