Motor basics with PLCs

DLMUK

Member
Join Date
Jun 2013
Location
Southampton
Posts
311
Hi,

I want to buy a motor to connect to a PLC to drive a small conveyor or similar. This is not a commercial thing, its just a pet project for me to learn a bit more about this with PLCs.

I plan to use an S7-1200 PLC but I don't want to spend £100s on a motor - I am looking at a small (in physical size) motor to use, but for slow moving items I doubt I want a 5000RPM motor or similar.

Can anyone suggest a motor which could be used? I guess its more like a motor for hobbytronics - the kind you would find in a small PLC simulator at a PLC training centre or similar.

thanks
 
There's a few 2nd hand 240v ac motors on ebay for £20, you just need a contactor with a 24v coil to power it.

That said the motor is either on or off and that's all the control you will get for a cheap one. Just use a light.

What sort of thing did you have in mind?
 
I'm trying to find a way to learn more about control using PLCs, I thought building a simple conveyor which I could add some proximity sensors to etc would be a good start.

I have tried to find one of the small PLC learning kits with conveyors, drill stations etc but I can't seem to find anyone selling them at reasonable prices. The only ones I actually got a quote for were in the £1000s.
 
I would take janner_10s advice and use a light. You can pretend it is a motor if you want. I would get like 5 lights 5 switches you would be surprised how much code you can write with that. Have you checked out automation direct? There are cheap and easy ways to learn PLC on their site. Plus plenty of training material for free. If you go name brand like Siemens the software cost might be high. You can probably stay under 200 with a click PLC and some lights. Here is a link to there https://www.automationdirect.com/adc/Home/Home

If you really want a motor you can get some little 24V motors on pages for arduino like digikey and run it off an output. Not the best idea but it will turn the little motor.

Hell you could really even get a arduino and use visuino or google software to program arduino like a PLC.

Good luck.
 
How many RPM ? ("slow moving" doesnt really say anything).
How much power ?
And/or how much torque ?
On/off or adjustable speed ?

As I said, i'm doing this to learn about control (i.e. the logic within the PLC) more. As motors are quite new to me I cannot really answer these questions to precisely.

What I am hoping to have as a finished product is a desktop size conveyor belt which I can gradually add things to and make up a PLC test/training kit.

The conveyor won't move anything other than small bits of plastic. Adjustable speed can come later, for the time being on/off should suffice.

thanks
 
Are you after learning Siemens specifically or PLC's, as something like PLCLogix has all the bits you are after, but based on AB.
If you do there projects you will get a good understanding of more than just the basics.
But in saying that nothing beats the hands on and playing with the real PLC hardware learning and blowing things up.
 
I'm not necessarily after Siemens, but I have TIA portal already and access to S7-1200s so it seemed logical.

I will check out automation direct, didn't realise they had all of those videos. Looks helpful.

I see your point about lights over power, but I could simulate lights with icons on a HMI, I was hoping for something more tangible as its not all completely new to me. Probably should have said that at the start.
 
I have used these motors from RS to make a simulator:
258-8366
they are 24V and go up to 12rpm which was fine for my needs. You can get a lot cheaper but 24V makes it easy.

I have used this controller:
313-2122
you can connect a pot to it to control speed or you can give a 0-10V reference. I seem to remember that it needs an isolated 24V supply, but I have a few old power supplies hanging around so that wasn't a problem.

For a job where I wanted to control distance more than speed I used this controller from Farnell:2507561
Again it can use 24V d.c. supply but controls a stepper motor, you can run it in various modes. The manual did give me a headache. It can take a 0-20mA speed reference and has various digital I/O that can be interfaced to a PLC.


For mechanical bits I found various robot supply stores where you can get all sorts, though it was hard finding one store that had everything in stock. I ended up at this one:
http://www.robotshop.com/uk/gears-belts-pulleys-tracks-sprockets-chains.html
 
Below is picture of one the PLC trainers I am working on now... send me a PM if you want some details on the motors, I have tried a lot of different ones

Its a 5 axis arm with a grabber and once done it should be nice

DSCN1109.jpg
 
Here is a side view, its still work in progress but its a step up from my other trainers and should help with teaching with a 'simulated' motion

DSCN1110.jpg
 

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