directsoft5 help

[Joshhd69]

I am working with a DL 250-1 CPU and a cmore panel. I am having trouble setting PLC time through the HMI. how can i get them to communicate properly?

 

[bernie_carlton]

You will have to have help in the PLC ladder program. The HMI can set up locations (NOT the ones you read to get the current settings) then the ladder must execute the TIME command. The ladder may have to manipulate your entries to get them packed the way the instruction wants. Look up the command and the format required of the registers.

Make sure to look up the command IN THE MANUAL - the software 'help' file is anything but ...

 

[Joshhd69]

how do i get handshaking to work between my cmore panel and my dl 250-1. cant get it to work

 

[bernie_carlton]

Are you referring to the 'Notification and Handshake Option' in the Control tab?

Do you have bot tags pointing to discrete points in the PLC?

In the PLC program the code should wait for the 'notification' tag to turn on, process the information, then turn on the 'handshake' tag. What about this is not working?

 

[Joshhd69]

Yes i am referring to the handshake control tab. whats happening is that the tag names i give it always time out when communicating with the PLC. im stuck on which tag i should give it or how to make it work. time on a 250-1 is on location v2000 and v2001. Id like to add that the solution to this problem might be really simple but im a novice at this. This is my first electrical panel using PLC. I really do appreciate your feedback.

 

[bernie_carlton]

The notification and handshake tags will be separate 'C' bits. Let's say you pick C20 as the notification and C40 as the handshake,(I like to keep bits exchanged between an HMI and PLC is different 16 bit words. Some HMIs have to read and write a whole word and it can cause troubles sometimes.)

Note that the V locations you mentioned (V2000 and V2001) are suggested locations in the manual. Any two adjacent V memory registers will be fine. The manual shows how the hour-minute-second information must be packed into the registers before calling the TIME function.

 

[Joshhd69]

ok this is what i have. maybe this will help clarify my issue:

cmore panel:
set hour (numeric entry)

data entry tag: hour- V2001(PLC address)
notification tag: clock hrs- C0 (PLC address)
handshake tag: set time- V2001/1 (PLC address)/(bit)

I set panel next to laptop and when i enter hours I am able to see C0 turn blue on direct soft screen (status icon enabled) so i know the notification tag is engaging but handshake from PLC does not go through (yime out). I tried your example of another discrete "c" address but not able to get to work. the cmore help manual said there should be a control bit and a handshake bit but im not entirely sure what that means.

 

[bernie_carlton]

Here's a suggestion using C20 as the handshake bit.

 

[Joshhd69]

ok cool that seems to work> now my only question is can i get the digital clock on the hmi to reflect the plc time or are those seperate. only asking because the clock does not change when i change the plc time

 

[bernie_carlton]

CMore program - Function tab on the left - Clock Source, select 'External' - fill in the clock registers as listed for the CPU.

 

[Joshhd69]

Thank you so much!

 

[Joshhd69]

what i am trying to do now is through the hmi tell the plc to close a contact at a ceratain time for a specified duration. example: output Y0 will close at 1200 hrs for 60 min. not sure which way is the best way to go.

 

[bernie_carlton]

For the very specific instance you mention just compare the 'hours' register to 12. If it is equal, turn on the output.

For a more general application (turn on output for a variable number of minutes starting at a variable time - defined in hours and minutes) then we'll have to get a little deeper.

It's best to experiment. Start by turning on an output if the seconds register is 30 seconds or greater (using seconds because it's easy to play with). Once you have that we'll move on.

In case you are wondering why I'm not giving you a complete solution it's because I don't have a CPU here to verify. And, you learn a lot faster by making mistakes then fixing them (boy, do I know that.)

 

[Joshhd69]

again i thank you for your help. when you refer to "register" are you speaking of plc or hmi

 

[bernie_carlton]

Since the program you are writing is in the PLC it will use the 'hours' 'V' location in the PLC.