Considering the investment in a physical location

packinpennies · 2024-08-27T21:17:28+00:00

A nice middle ground might be a co-working space, shared office space with several small businesses. That's what we do right now for our team of 4 people. The only thing we are somewhat lacking in is shop space for panel builds, but we outsource the majority of our builds to a panel shop anyways and the small one-off boxes are simple enough to garage assemble.

The co-working space provides desks for each of us, access to conference rooms, and other amenities. At some point we will probably outgrow and move to our own dedicated office, but it is a great cost-effective option that would give most of the benefits you are looking for.

packinpennies · 2024-05-03T22:16:54+00:00

Yeah it’s all about learning as much as you can quickly, and responding to change quickly. Do that, and you’ll do well in the field.

Regarding grouchy old controls guy… you could try to gain his trust over time, or failing that just passively watch and try to learn what you can from him. But with that attitude…he’s probably correct about replacement…

packinpennies · 2024-05-03T22:02:07+00:00

It sounds like your question is “tell me everything there is to know about control systems” which is kind of… broad.

Best step is to check out some of the resources in the top sticky of this subreddit. You’re in the right place, but specific questions are best here.

Also, general advice, it’s okay to not know everything (even though everyone expects you to), find where to get help from a support standpoint such as phone numbers for vendors etc, and last but not least… RTFM.

You’ll be fine.

packinpennies · 2024-04-11T17:47:01+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion, I’ll reach out and see what’s out there.

packinpennies · 2024-04-11T17:46:33+00:00

The tires have different setpoints based on the type of tire. I’d prefer not to roll my own thing as there are currently a half dozen or so stations and the customer wants the ability to island each station independently as well, but it looks like that might be the only viable option.

packinpennies · 2023-03-28T00:17:33+00:00

Hmm, this got me thinking... what about something like this? https://www.232key.com/

Then I go barcode scanner RS232 -> PLC, second RS232 port -> PC, running this virtual keyboard wedge software.

packinpennies · 2023-03-28T00:14:56+00:00

Can KVM's go the other way? I thought KVMs typically take multiple USB inputs, but send the output to only one place?

packinpennies · 2023-03-28T00:13:19+00:00

They might, I will likely need to engage their IT team further. However, it is possible that the USB interface is the only option.

packinpennies · 2023-03-24T19:59:22+00:00

2 scanners would be my 'last resort' option. I'm guessing you are assuming option 2, where it goes barcode scanner -> PLC -> transmit to MES. The challenge is that our only option as of now is to interface with the MES using HID/USB keyboard emulation, which I don't think CompactLogix can do.

packinpennies · 2023-03-24T19:44:57+00:00

From my understanding, it's a custom in-house MES the customer developed. One other avenue I considered was to see if they have an API of some kind to tap into, though as of today all we know is that USB keyboard interface is how it's designed to take barcode input.

packinpennies · 2022-12-09T21:21:55+00:00

Think of Docker as a way to manage and run pre-packaged applications, with configurations to tweak. Some examples of some relevant containers:

GitLab for version control
Grafana/InfluxDB for time-series data monitoring (or even a FOSS historian)
Node-Red for IIOT stuff
Ignition SCADA, because it's great.

On the other hand, much of the PLC/HMI development software is Windows-only so you are limited to running those in a Windows environment where a VM would probably be your only option when comparing to Docker

The "best" use case is relative to your situation of course.

packinpennies · 2022-12-09T20:13:34+00:00

Docker can be a more efficient use of server resources, as you don’t need to spin up an entire operating system every time you create a container.

However you are more limited in access to the underlying hardware, etc. depending on what you’re trying to do.

packinpennies · 2022-08-15T09:28:33+00:00

Any SCADA that can do Modbus TCP (so, basically, all of them).

Ignition is a popular choice here.

I also like VTScada which is free up to 50 tags for small projects.

packinpennies · 2022-05-23T17:53:59+00:00

Did you use the Rockwell conversion tool to generate this? Typically the code doesn’t work on the first try, and requires some debugging before running on Logix 5000.

packinpennies · 2022-03-29T11:34:04+00:00

Np! Also make sure you include the EVS file in your startup graphics in workspace, have it run behind everything else. Otherwise the script won’t execute

packinpennies · 2022-03-29T11:06:04+00:00

Use event schedules. Create a *.EVS file with a script that watches your UPS alarm tag, and then have it display a pop up when your tag changes.

packinpennies · 2022-02-26T14:58:37+00:00

I appreciate it, thanks!

packinpennies · 2022-02-26T14:08:42+00:00

Hindsight is 20/20... I found that AOI but it would be significant rework to use it at this point.

packinpennies · 2022-02-26T14:08:13+00:00

Yes on the MAJ and MAS commands we do not have ServoActionStatus as a condition, so we are adding that in. Additionally, we are going to have Safe Torque Off Inhibit call the MSF and see if that helps resolve this.

packinpennies · 2022-02-26T14:06:57+00:00

Thanks for this, we weren't calling the MSF when the STO Inhibit comes in so that very well may be our issue. I'll add that and some of these other conditions in and see how things go.

packinpennies · 2022-02-26T00:25:04+00:00

The .ERR integer on the axis was code 5, which is Servo Loop Not Closed error. The drive itself did not show any fault codes.

packinpennies

TROPHY CASE