Plc help

Hi Guys,

Firstly I'm new to the forum and in the whole concept of PLC's so yeah Hi!

I'm looking for some assistance/reassurance more than anything.

My father has bought a conveyor belt which is controlled by a Mistubishi FX16-MR. He is having some issues with the timing of each belt. Essentially the belts have three lanes and they merge into one for the next stage of the process. I have attached some photo's which should help the translation of my non industry standard jargon.

http://s8.postimg.or...91/DSC_7270.jpg
http://s1.postimg.or...nj/DSC_7263.jpg
http://s1.postimg.or...nj/DSC_7263.jpg

I work in IT, and like to mess about with anything i don't know about so i thought i would try have a go at fixing this for him. I managed to find out that it is a SC09 cable that is needed and the software needed is Melsec Medoc. I have went and ordered a cable and got version 1.64b . In the hope that i can hook this up and have a play around to get things fine tuned.

Am i seriously underestimating this? Do I seem to be on the right lines?

Having looked at Medoc I can see that projects can be saved.

My intentions was to save the projects, mess about and if worst comes to worst i can import the projects again?

Any assistance is appreciated.

Welcome. None of your images are working. I used Melsec Medoc in tech 4 years ago. It was DOS based software, so you may have issues running that on XP, Win 7, etc. You could use a VM or DosBox. I don't use Mitsi so not sure if they continued the name to the software range for newer OS's. If I recall correctly we were using FX10's.

Once you get your software running and connected, you want to do an upload. This takes the project information FROM the plc and transfers it TO your computer. Then save this locally on the PC. You can then make changes, save as a different name, then download and test. Any issues, open your original program, and download it.

Thanks for the reply, I can run the application. whether or not it will connect to the PLC still needs to be tested as i haven't received the cable yet.

sounds logical, now to try and learn what to do once i am in!

If you look at the photo's below. there isnt much to it, the two belts at the back and front are continues and the middle belt moves in a configuration that creates a single line of traffic for the next stage in the product line.

Any suggestions? Am i out of my depth?? ha ha

http://s8.postimg.org/6im2fjd91/DSC_7270.jpg
http://s1.postimg.org/uguuzs9nj/DSC_7263.jpg
http://s2.postimg.org/5okdhiax5/DSC_7276.jpg

Get your program uploaded but unfortunately it will have no comments as these aren't stored in the PLC. You will have to figure out what each input is activated by, and what each output triggers. Looking at your photos it looks like there are 3 pneumatic cylinders, one under each mid section belt. At a guess to activate each sub section the cylinder is extended? If so you will have an output (I think on mitsi's inputs are designated X and outputs are Y) for each solenoid. I don't see any sensors on the conveyor so not sure under what conditions it triggers.

Yeah that's right the pneumatic cylinders raise up to each belt singularly. I'm not sure what the input is activated by right now, i had a look at the sides to see if there were any sensors but cant see anything. I think they belts may be weight sensitive.

Had a chat with my dad and he said that it works through a timer. Has anyone got any experience with a system of this type? Should it be relatively straight forward to alter the timer to get everything calibrated correctly?

I don't have any real experience with Mitsubishi PLC's, but changing a timer value is a pretty simple task.

The hardest thing about PLC work IMO is "making things talk to other things". In your case, making your laptop talk to the PLC. Once you can do that, it should be relatively straightforward

The program may well have the comments stored on the plc. The FX has the capability to do that.

Hi,

Quick update on where i am currently. I have managed to source GX Developer and got the SC09 cable.

On friday I hooked everything up and managed to get connected to the PLC, connected up through the correct com port but when i tried to read from the PLC i could execute everything apart from the main program. I have attached a screen print of the error that is being displayed.


http://postimg.org/image/o1tbrj42j/

Anyone got ideas? As mentioned earlier, the battery light is illuminated and im worried that there is no program to download.

Additionally, the conveyor isnt working now with the power buttons.

Currently trying to source the program from the gent that had the conveyor previously