scaling problem

i woulg like to take my scale input and i would like to display lbs per minute on the panelview so i know my flow at all times, i know your going to say get a flowmeter but they are high maintenance and they always plug as i am transfering sugar,any ideas would be helpful.

Exactly what is your scale measuring (and don't answer 'sugar'). It it a holding tank which is emptying or filling? If son take the difference each minute and display that until the next minute.

it is a holding tank that holds the sugar coming from a silo
the holding tank holds about 2000 kg. then it dumps into a mixer it is being controlled by a micrologix 1100

oh ya the sugar transports at about 100kg a minute and that is what i want to display so we can tell if a pipe is getting blocked and blows.
have you ever seen 1000 kgs of sugar on the floor. it is really not that sweet ha ha

I will assume you have an input from load cells under the silo, since you said "like to take my scale input"...

So are you having trouble getting the raw data converted to pounds? Or looking for a method to determine the rate?

I would do the rate in the PLC at a regular interval like once per second, calculate the pounds of sugar that have been discharged.

Next, you can average several samples to smooth out the end result and display this average as pounds per minute by multiplying by 60. I would do all of these calculations in the PLC if possible.

i am looking for method to determine the rate in kg per minute
that will be updated every second does anyone know how to do this by taking the scale input every second and multiplying it by 60 i know the math but dont know how to do this in the plc


there is no such thing as a stupid question only stupid answers

A very similar question was answered here by Lancie: http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?t=70246

Have a look at that and see if it makes sense. It's filling a tank with chemical instead, but the same principle applies (just he can't put any product in his coffee).

http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?p=474739#post474739

I answered your previous question, which sounds like this one