Eaton Easysoft8

[Vintageryan]

Hi All

I have been asked to write what should be a simple programme in Eaton Easysoft8 as requested by the customer.

Unfortunately I have never used this software before, I have wrote the programme but for the life of me cannot work out how the counters work in Easysoft.

All I need is a simply counter that once a timer has been activated a certain number of times will stop the programme.

Thanks for reading

 

[drbitboy]

What have you got so far?

And when you say "once a timer has been activated a certain number of times," do you really mean "once a timer has expired (i.e. timed to its preset) a certain number of times?"

 

[drbitboy]

A little awkward, unintuitive, and underpowered, but not the worst I've seen. Probably European.

​

 

[Vintageryan]

What have you got so far?

And when you say "once a timer has been activated a certain number of times," do you really mean "once a timer has expired (i.e. timed to its preset) a certain number of times?"

Yes, once the timer has expired.

The programme has several timers, at the end of the programme all timers reset and the loop continues from the start.

With this software I cannot find a way to set the loop to only happen a set amount of times, all the instructions appear to be in germen as does the EatonEasysoft forums.

 

[BryanG]

Or another options using a Single Pulse timer

In Easysoft you use the Element/Parameters section to set the different devices. I show the two panes for a Counter, you can set it so that when the input changes from 0 to 1, it counts up by one, or changes the count direction, or resets the counter. The second pane allows you to enter the Set Point for the counter. The oscilloscope view shows that as soon as the timer runs a third time, the counter coil changes which stops the timer from running again.
edit: I think you get the option of what language to use as you install the program.
Easysoft was originally from Moeller, which was a German company, so it is OK for the forum to be in German language,

 

[dummy_bit]

If you're in the Allen Bradley world, I've opened a couple Eaton programs with PicoSoft (I don't know who else even uses that anymore). We were able to view the program but had a hard time connecting to the controller even using EasySoft. In the end, the changes were minimal and we made all changes on the controller keypad. I don't suggest doing larger programs that way

 

[drbitboy]

With this software I cannot find a way to set the loop to only happen a set amount of times,

Perhaps one of the biggest hurdles people have writing PLC code is being as facile and comfortable with the Normally Closed Contact instruction (NC; -]/[-; XIO in Allen-Bradley) as they are with the Normally Open Contact instruction (NO; -] [-; XIC). The equivalent tool in FBD is to invert the input or output pin of a function block.

In both @BryanG's and my code examples, the rung feeding the timer output has a NC contact with the Counter 1 output (C01) as the operand, and the rung feeding the counter output has a NO contact with the Timer 1 (T01) output as the operand.

What the NO T01 does, at timer expiry in my code and at timed pulse start in @BrianG's code, is deliver a rising edge to the C01 output, which causes the C01 internal count to increment by 1. I suspect that OP already has something like this in place.

The key trick to stopping the timer from continuing to cycle, is to use the NC C01 on the rung feeding the T01 output. Once the counter reaches its preset (of 3 in the examples), the C01 operand changes from 0 to 1, so the output rung of the NC C01 instruction always evaluates to False, and the timer is prevented from timing no matter what I01 is, and no more rising edges are delivered to C01 output.


P.S. @BryanG: how did you get C1 and T1 on the oscilloscope trend? I did not have the option in the o'scope configuration, so I had to run them to Q outputs and trend those Qs.

 

[BryanG]

First off, I started using these Moeller device 20 years ago and I never bl**dy noticed the Oscilloscope function!!! So when I saw what you had done I was scrambling to figure it out. Thank you for the headache . It even took me a while to find Oscilloscope Configuration on the top menu , thank you Moeller for not putting it in the obvious place of the Oscilloscope pane. And I never did get the Recording Interval to work, so I had to be quick on the Oscilloscope Pause button before the trace shot off the side of the screen.

Then, no big trick to get Counters and Timers in the list I had used an Easy 400 as the device I was programming, and you can see below that the values are available there.
If I had used an Easy 700 or 800, then Counters and Timers don't show in the list, don't ask me why. You could use a Marker Word/Double in the Function Block Output of the Counter to see its value but that doesn't give you a way to see the contact position. Though instead of an Output you could have mapped to a Marker Bit and then put that in to the Oscilloscope.

 

[drbitboy]

First off, I started using these Moeller device 20 years ago and I never bl**dy noticed the Oscilloscope function!!! So when I saw what you had done I was scrambling to figure it out. Thank you for the headache . ...

Gotta love the synergy of this site.

I am using the freebie EasySoft with emulator, and it only has 500s, 700s, and 800s, but not Cs or Ts in the o'scope configuration.

 

[busarider29]

First off, I started using these Moeller device 20 years ago and I never bl**dy noticed the Oscilloscope function!!!

The last time I used those Moeller relay controllers was about 20 years ago as well. I wouldn't touch them now. The hardware functionality is very limited and the software is junk. They are inexpensive though and the software is free, from what I recall. If that is what one desires (inexpensive hardware and totally free software), then get a real, more fully functional PLC like perhaps something in the CLICK series from Automation Direct. But, the customer is king I suppose.

 

[ndzied1]

I believe the OP mentioned Easysoft 8. I have 7 but I think they are similar. Older versions are very different.
EasySoft 7 came out when the new E4 Easy Relays were launched.

Counters look more like "traditional" counters in EasySoft 7/8 but not exactly the same as RSL5k or CoDeSys

Here is a trace of the above in simulation showing the count going up and being reset.
It will keep counting above the preset (Called Upper Threshold Value-SH).
Notice in the trace the value increments to 4 when the count input goes on.