Internet PLC Forum

The SmartTILE, FMD and Nano-10 PLCs are all able to handle up to 10 incoming Ethernet connection simultaneously. Up to 5 Modbus TCP and up to 8 Hostlink connections are possible. The beauty of Ethernet is that you don't need 10 connectors to handle 10 incoming connection because the connections are virtual.

To understand how it works, you can try to open up a few i-TRiLOGI programs on your PC and connect all the i-TRiLOGI to the PLC simultaneously. Now if you change an I/O on one window you will see the same changes showing up on the other i-TRiLOGI instances. You can also connect a Modbus client software (e.g. the Modbus Poll program) to the PLC and you will see the Modbus register that are mapped to the I/O that you have changed showing the new values.

The PLC handles connection from client software automatically. So even if you have just transferred a blank program into the PLC and you can still use i-TRiLOGI clients and Modbus TCP clients to connect, monitor and change data on the PLC.  Give it a try and you will understand how it works.

Thank you for your feedback.

The current Super PLCs do not have built-in Blue-Tooth radio. So in order to use Blue Tooth one may need a RS232 to Blue-tooth converter. But that may not be what you want to use.

Our engineering has been evaluating some new generation of MCU with BT radio built-in and some time in future there is a plan to deploy a PLC with built-in BT or 802.15.4 radio. It could be a generic PLC or it could also be deployed in the form of a purpose-built PLC (such as the ALEC - http://alec.triplc.com).

At this point there is no firm plan for a release date yet unless there are confirmed volume requirement that can help accelerate the plan to release such a product.

If you have extended file memory, then all you need to do is to use PRINT #8 to open a file, and then write data to it and close the file at the end. The file is now available for download via your web browser.

Note that the file names must be Zxxx.yyy e.g. Z001.TXT, Z002.CSV etc. You need to allocate enough data file space for the file.

Now you can point your browser to http://192.168.1.5:9080/Z001.TXT

and the file will appear on your browser.

Try the following custom function:


A$ = "HELLO"

J = LEN(A$)

' Convert A$ into DM with each DM contains 1 character.
FOR I = 1 to J
   DM = ASC(A$,I)
NEXT

' Now convert DM[1] to DM[5] back to String and store in B$

B$ = ""

FOR I = 1 to 5
   B$ = B$ + CHR$(DM)
NEXT

Thank you for your report and suggestions. You obviously are very familiar with how the SmartTILE-Fx expansion output circuit works - which is by cascading 8-bit shift registers over multiple stages throughout the expansion I/O space.

The shift registers data are shifted at the rising edge of the shift clock and therefore the cascading output Q7S changes state during the rising edge of the shift clock and not during the falling edge of the shift clock.

The SmartTILE-Fx board actually has already implemented a first stage of digital expansion circuitry to drive output 1 to 4 and the 3 status LEDs (RTC.ERR, PAUSE and RUN_ERR). The CPU firmware only has control to the data line input to this first stage and it has to drive the shift clock and data line in the correct sequence so that output 1-4 and the 3 status LEDs can work correctly. The Q7S output from this first stage of shift register then connected to pin B20 for use by user’s expansion I/O board. In other words, the CPU firmware has no control of the timing of the signal appearing on pin B20.

The CPU does have direct control over the shift clock signal. However, in order to  increase the drive current of the shift clock provided to the expansion board, the shift clock signal from the CPU passes through an additional stage of buffer driver (74HCT245) both to increase the drive current as well as to convert the 3.3V logic output from the CPU to the 5V TTL logic level and this is connected to the B19 line.

A potential issue with cascading the shift register is the different propagation delay between the shift clock and the data input arriving in the later stage. A delay on the shift clock signal pin can mean that the data is not shifted correctly. To resolve that problem we always add a 4.7nF capacitor to the data line at each stage to ensure that the propagation delay of the shift clock will not cause a problem to the next stage. With this 4.7nF caps added the circuit is much more robust and forgiving even when driven over a longer distance (such as through several feet of expansion cable)

In the SmartTILE Design Guide Figure 4.6 the 4.7nF caps is shown on the schematic diagram for the digital I/O expansion.

If your carrier board does not have the 4.7nF but it worked previously it may be working at the margin. For standard logic parts such as 74HCT595 and 74HCT245, we use a mix of brand such as ON semi, TI, Fairchild and NXP. Even though they are the same logic part number their timing characteristics such as propagation delays are not always identical and that may explain why your expansion board works previously but not this time.

We would love to be able to help you fix this issue with a firmware change. However,  as the B20 signal comes from the shift register output from the 1st stage expansion circuit on board the SmartTiLE-Fx, it is beyond the control of the firmware and it is unlikely an issue that can be fixed by firmware.

We suggest that you add the 4.7nF ceramic cap to your carrier board design. Meanwhile you should be able to resolve this issue by soldering a 4.7nF through-hole ceramic capacitors between PIN B20 and the +5V power circuit at the bottom of your PCB.

When you said the SSR is too slow

1) Are you using one with a DC output driver? The AC output type (TRIAC) will not work

2) What frequency are you driving the SSR? You need to check the maximum frequency that the SSR can handle without distorting the output waveform and keep your PWM frequency well below the maximum.

If you do not want to use off-the-shelf SSR you should still construct a circuit with an opto-isolator and a MOSFET output driver to drive your motor since the current is so high there are lots of inductive noise arising from switch the motor coil. Ensure that you have used a high speed snubber to bypass the inductive kick.  Use a separate power supply for the motor.

When a MOSFET drives 7A of current you have to mount it on a heat sink due to the power dissipated at the junction from the finite ON resistance on the solid state driver.

Since you have also posted about the FP4030MR HMI, is it possible that the value is being written to DM[1036] from the HMI?

Or if you have another device or software transmitting data via Modbus, could that be the reason?

It is also possible that your program is looping through DM[]s with a variable index and you would not be able to directly search for DM[1036] in this case. Please check your FOR and WHILE loops that reference DM[]s in case the index could reach DM[1036].

If not, please email your program to support@triplc.com