Using AB Micro830 to control servo valve and solenoid valve.

Hi,
I am currently working on a thesis on programming a basic process tank, I need to control the servo valve and solenoid valve so that the water can reach the desired setpoint. However, I encounter some problems along the way. The solenoid valve requires a 24volt voltage to be switched on and the servo valve requires a 20mA current to be open. I wired the solenoid valve to one of the embedded output on the PLC and wired the servo valve on the analog output on the PLC.

My questions are
1) Would the embedded output of the PLC be strong enough to turn on the solenoid valve?
2) Where should I wire the solenoid valve onto? Com or O1, O2, O3 ?
3) How do you program the plc to output an analog value to the servo valve from the analog output?
4) Can someone please tell me what is the characteristic of the embedded i/o? EG, if I assign a Boolean “1” on the output what would happen to the com / output?

Thanks in advance =)

No offense, but I'd hope that someone with a tertiary education (or at least part of one) would be able to figure out most of this stuff themselves. You're going to be pretty screwed out in the real world if you can't bust out a multimeter and a manual and figure out some things yourself.

1) Is it a relay output or transistor output? What is the current rating of the output? What is the rated current of the solenoid valve? Is the solenoid valve an inductive load which may damage a semiconductor type output when switched due to reverse emf?
2) I'd read the manual. If it's anything like other AB literature, there should be some wiring diagrams. If all else fails, write a test program, turn an output on and do some multimeter detective work.
3) I think you need to open up the programming software, read the help file, and get to understand the instruction set of the processor you're working with. Again, some trial and error first before anyone on here will help you.
4) This is a slightly better question, although easily figured out with a multimeter. The output should energize, and provide a low impedance path between COM and the output.

Steve

Hi, I did all of the troubleshooting above and had no where to go anymore thats I decided to post this on the forum to ask for suggestions. Anyway, what kind of variable/ block should I use to send out a 4-20mA current from analog output module of my Allen Bradley Micro830 PLC to an external device? I can't find the proper block and I don't know the variable. Is it an integer or real variable? Its not specified on the manual and there is not much sample program that I can look it. Thanks.

Oh, I solved the solenoid problem. Now its just a matter of giving the servo a 4 - 20mA current signal to make close / open.