Horner NX221 with Smart Stick

Greetings, I have been in contact with Horner and the one rep seems to tell me the only way to do what I want is to purchase additional hardware. I thought well with the collective mind of the users on this site maybe someone figured out how to accomplish what I want without having to use additional hardware.

We have many of the Horner NX221 PLC/HMI Units that are connected to the remote IO module they call a smart stick. Up until now everything has worked well. The problem is that some machines are scheduled to be updated which means faster. With the faster speed it means that one inch of material will now travel that length in 20mS. Well everything is ok with the speed except the scan time of the PLC. The scan time has been averaging 19 to 22mS.

Now I know from my limited Mitsubishi knowlege that they have what they refer to as an interupt routine and you can identify which inputs to use as interupts. Basically seems to make it a high speed input because it forces the PLC to execute logic outside the normal scan of PLC. Well the Horner does not seem to have this option available. SO I was wondering if anyone knows of a way to place code in the Horner to simulate this.

Or if there is a way to have two independant programs running in the Horner. Or maybe a way to connect the input from the smart stick right to a incremented register.

Looking for any and all input concerning this. Thanks and have a great day.

Smart Stix are slow.
Rate is 125K and cannot be changed. If you attempt to speed it up you'll lose the remote I/O.
The Horner unit is averaging 0.2mSecs/1000K worht of logic.
The other thing is the Horner units use a lot of overhead/housekeeping time as well.
Your 20mSec scan time is typical.
The only way I managed to acomplish faster scans is by NOt running sections of code when there's no need for.
As far as interrupts i haven't seen anything like it.
They do have the HSC inputs which can be used for count/encoder/etc.
These are fast indeed.
You could try using the inputs and pull the trigger based on their feedback.
But you still rely on the unit and scan times at the end.
The other solution will be to use the "fast process" I/O for your project as local (re-wire and move points to the unit itself).
Also, you could setup your display (if you have one) to a lower refresh rate. This will speed up the logic engine.(very minimal gain though).
Can't think of anything else for now.
Horner will be launching a "fast" unit soon from what I'm told.
This one will run housekeeping and such on its own and the logic engine won't be affected as much as the current units.
Not sure of the release date.
If they do, you could get a new unit and utilize all the existing I/O, current setup.

You can add a Smart Stack pack to the back of the unit to get your high speed counter. The 220 doesn't come with a build-in one.