Photoelectric sensor to PC

[tripero01]

Hey everyone,

We are trying to attach a photoelectric sensor to a conveyor to count the number of parts produced in a plant. However, there is no PLC we can rely on to attach the sensor to and output the counter info. Is there any way I could attach this sensor to a port in a PC and have it output the logic to a screen?

Barely starting in the PLC world so please bear with me.

Thanks

 

[dogleg43]

Hey everyone,

We are trying to attach a photoelectric sensor to a conveyor to count the number of parts produced in a plant. However, there is no PLC we can rely on to attach the sensor to and output the counter info. Is there any way I could attach this sensor to a port in a PC and have it output the logic to a screen?

Barely starting in the PLC world so please bear with me.

Thanks

Check into OPTO-22 products. They have I/O cards that can be installed in a computer. http://www.opto22.com/site/pcbasedio.aspx

I don't understand your comment about "there is no PLC we can rely on to attach the sensor to and output the counter info." This is done reliably every day. Would you expand on this comment.

 

[tripero01]

Thanks for the prompt response

I meant that there is no PLC on that production line. If we had one nearby we could just connect our sensor to a spare input. Hence my question if I could use one of our spare computers to replace the PLC

 

[JordanCClark]

If there is no PLC available, you have a couple of options.

1) Buy a PLC.
2) Buy a counter.

Looking closer at option 2, you can use a panel-mount counter, like this example:
http://ab.rockwellautomation.com/Relays-and-Timers/Preset-Counter-Timing-Relays

Or, perhaps a production counter, if visibility is a must:
http://vorne.com/

Other can chime in with even more options, but this should get you thinking.

Hope this helps!

 

[tripero01]

Thanks, Jordan

We already had quotes for Production Pace Timers(PPT), but we would be talking about a $1000 solution and apparently they do not want to spend a lot of money on this....

How about an arduino board? Does anyone have experience with this?

Sorry if it is not the right forum to discuss this.

Thanks!

 

[Archie]

If your PC has a parallel port, there are 5 volt inputs that could be used. I think even a serial port has a couple pins that could be used as inputs. You would then need to write some kind of program to read the inputs and count them.

Beckhoff TwinCAT can be installed on a PC and it can use the parallel port signals as inputs into it's program, therefore making a PC into a PLC. See this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_nFE9wx8OM