cycle timer

[stvsas]

I have amachine controlled by a SLC 5/03 and we program it with RSlogix 500. I woulld like to check the cycle times with my laptop. I have no screens. I was thinkingof using a self resetting timer set for one tenth of a second and then counting the number of times it timed out and then one shotting the counter accumulator. Is this feasible? Or is there a better way?
As usual, thank you guys for the answer in advance. PLCS has never let me down. I always get a good answer here.

 

[Mickey]

Cycle time of what, the machine or the scan time of the processor?

 

[stvsas]

The cycle time of the machine.

 

[Tharon]

I would start a timer with the start of the cycle. Then Mov the Accumulator value into a storage file and reset the timer at the end of the cycle.

Easier the better. Of course you may be off by 5-10ms or so depending on your scan times, but do you really need to be that accurate in cycle time?

 

[daba]

Using the 0.01S timebase, the timer will only time up to 327.67 seconds (nearly 5 and a half minutes). Is this enough ?

Also, can the "cycle" be halted or paused ? If so, use a retentive timer RTO.

Depending on how much code you have in the PLC, and if you want to be more accurate, consider using an STI file, and counting STI intervals while the "cycle" is "active".