Hi Everyone,
My name is Chris and the reason I'm posting to this forum is because of some questions I have regarding Schneider Electric's Unity Pro XL programming software. Although I'm familiar with motor control ladder logic as well as programming languages such as C++, I'm having a little difficulty with the terminology they use regarding their timers as well as how to use them. My questions are as follows:
1. What does a timer's PHASE refer to and how does it work?
2. Do all timers require a PRESET value and how does it work?
3. Does a timer have to be set up under both the MAST task and the Event related tasks?
4. Do all the parameters of the timer have to be used in order to make it function?
I'm looking to learn how to program the timers using function block programming, and what I'm looking for specifically is something that will function as a START/STOP timer. I need it to start at 0 and retain its value as well. I've looked into it and come across some documentation on the ITCNTRL (see link below) timer, but I can't seem to get it to work as I anticipated. I think part of the problem is that I'm not exactly clear on how all the parameters work. That said, if any knows of an easy-to-understand timer I can use that's specifically designed for such an application, please feel free to let me know.
Lastly, I've managed to create my own START/STOP timer using structured text programming. It uses a REAL to measure the elapsed time, and the timer is triggered by an ON (1)/OFF (0) flag variable; the variable is initialized at 0.0 and, once triggered, is incremented by the duration of the MAST task cycle on each successive iteration of the cycle. When the flag value is set back to 0, the time stops counting and is rest to 0.0. So far its worked great. The only flaw is that I have to hard-code the value of the MAST cycle into the programming rather than retrieve it dynamically from the system information. What I'd like to be able to do is dynamically retrieve the TIME BASE from the system information and place it in a variable, then use that information to tell the program to increment by this or that amount depending on the value of the variable.
Any insight into these questions would be much appreciated. Thank you very much in advance.
Regards,
Chris
ITCNTRL Timer Link:
http://www.downloads.schneider-elec..._docTypeGroupFilter=4868250&p_docId=311395986
(Page 107)
My name is Chris and the reason I'm posting to this forum is because of some questions I have regarding Schneider Electric's Unity Pro XL programming software. Although I'm familiar with motor control ladder logic as well as programming languages such as C++, I'm having a little difficulty with the terminology they use regarding their timers as well as how to use them. My questions are as follows:
1. What does a timer's PHASE refer to and how does it work?
2. Do all timers require a PRESET value and how does it work?
3. Does a timer have to be set up under both the MAST task and the Event related tasks?
4. Do all the parameters of the timer have to be used in order to make it function?
I'm looking to learn how to program the timers using function block programming, and what I'm looking for specifically is something that will function as a START/STOP timer. I need it to start at 0 and retain its value as well. I've looked into it and come across some documentation on the ITCNTRL (see link below) timer, but I can't seem to get it to work as I anticipated. I think part of the problem is that I'm not exactly clear on how all the parameters work. That said, if any knows of an easy-to-understand timer I can use that's specifically designed for such an application, please feel free to let me know.
Lastly, I've managed to create my own START/STOP timer using structured text programming. It uses a REAL to measure the elapsed time, and the timer is triggered by an ON (1)/OFF (0) flag variable; the variable is initialized at 0.0 and, once triggered, is incremented by the duration of the MAST task cycle on each successive iteration of the cycle. When the flag value is set back to 0, the time stops counting and is rest to 0.0. So far its worked great. The only flaw is that I have to hard-code the value of the MAST cycle into the programming rather than retrieve it dynamically from the system information. What I'd like to be able to do is dynamically retrieve the TIME BASE from the system information and place it in a variable, then use that information to tell the program to increment by this or that amount depending on the value of the variable.
Any insight into these questions would be much appreciated. Thank you very much in advance.
Regards,
Chris
ITCNTRL Timer Link:
http://www.downloads.schneider-elec..._docTypeGroupFilter=4868250&p_docId=311395986
(Page 107)