What cool, non conventional things have you seen done with a PLC?

- Built a PLC-5 system that assembled locks for a major lock mfg. Used RFID tags on small pallets with 2 locks each and would move on a conveyor to all the required stations to load the shims, pins and other small parts. Tracked groups of lock sets for master and construction sets. Unload used a ladder logic coded bubble sort to make sure the sets are unloaded into groups.

- Have a PLC Direct 5 running the shoe closet for my wife. Closet has 10 glass shelves each with a LED light strip over each shelf. The PLC turns them on in sequence. Then every 2 minutes it equences them off/on again. After 15 minutes it shuts itself off.

- I built a 1968 GTO for road racing and road rallies. It has a SLC 500 with a Direct logic touch screen in the dash. Tracks exact MPH and distance. Also have a GPS module it reads for the road rallies to track if going to fast or slow when check points are crossed. Also programmed a cruse control that takes over and adjusts speed in the last 2 miles of the race to try and cross the finish line at the right time. Monitors ride height on all 4 wheels, fuel pressure and level (then MPG with approx remaining miles left) engine RPM and drive shaft RPM and shows what gear car is in. Still adding things to it.

It also uses a Pico controller to control the electric hide-away light covers up/down and the windows auto up/down from switch or remote.

- Replaced a bunch of washing machine and dryer controls in a laundry mat with Pico controllers. Guy who owned could not get parts for old controllers and the Pico was much cheaper then the new controllers offered by the mfg.

- Back in 1987 put a PLC-2 on 4 huge riveting machines for assembling the wings of C17 aircraft. They ran up and down on railroad tracks around the wing. Used RFID tags and another PLC-2 via a very expensive radio link to do collision avoidance.

Many others not quite so strange.

JaxGTO said:

- Have a PLC Direct 5 running the shoe closet for my wife. Closet has 10 glass shelves each with a LED light strip over each shelf. The PLC turns them on in sequence. Then every 2 minutes it equences them off/on again. After 15 minutes it shuts itself off.

Click to expand...

That is awesome. Where is the youtube link? I am itching to see this.

JaxGTO said:

- I built a 1968 GTO for road racing and road rallies. It has a SLC 500 with a Direct logic touch screen in the dash. Tracks exact MPH and distance. Also have a GPS module it reads for the road rallies to track if going to fast or slow when check points are crossed. Also programmed a cruse control that takes over and adjusts speed in the last 2 miles of the race to try and cross the finish line at the right time. Monitors ride height on all 4 wheels, fuel pressure and level (then MPG with approx remaining miles left) engine RPM and drive shaft RPM and shows what gear car is in. Still adding things to it.

Click to expand...

but THAT is downright bad to the bone. I demand pretty please request a picture at least....

JaxGTO said:

- I built a 1968 GTO for road racing and road rallies. It has a SLC 500 with a Direct logic touch screen in the dash. Tracks exact MPH and distance. Also have a GPS module it reads for the road rallies to track if going to fast or slow when check points are crossed. Also programmed a cruse control that takes over and adjusts speed in the last 2 miles of the race to try and cross the finish line at the right time. Monitors ride height on all 4 wheels, fuel pressure and level (then MPG with approx remaining miles left) engine RPM and drive shaft RPM and shows what gear car is in. Still adding things to it.

Click to expand...

That... Is impressive. How many field devices do you have in total going to the PLC?

Aabeck said:

Just in the planning stage (need to find a 12VDC brick PLC) but planning on disconnecting the wires to ALL the exterior lights on the SUV & running them to PLC inputs (12V) then controlling each bulb individually as called for. That's boring - so I'm adding a dashboard switch that changes the mode & flashes all the lights in a pattern (except NO alternating red lights on back - that's illegal.)

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Ab micro 810 comes in a 12v dc variant

Mark Snodgrass said:

I used an old SLC-100 as a door stop.....

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I still use a Siemens S7-200 brick PLC as a paper weight. AHAH

I use mine to impress my friends and coworkers...

Oh, wait, you said "non-conventional"....

I used a ML1000 to catch what stopped first. I had pair of NG Grain dryers that would stop always after you left, leaving no clue as to what tripped first. They were run in parallel and if one had troubles they both stopped.
I used SSRs to act as Volt meters across NC or NO contacts, coils, and flame boards.

Not unusual for you guys but until then I had only used them to control the start/stop, not diagnostics.

Aabeck said:

Just in the planning stage (need to find a 12VDC brick PLC) but planning on disconnecting the wires to ALL the exterior lights on the SUV & running them to PLC inputs (12V) then controlling each bulb individually as called for. That's boring - so I'm adding a dashboard switch that changes the mode & flashes all the lights in a pattern (except NO alternating red lights on back - that's illegal.)

Click to expand...

Have you considered to use an Arduino? You can run these off 12 Volts and it is fairly easy to add some cheap relay shields. If you need more outputs, you could achieve this fairly cheaply with multiplexing.

For the past 5-6 years i have been doing a spook house in my garage for Halloween. The first couple of years i used a Automation Direct 105. I had a photo eye that would trigger a row of LED's to strobe on/off. This was behind the sensor to get them to turn around and look. After a short timer i turned on a leaf blower and gave them a burst of air. Another part had a sensor trigger an air valve that turned on a thumper. The thumper is used in hoppers and is an air cylinder that shakes back and forth to help with material flow. I had it hanging on the side of a metal bucket just to make some noise.

The last two years i have used Arduino's for all the control. The PLC was ok but the free software was limited and i only had the one unit to play with. Last year i had 3 Arduino's

Apiary data acquisition.

SLC503 monitoring beehive weights to gather data about pollen and flower blooming. I was surprised at the amount of information that can be determined just by watching hive weights and how they change.

Full house status...paranoid owner.
What windows or doors are open/closed.
ALL interior lights are on low voltage relays allowing to turn on/off in each room and/or from a master control panel in the master bedroom (attic wiring nightmare).
The master bedroom control panel is a house layout that has lights to show doors/windows that are open or closed and lights that are on.

Car just back from running the Silver State Classic. Ran average speed class 130mph for 90 miles.


Don't have any digital pics of SLC. Never thought to take any.

I do have a video of shoe closet on my phone, ill try to figure out how to YouTube it.

Nice. Thanks. I'd love to see the controls you described on it too, but that is one special beauty of a goat.

TConnolly said:

Apiary data acquisition.

SLC503 monitoring beehive weights to gather data about pollen and flower blooming. I was surprised at the amount of information that can be determined just by watching hive weights and how they change.

Click to expand...

What are you using for scales and are you logging the data?
I have about 10 hives now with hopes of growing a bit...

And pictures would be great!