I want to build an AB 1771 trainer

zqew05

Member
Join Date
Jun 2003
Location
Alabama
Posts
110
I need help in building or assembling a PLC trainer. I was told it is easy but I've never done or observed one being assembled. Is there anyone in the MIssissippi, Alabama or Florida area who can help me assemble it? I don't have a backplane & chassis(trying to get it on Ebay as soon as I save up enough money again) but I have the 1771 PLC module and several other odds & ends bought over the internet. I've been buying directly from people I meet on the internet but am scared of Ebay because it is too big. I don't know if any of these parts on hand work but I've got to start somewhere. I'm willing to travel to that person's place for the sake of learning. I think I will learn how to program PLC's if I see lights flashing. This hobby is a whole lot more productive than fishing. HELP !!!
 
Hey there, I to am a student who put togeter a station at home. I did it all from b-bay and had no problem. For about $500 Canadian funds, i got a plc 5/25 processor, a 16 slot rack 13 I/O modules, a P-7 in slot power supply and a KF2 interface box. It took a bit to set up, but, with the help of some guys on here, and a little time it was up and running in a few hours. I now want to build a test box that has various toggle switches, LED display and thumb wheels to run projects but have no experiance in doing so. Dont be afraid of ebay...all my transactions have been fine, I pay with a money order and only buy from people with more then 100 trades and %100 posative feedback.

good luck
 
Are you looking to set up a system at home? Or just buy the training CD to watch? If you are lookig to set up a system, you are going to need a processor, power supply, chassis and input/output cards for the chassis. You said you have 1771, but that is a general code for the PLC 5 family. Do you have a processor yet? This attachment is the system I found on ebay....

my plc.jpg
 
ZXNINJA,

If I find a similar one on Ebay, I wonder if I can use it to run my Christmas light display. Did you get any help wiring some lights and thumbwheels for your simulator?
 
more toys ...

Jeff said:

I now want to build a test box that has various toggle switches, LED display and thumb wheels to run projects but have no experiance in doing so.

Jeff,

Just a suggestion - but instead of mounting the switches, buttons, lamps, etc. in a metal box - how about mounting them through a piece of tile board? In case you don’t know, tile board is available from your local Lowes or Home Depot back in the plumbing department. It only costs about $10.00 for a 4’ X 8’ sheet. It’s clean and slick and a whole lot cheaper and easier to work with than metal boxes. In a pinch you can even just score it with a knife and break it along a straight line if you don’t happen to have a saw handy. It’s only 1/8” thick so even the mounting holes for your switches and lamps can be whittled through with a knife - but one of those “cone head” step drill bits will make holes a lot quicker and neater.

Anyway - I helped a couple of students set up their “home brew” PLC trainers this way and the project turned out very nice. Once I got them started, they took several sections of tile board about 2 feet square and made up a whole series of trainers - conveyors - presses - index tables - etc. just by drawing different machine patterns with colored magic markers. Here’s a sample of one of the simpler designs that we came up with to give you the idea. Having the machine laid out like this really helped them to visualize the machine’s operation and made it much easier to work through their programming exercises.

Note to vetteboy: I really do like the boxes that you came up with. I'm mostly making this suggestion for the "bargain basement" guys who don't have access to the tools and materials you obviously have available.

conveyor board.jpg
 
Last edited:
Great idea Ron...I was just out looking for the right size junction box and realize it is just pot luck. The tile board sounds like a great idea!! I have no experience in hooking up thumb wheels or LED displays though, and I am a little concerned about the difficulty in wiring then to the I/O modules. Any help would be great!! Like I said, I have no experiance in setting one of these up but, I am quite sure of wiring the switches and lights (have done such work at school), the thumbwheel and LED are going to give me the problems, I can feel it//lol. How many points should I expect to have to wire to the I/O modules for the wheel and display, and in what sequence???? Well, thanx again for the suggestion Ron..."CHEERS"
 
Thumb Wheels and Displays

Hello,
I'am currently building a trainer and I also would like to incorporate a wheel and a display. I know that for each digit on the wheel you need 4 inputs- so a 4 digit display you will need 16 inputs.
For a digital display you could use the same method each digit in the output would then require 4 outputs. I know their is a simpler way, I just haven't come across it yet.

John
 
zqew05

In what part of Alabama do you live? If it is close to the Aburn/Operlika area I might be able to give you some help.
 
be careful what you ask for ...

Greetings, NewToIt,

you said:
For a digital display you could use the same method each digit in the output would then require 4 outputs. I know their is a simpler way ...

there is (usually) a way to drive a four digit display unit using only eight output wires ... but it's not simpler, it's much more complicated ... first of all, the display must support "strobing" ... but then most of them do ...

read this:

previous thread about thumbwheels and digital displays

and then post again if you want to go further and need help ...

here is a preview of the basic approach that I used years ago to help students understand the problem ... this should be the first step in writing the program ...

first delete all of the program rungs from your processor ...

then manually turn on the proper output bit pattern for a BCD display of "1" ... then manually turn on the strobe bit for the 1000's digit ... the 1000's digit should light up as a "1" ... now turn off the strobe bit for the 1000's digit ... the 1000's digit should now stay a "1" ...

then manually turn on the proper output bit pattern for a BCD display of "2" ... then manually turn on the strobe bit for the 100's digit ... the 100's digit should light up as a "2" ... now turn off the strobe bit for the 100's digit ... the 100's digit should now stay a "2" ...

then manually turn on the proper output bit pattern for a BCD display of "3" ... then manually turn on the strobe bit for the 10's digit ... the 10's digit should light up as a "3" ... now turn off the strobe bit for the 10's digit ... the 10's digit should now stay a "3" ...

then manually turn on the proper output bit pattern for a BCD display of "4" ... then manually turn on the strobe bit for the 1's digit ... the 1's digit should light up as a "4" ... now turn off the strobe bit for the 1's digit ... the 1's digit should now stay a "4" ...

so now the display should be reading "1234" ... and you've only used four wires for the BCD output signals and four wires for the strobe output signals ... a total of eight wires ... now "ALL" you have to do is write a program to automatically handle all of those steps that you just performed manually ... this is not a trivial task ... give it your best shot and post your code if you run into too much trouble ...
 
I don't think I have ever heard of a strobe bit, as I have only used
BCD digital outputs on trainers, never actualy seen one used in real life. But I think I understand what you are saying. You send a BCD number as one four bit signal per decimal digit and each time you enter it using the strobe bit?
 

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