PLC programming laptop

joweibee

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Join Date
Mar 2008
Location
batangas
Posts
12
Hello everyone,

anyone who can suggest me of laptop's specification for better plc programming.i want a laptop that could sychronize with my PLC during monitor mode.what i am using now is a little bit slow that i can't see signal's broken.
i saw one laptop with specification T7250 @ 2GHz
1.98 GHz, 504MB of RAM, i tried to use it but still it's not synchronize with the plc signal.

thanks for any inputs..
 
I suspect its not your laptop, more likely its your comms settings. You should see everything OK on a 386 CPU!

What PLC are you using? How are you connecting? What are your comms settings?

I had a similar problem with an AB SLC500 system built for us by an external company. When going ONLINE the update speed/response time for seeing inputs change was extremely slow. Found that the PLC DF1 comms were set at 1200 baud, the default is 19200! (Please correct me if I am wrong). Changing this cured the problem.
 
well, i am using it with the omron cj1m plc and ge fanuc plc.
speaking of GE fanuc, i am using 2 different softwares, one is LM90- DOS base and cimplicity machine edition.
i haven't try changing the baud rate..i'll give you a feedback after i did.
thanks for the help
 
I have not used that combination, but remember you would need to change baud rate on PLC and your comms software. May be worth waiting until somebody pops in who knows your set-up :confused:
 
joweibee said:
hey,
i tried changing the baud rate..it somehow becomes fast but not yet synchronize as i want.
Hello joweibee,
What exactly do you mean by "Synchronize"?
And in your original post, what did you mean by "I can't see signals broken"
If comms is lost, CX-Programmer will give you a big red flashing error message across the Status bar!

If you want faster communication speeds, the CJ1 will communicate at up to 115200 baud, depending on how the PLCs port is set up.

Unfortunately, I can be of no help regarding your GE stuff.
 
Update time of a status display in monitor mode depends on a lot of things:

How many points you are monitoring, (more points = more data to transmit = slower)
Baud rate of the link. Higher baud rate = faster
How the PLC programming software is written (No control over it but some packages seem to update quicker than others)
Performance of the monitoring PC, including video performance and in the case LCD displays there can be a restriction on update time.
Your eyes!

Each of these factors will affect overall performance. There comes a point where things are changing rapidly and your eyes wont keep up.If you are looking for really quick events you are better off putting debug code into the PLC program to trap the events you are interested in and setting a flag when they occur.
 
what i mean with broken signal is just like a series of switches Normally opn and normally close in the ladder diagram..i am troubleshooting a machine and i know that one of the switches in the series is cut but i cannot see it..that is what i want with my word synchronize..to see an updated signal as it is in the PLC itself.does PC RAM have some effect with the speed somehow?
thanks...
 
i am monitoring here a whole ladder diagram but its not that very long with thousands of rungs... i just want to see two signal in which i want to determine which is faster.i want to buy an industrial laptop for my programming only..do you think a higher ram memory will help?
 
joweibee said:
i saw one laptop with specification T7250 @ 2GHz
1.98 GHz, 504MB of RAM, i tried to use it but still it's not synchronize with the plc signal.

Hello joweibee,
If this is what you are using, then that should be plenty fast enough.
Some questions...
Are you using CX-Programmer?
Are there any green (assuming you are using the default colour scheme) power-flow lines that you can see?
Is monitoring enabled within CX-P (PLC \ Monitoring \ Monitor)?
Is monitoring enabled for the window that you are viewing (View \ Monitoring)?
Do you have dozens of windows open (even if not visible, any open windows are monitored - hence take up communications time)?
(Obvious, but I'll ask anyway) Is the PLC in Program mode? - nothing is running, hence nothing is monitored if it is!
If I can think of anything else, I'll post again.
 
well, yes i am of course in monitor mode.it's just that the signal that i saw is not as fast as the PLC input. anyway i'll just buy that laptop but upgrade it to a higher ram like 1GB i think..
 
If you right click on the contact when monitoring and select differential monitor you will count the number of times a conatc changes state. Very useful.

You can only view 1 contact at a time in this manner.
 
Why? The problem is the laptop is not as fast as the PLC - simple - none of them are. You can connetc to Omron PLCs serially at 155kbaud but still miss things. That is why the software/PLC has a differential monitor. I have found the samne problem with every laptop/PLC combination I have ever used.

Ethernet is better but still misses fleeting signals.

The latest smal Omron PLCs have a USB interface - it is lightning fast but still misses fleeting signals.

Upgrading the laptop will not help with ANY brand I have ever used.
 

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