Integrate Vision System Into PLC Program

OK fellas,

I've been tasked with replacing a GE PLC with a MicroLogix 1400. The old program had a pass/fail setup written with some math functions that aren't going into the Micrologix.

The new pass/fail is going to be done with a camera system. A Keyence CV-X422A to be exact. I've never worked with vision before and I'm still fairly new to writing programs and robotic programming. I'm looking for any helpful info I can find starting from the very beginning.

I have the program written minus the camera logic.

If anyone has ever done this before, I'd truly appreciate your input here.

Regards.

The vision software should give you a data structure and a communication type. Is it ethernet? If it is, it will likely have a guide telling you what sort of message from the PLC will activate it, and what format of data it will send back. A good place to start is mapping out how that communication will take place, and making a list of all the parameters you will need to handshake.

Much appreciated. I don't have the camera yet but it has been ordered. I was hoping that it would come with something like that. It will communicate through ethernet with the PLC and HMI through a hub.

That makes me feel a lot better about this.

Thank you very much!

So far the most difficult part of this was translating from GE Proficy to RSLogix with no rung comments and limited bit descriptions. Debugging this thing is going to be fun!

Haha sounds like a blast!

Map a discrete output from the vision system for your pass result, this will make your life easier rather than getting a pass result from an ethernet message with the 1400.

From what I remember with the Keyence systems I used was that I couldn't make the pass output into a pulse, so I had to monitor another output from the camera to verify it completed its inspection before processing the pass result.