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Unread 05/10/2006, 07:36 PM   #1
easttn
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Siemens PLC Controller completed

Hey guys,

Built a custom system for one of the greatest reefers in the business and thought I'd share. As I had Siemens PLCs availabe it seemed natural that I follow what I know.

The hardware is a follows:
1 - 6AV6 545-0AA15-2AX0 - Siemens Touch Panel TP070
1 - 216-2BD22-0XB0 - Siemens 226 CPU AC/DC/RLY
1 - 223-1BH21-0XA0 - Siemens EM223
1 - 231-7PD22-0XA0 - Siemens EM231
Some Din rails, wire, cheap thermocouples, and a NEMA enclosure.

The I/O quantity and general specifications can be found here: Siemens PLCs

Gresham and I spent a bit of time tweaking the controls he wanted, and some did change as we went through the list but here was one of the original drafts. You will see the final controls as I progress.


I'll post pics, schematics and code over the next few days.

Stay tuned. This turned out rather well if I do say so myself.


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HONOR.......Simply put, A VETERAN - whether Active Duty, Retired, National Guard or Reserve - is someone who, at one point in their life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America," for an amount of "Up to and including my life." That is HONOR, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand that. --Author Unknown--

Current Tank Info: Maintenance Free
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Unread 05/11/2006, 05:15 PM   #2
GreshamH
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I'm gitty with anticipation

Quote:
one of the greatest reefers in the business
Dang man, now I'm blushing and gitty


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Unread 05/11/2006, 09:37 PM   #3
easttn
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We'll start with the guts. Gresham still needs to connect his relays so as to isolate the load from each on the controlling outputs, or inputs. Every single parameter here will set either a silent alarm (burglar), or audible water outside specified parameters, or temp not within specification.

Please excuse the disarray of wires, it will get a tuck and a trim once all the connections are made. These connections are strictly power and control for the 4 units I described above.

The top unit is the primary CPU and an add-on for more I/O. The smaller unit is a analog unit that will be used to monitor tank temperature.

Here is the front of the unit and the main display screen.

This is the default screen when unit is initiated, I wanted the system to default at startup then check for any anomalies. Its only a 10mS time period to check all conditions.

What you see here is the main tank temp, and that of the sump. The TC for the sump is inside the NEMA box so you can see a slight variation in air temperature from inside to out. In the application these TC's will be submerged in water.

There are five primary controls on this screen, Lighting setup and Test, Manual control of all pumps, Temp control, Clock setup, and Maintenance functions. The two other buttons on the touch screen are to reset any alarm once fixed, and to place the aquarium system into a manual mode. I'll splain later.

There are secondary menus behind each of the main five functions. For example, I selected "Lighting Setup and Test", and this screen appears:


Gresh told me how many lights he had and named them specifically, this screen allow him to set any of the primary tank lights to any time he cares to. Timer accurate to .001 second per month. All time entered as military time.

When I select Secondary Lighting, this screen appears:

These lamps can now be controlled at will.

Going back to the main menu, I now select manual pump mode, and these are Gresham's options:

If any maintenance needs to be preformed, this cuts power to any and all pumps, including his wave machines. Notice the "maintenance Function" here. The following menu is displayed for maintenance:


The two primary actions here are "Feed Fish", touch the pad and main pumps, skimmer, and motion pumps turn off for 12 minutes. They automatically reengage and the tank returns to auto pilot. The "clean the tank" disengages all power to all the pumps. He can reselect as need to help the cleaning process. Selecting again, all pumps return to the Auto mode as identified in the pump setup menu. "Extend VHO" are for night watching, each time the panel is selected the VHO's are extended by 15 minutes. Once extended time ends, VHOs return to cycle as set in lighting menu.

The download button will allow any parameter being measured to be freeported to a PC. It will also set alarms via pager if something happens while away. This feature depends on the s/w Gresh wants to run on his dedicated PC. It will be something he and I can work out over the next few weeks.

