newbie trying to understand drum seq

I would appreciate some direction on writing drum seq. using
dl-105 plc

have you tried looking at their site? They have alot of info there.

The manual for the 105 has a whole chapter devoted to the DRUM instructions Have you read it?.

Bruce,

I'm presuming you have an application that repeats the same process over and over with no changes. Correct?

1. Define process, ie. start button pushed, wait 1 second, extend cylinder. wait 2 seconds, start blower and energize clamp cylinder, start mill motor, wait 2 seconds, extend mill. ect. ect

2. Translate to ladder. If you have defined the process like above then "extend cylinder wait 2 seconds" is just one step of the drum.

The EDRUM will do events as well as timed events, so I find it easier to use. If you think you might want to add a step later on then use a value of "0" there.

If you are a Missouri (show me) kind of guy here is an example. http://forum.hosteng.com/index.php/topic,235.msg1671.html#msg1671

milldrone said:

bruce,

i'm presuming you have an application that repeats the same process over and over with no changes. Correct?

1. Define process, ie. Start button pushed, wait 1 second, extend cylinder. Wait 2 seconds, start blower and energize clamp cylinder, start mill motor, wait 2 seconds, extend mill. Ect. Ect

2. Translate to ladder. If you have defined the process like above then "extend cylinder wait 2 seconds" is just one step of the drum.

The edrum will do events as well as timed events, so i find it easier to use. If you think you might want to add a step later on then use a value of "0" there.

If you are a missouri (show me) kind of guy here is an example. http://forum.hosteng.com/index.php/topic,235.msg1671.html#msg1671

Click to expand...

yes, i plan to use my dl105/ fl-130dr to program led light sign modules.
Thank you by the way for helping me out!
Will the example you gave work for my lights as well?
Bruce

Bruce - I see your answer to my question was posted over in the 'novices' thread.

Milldrone's example is to a drum application. It was to give you the idea of how one of these can be used. It wasn't to point to an answer to your particular application. You'll have to work that out perhaps with some help here.

Perhaps first post an exact definition of what you are trying to do. What inputs and outputs have you defined? What part of the program (even if nothing more than turning on one output) have you done?

Hi Bernie,
What i am trying to do is program my dl105/f1-130dr to control strings of led lights sequentially turn on and off with just a switch on x0,
I started using the edrum instruction tonite but am still confused with
inserting the counter in the ladder to go between steps.
Thank You Bruce

You are jumping ahead of yourself choosing the instruction. Or at least you are jumping ahead of us.

Can you first describe (don't try to work the PLC into it yet) how many 'strings of light' you want to control. Is each a simple ON/OFF item?

Then give a description of how you want the process to take place. What do you want to happen. You'll have to get a little more specific than 'control'.

We need something on the order of:

I have 4 strings of lights.
I want to press a button and the first string will come on.
Ten seconds later I want the second string to turn on and the first string to turn off.

Describe just one sequence. Once you get the idea you'll be able to do other things on your own. Let's just get a simple setup going first.

And the EDRUM controls both by time (the "COUNTS" entry really throws people off. It is counts of time periods. Thus the "COUNT" is a time setting) and/or by an event signified by some designated bit condition going true. But for the time being let's forget the PLC entirely and work on the basics. What do you want to do?

Hi Bernie,
Yes this is a simple on/off program with 4-7 strings of led sign modules. I wrote a program starting w/ turning on y0 output then using a timer to turn y0 off in 1 sec. with rst then turning on y1 etc..
But y0would come on for 1 sec. and turn off and y1-y4 would stay on until i stopped running program.
So you can understand my situation- I am a cabinet builder/ woodworker trying to build some seasonal yard ornaments incorporating led's. I was told about PLC's by a friend and bought my dl105/ f1-130dr on ebay a week ago w/ knowing absolutely nothing about it but developing one heck of an interest. I plan to start w/ just 1 on/off switch.
Thank you so much again Bernie!

Bruce - PLCs are really fun and it's great if you get to play with them for a living as I do. Now, imagine developing the instructions for building a cabinet for someone else who you wouldn't get to supervise. You are presented with a list of skills they have. Using that you have to organize the steps in such a way that they end up with a finished product.

So you have the instruction set of the PLC. We need to understand that. If all you wanted was a finished program you could hire someone. But I feel that you would like to understand the system itself (as well as causing lights to flash.)

With that said let's start with the program you wrote that didn't work out as you wanted. Did you use DirectSOFT software? If so open it with your program. Go to File - Export - Program and give it a name. This will result in a pure text description of your program which you can open with Notepad, copy and paste into a post here. We'll start discussing your project from there.

