Siemens Step 7 Functions

Hello all,

Can anyone point me towards some decent tutorials on using "functions" eg FB and FC in Siemens Step 7 please ? I have looked on the Siemens Automation site and whilst there is some stuff there, nothing that I have found has helped so far.

Basically I am looking to massively reduce the code that I currently have for controlling conveyor belts. I may have 5, or 10, or 20, or 50 conveyors to control, each has the same set of control parameters eg run, stop, direction (fwd / rev), and feeds back status information eg running, isolated, tripped that I then show on an HMI.

At the moment each conveyor has its own code and the duplication is huge.

As I understand it I could have one function that could work for all conveyor belts ? saving masses of work ?

I know that the functions can be linked to DB's, can I read information from a DB directly to my HMI to show status etc. or do I have to assign variables as i do now ?

Any help would be appreciated (as always).

Many thanks,

Mark

Yes you can use FB's, which are linked to individual DB's.
From these DB's you can acess all the variables directly to your HMI.

I've learned to use it with the Step 7 manual, have a look and if you have more specific questions, I will try to help

You just need an example project. You're right that it is much simpler to use FC's (or FB's) for this and you will just need one block writing and then just call it each time for however many conveyors you have.

I finish work in a couple of minutes but, if I get chance tomorrow (and someone hasn't beaten me to it), I'll post a quick example of use...

;-)

....simple example....

Uptown47 you are beaten.

Wow LD that's great thank you, I'll have a proper look this evening. I am sure I will have some questions later ......

Mark

manmeetvirdi said:

Uptown47 you are beaten.

Click to expand...

Well and truly!!

Nice one LD...