This screen displays the multiple tank temperatures and energizes the heaters, chillers, and ambient air fans to keep the tank at +/- .2 degree F.


If there is ever a need to change the time of day clock (DST is automatically detected), the values can be entered here.

The next post will dig a bit more into the schematic. The last will discuss code and theory of operation.


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HONOR.......Simply put, A VETERAN - whether Active Duty, Retired, National Guard or Reserve - is someone who, at one point in their life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America," for an amount of "Up to and including my life." That is HONOR, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand that. --Author Unknown--

Current Tank Info: Maintenance Free
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Unread 05/12/2006, 04:02 AM   #4
GreshamH
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Holy smokes, look at the GUI My first sighting. Bigfoot really is real


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Unread 05/13/2006, 09:10 PM   #5
BeanAnimal
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what is the average street price on each component... man I like hte touch screen! I have been looking at them for my controller.

BTW easttn... I etched up a few boards for the goodies you sent my way. I am practicing my SMT soldering before do the real deal! Who needs you professional PCB guys anway

I am very pleased with the Laserprinter transfer method for my small projects

If it were me, I would put this on the living room wall beside the thermostat, so people can SEE it!


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Unread 05/13/2006, 09:14 PM   #6
easttn
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Bean,

The S7 200 line is no longer built in the US (Thanks again NAFTA), bide your time on EBAY. One piece at a time, you can prolly get it all for much less than the aquacontroller.


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HONOR.......Simply put, A VETERAN - whether Active Duty, Retired, National Guard or Reserve - is someone who, at one point in their life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America," for an amount of "Up to and including my life." That is HONOR, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand that. --Author Unknown--

Current Tank Info: Maintenance Free
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Unread 05/13/2006, 10:22 PM   #7
BeanAnimal
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please don't temp me into another project! That screen is making me drool!


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Unread 05/14/2006, 01:20 PM   #8
zapata41
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ok well i'm interested in this. i know nothing about plc's but feel i go wing one of them with some help. i have found most of the equip you have listed on various places for quite cheap. now if i could only find a touch screen for cheap. also how do you go about programming one of these. using a computer or something like that. or is it all done on the touch screen

Tim


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Unread 05/14/2006, 05:39 PM   #9
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I wan't one....lol


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Unread 05/15/2006, 08:22 PM   #10
Sohal11
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Wow! This is something that I need to follow up on. More input.


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Unread 05/16/2006, 05:15 AM   #11
easttn
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Thread 1

Thread 2

Good luck all.


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HONOR.......Simply put, A VETERAN - whether Active Duty, Retired, National Guard or Reserve - is someone who, at one point in their life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America," for an amount of "Up to and including my life." That is HONOR, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand that. --Author Unknown--

Current Tank Info: Maintenance Free
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Unread 05/16/2006, 07:17 AM   #12
perpetual98
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I've got some Allen-Bradley stuff at home, but I have no clue how to work it. I can program the AB Micrologix to do some limited stuff, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to program the PanelView to do the GUI. AB stuff isn't terribly easy to learn on your own unfortunately.


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Unread 05/16/2006, 06:20 PM   #13
easttn
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Niether was SIemens, look at the dat we first started the first thread. Never give up.


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HONOR.......Simply put, A VETERAN - whether Active Duty, Retired, National Guard or Reserve - is someone who, at one point in their life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America," for an amount of "Up to and including my life." That is HONOR, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand that. --Author Unknown--

Current Tank Info: Maintenance Free
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Unread 05/16/2006, 08:38 PM   #14
GreshamH
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Quote:
Originally posted by easttn
Niether was SIemens, look at the date we first started the first thread. Never give up.
It's been quite a while since I got the first one, which went from the box it was sent in, to the one it now sits in I got it to reconize itself, bout it


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Unread 05/17/2006, 07:24 AM   #15
perpetual98
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I've gotten some basic ladder done, but I can't do anything with the GUI. I've gotten the computer to recognize the panelview and I can send stuff to the panel, but I have NO idea how to get the panelview to talk to the PLC. Whenever I think I find some info on the Internet, there's another page one click later that contradicts the previous page.