I think PLC wise you are trying to run a marathon when you have not even learned to crawl.

Look at the top of the web pages for Melores tutorials. They are how I learned to "crawl". This will teach you the basics.

You need to sit down take an hour and draft up the project design.
bernie and several others have recommended that.

I recommend doing this in excel mostly because it lays it out in a table. Number of lites to turn off turn on what the on duration is what if any time delay between each lite turned on / off etc.

I think you should do this project with timers to start with. They are more basic and using them will show you things / concepts that you will need later especially so with sequencers.

If the sequencer was a simple thing they would not have a whole chapter devoted to it. It is not simple and there are a whole lot of parameters you have to have to make it work right. As a simple comparison look at a washing machine timer cycle switch - it is a sequencer - just the number of wires connect to it should give you some idea of complexity.

the value of the excel table will prove out when you get into setting all your time values. When I learned sequencer having this table in front of me was invaluable mostly to ensure I set the right "storage location" value for a parameter. I found that this (bookkeeping if you want to call it that) is the most important step and will save frustration.

Dan Bentler

Hi Bernie, Here is the text version of my program using tmr and reset:
PLC 130
// Rung 1
// Address 0
STR X0
OUT Y0
// Rung 2
// Address 2
STRN X0
TMR T0 K45
// Rung 3
// Address 6
STRE TA0 K10
RST Y0 Y3
// Rung 4
// Address 10
STRN X0
OUT Y1
// Rung 5
// Address 12
STRN X0
TMR T0 K45
// Rung 6
// Address 16
STRE TA0 K20
RST Y0 Y3
// Rung 7
// Address 20
STRN X0
OUT Y2
// Rung 8
// Address 22
STR X0
TMR T0 K45
// Rung 9
// Address 26
STRE TA0 K30
RST Y0 Y3
// Rung 10
// Address 30
STR X0
OUT Y3
// Rung 11
// Address 32
STR X0
TMR T0 K45
// Rung 12
// Address 36
STRE TA0 K40
RST Y0 Y3
// Rung 13
// Address 40
END
// Rung 14
// Address 41
NOP

Here is my version of a program which will turn on the lights in 1 second intervals. Note how using nicknames makes it more readable.

Copy and save this text to a '.txt. file. Start a new program then use File - Import pointing to that file.

Don't take this as some type of "THE WAY DO DO THIS". There are as many ways as there are programmers. I tried to see what you were attempting and showed it in my way of thinking. Just use it as a jumping off point.

PLC 130

// Rung 1
// Address 0
STR X0
TMR T0 K45

// Rung 2
// Address 4
STR X0
ANDN TA0 K10
OUT Y0

// Rung 3
// Address 8
STR X0
AND TA0 K10
ANDN TA0 K20
OUT Y1

// Rung 4
// Address 14
STR X0
AND TA0 K20
ANDN TA0 K30
OUT Y2

// Rung 5
// Address 20
STR X0
AND TA0 K30
ANDN TA0 K40
OUT Y3

// Rung 6
// Address 26
END

// Rung 7
// Address 27
NOP


#BEGIN ELEMENT_DOC
"X0","Input Switch","",""
"Y0","Light 1","",""
"Y1","Light 2","",""
"Y2","Light 3","",""
"Y3","Light 4","",""
"T0","Light Timer","",""

#END

Hi Bernie,
I am happy to say I have achieved my goal by using stage boxes and timers, it works great but a few small problems come to mind:
1. If i run the program and unplug the cord and connect a reset switch to x1 input w/ a stop instruction in the program I cant get it to restart again without reconnecting the cable and rerunning it.
2. The dslaunch5 programmer will only open a file less than 1kb, so for now if my computor crashes I have a problem-lol
Thank you again for your help
Bruce

brucewoodrem said:

Hi Bernie,
I am happy to say I have achieved my goal by using stage boxes and timers, it works great

Click to expand...

Excellent!

brucewoodrem said:

1. If i run the program and unplug the cord and connect a reset switch to x1 input w/ a stop instruction in the program I cant get it to restart again without reconnecting the cable and rerunning it.
2. The dslaunch5 programmer will only open a file less than 1kb, so for now if my computor crashes I have a problem-lol
Bruce

Click to expand...

Bruce, can you rephrase this for me? when I first read this it sounded like you needed to have DS5 connected to the PLC to get it to recycle. But now I'm thinking you mean that you put a extension cord on the PLC power input. and when you unplug it, the program will not start cycling after re energizing. Or maybe you meant something totally different?