Controlling red lion communicatio

[califflash]

I have a red lion g306 connected to a powerflex4 drive using the dh485 port. My goal is to update the drive parameters at the touch of a button after setting up the drive's communication. I have tags in my red lion. But my problem lies in that the screen will keep updating the parameter tags. I am also referncing drive speed and feedback which need to constantly be updated. Is there a way to control when only he parameter tags are updated?

My maintenance men are not very good about sEtting up drives correctly and also using old drives. But if I need to manually modify parameters, like changing the speed reference, I want it to stay that way until I tell the red lion to update the drive again. Does anyone have any ideas? I find no mention of this in the crimson manual or the reference manual.

 

[JeremyH]

The G306 should only update the value when the value is changed from the G3. Can you email me your file? [email protected]

Thanks
Jeremy

 

[califflash]

Thanks Jeremy I was unaware of that. I'm big on reading the manual o. Stuff a couple of times and don't recall a mention of how it functioned. I guess I was assuming. Would the g3 also write if I overwrote my tags with the same value.

If I install a new drive for example then the g3 tags would already be set but I would need to write the same values to the new drive. I would also like the ability to manually change the parameters in the drive without the g3 throwing a fuss.

I'll get the file to you today. I work evenings.

 

[JeremyH]

If the tags are write only we will not know what changes in your PLC. If you get a new drive your tags are write only you could use a command called WriteAll() which would write down all of the retentive write only values to the drive.

If you write over the tag with the same value it will not update the register because it knows its the same value.

Thanks
Jeremy

 

[califflash]

So, if I have this:

Set(Para_Volts, 480);
Set(Para_Hz, 60);
Set(Para_StartSource, 1);
Set(Para_StopMode, 1);
WriteAll();

Then it would set the values in the tags then force a write, correct?

File is on the way.

 

[nwboson]

Got dozens of Red Lions out there doing this. My recommendation is don't overthink it: Red Lion is great about just doing the right thing.

To initially setup all the parameters, I wrote one function that writes all my default values out to the drive. I put that button on 'hidden' screen so only I can do that (have to press two buttons at once and then enter passwd to get to that screen).

Then I defined a regular screen in Red Lion for the configurable parameters. I read the current values with tags and display (the Red Lion reads them about once per second). And I have up/down arrows to raise/lower values: these take the read values and write the increased/decreased amount back out to the corresponding registers.

 

[califflash]

Jeremy helped me solve this problem. I understand what you are saying and I was going to do that until I thought about the possible situations that could occur with my maintenance men's aptitude. One issue is that if a drive was replaced then the red lion would see it to update the parameters unless I set some sort of event or trigger. This would work unless there was something going on in the communications mixing up different parameters on the drives. My guys have a habit of mixing up cables. Also if there was some other unforeseeable event that I needed to manually change parameters for I didn't want to be fighting the red lion.

So I needed to update them on command. JeremyH suggested the force command and it seems to work perfectly. I am going to post an application tutorial here after I get this system installed and started building the next one, 5 in all and I just got handed another oee data logging project. Thanks for the help. I'll try to get the tutorial up with screenshots as I can see how this would be an attractive option for a lot of applications and I had such trouble finding all of the relevant information.