Anyway, here's a thread that I started a while back.

http://www.myreef.com/smf/index.php?topic=3.0


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Unread 05/17/2006, 06:59 PM   #16
H20ENG
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Damn Charles, You've been busy!!!!
That touch panel is the Dogs Danglies!!!

Gresh, Do you ever read your PMs?


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Unread 05/18/2006, 11:04 AM   #17
GreshamH
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Nah, I'm ignoring you (j/k) PM sent


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Unread 05/20/2006, 10:00 PM   #18
BeanAnimal
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Gresh your box is full...

Instead of me explaining the SSR stuff... you can read a better version from the pros

Here is a decent site that has a basic run down of SSR applications. The nav menu on the right will also get you to motor, heating and other types of apps (other than lighting).

http://solid-state-relay.crouzet-usa...lighting.shtml

Bean


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Unread 05/21/2006, 12:17 AM   #19
easttn
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You don't need the SSR's. Use your PLC to control the coils on the relays I sent long ago. Follow the stuff I sent. Take your time.

C


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HONOR.......Simply put, A VETERAN - whether Active Duty, Retired, National Guard or Reserve - is someone who, at one point in their life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America," for an amount of "Up to and including my life." That is HONOR, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand that. --Author Unknown--

Current Tank Info: Maintenance Free
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Unread 05/23/2006, 12:47 AM   #20
GreshamH
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It requires more then you sent I have a bunch of SSR's all ready, so why not?

I've been following what you sent via the 4' x 8' schematic Man that thing is huge


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Unread 06/02/2006, 08:58 PM   #21
easttn
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C'mon Gresh, let's see what's happening.

I like this thread, it doesn't get buried in a day.


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HONOR.......Simply put, A VETERAN - whether Active Duty, Retired, National Guard or Reserve - is someone who, at one point in their life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America," for an amount of "Up to and including my life." That is HONOR, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand that. --Author Unknown--

Current Tank Info: Maintenance Free
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Unread 06/03/2006, 10:32 AM   #22
GreshamH
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Got my 20 float switches, TC wire, and new Dell computer. I'm just waiting on the Din rail, relays, and some other assorted stuff.

I'm moving it in to a larger box to accomadate the relays.

After reviewing in the in's and out's, it looks like I may need to have some more programming done for some new features I added (controll of the linear actuators, skimmerair input kill, etc).

I'm having my float switch holders being machined as we speak


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Last edited by GreshamH; 06/03/2006 at 10:57 AM.
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Unread 06/07/2006, 09:44 AM   #23
GreshamH
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OK, got most my stuff lined up to get this puppy rolling...



Got the touch panel put into a new enclosure, 30 relays, and DIN rail.



It'll all fit nicely into it's new home PLus room for termianl blocks to boot...



Gotta love my new relays. They have a force on switch and indictor lights, plus a filter


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Unread 06/07/2006, 10:41 AM   #24
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Where did you source the relays? Cost?

I see you decided to avoid the SSRs

You need a bigger box to fit wire duct in there and make it look cleaner (and bigger!). I saw some 4'x6' nema 4 boxes on ebay the other day. Maybe you could squeeze the stuff into one of them

Nice job gresh... I am etching boards for my controller today (though I found a few small errors and may need to etch again (I hate patching with jumber wires).

Wanna split a box of wire duct from eBay?


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Unread 06/07/2006, 10:44 AM   #25
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I am also trying to source #18 #22 #26 stranded MTW wire in rainbows of colors and small quantities. I shudder to think of the cost of a 250' put up of each color. I also don't like THHN as it is just to darn stiff. Any ideas anybody?


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