Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - Joel Moore

Pages: 1 ... 4 5 [6] 7 8 9
76
Technical support / Re:Jogging a stepper motor
« on: September 06, 2004, 12:13:48 PM »
Ah, I see now.  This controller could use a mode where the stepper just continuously spins.  It'd be useful for things like conveyor belts, spindles, and anything else that has no absolute position.  It could also be used for jogging as well.

The only other options I can think of are the PWM output (which gives you only a few options for speed control) or else getting a seperate stepper controller.  Applied Motion has a model that has an onboard oscillator that is controlled via an analog input to control the speed.  The one we used before (3540MO) was around $200 which kind of hurts if you're only paying $200 for the PLC.  They may have other models with the oscillator that are cheaper or maybe another company can offer something similar for less.

77
Technical support / Re:Jogging a stepper motor
« on: September 05, 2004, 05:01:39 PM »
Based on advice I've received from support here in the past, I simply use a very large number as the move to position when I want to jog.  Then I issue a STEPSTOP when I want the jogging to stop.

78
Technical support / Re:RECEIVING SMS MESSAGES
« on: August 17, 2004, 03:27:46 AM »
Quote from: PLCstar on August 16, 2004, 08:33:11 PM
You know guys, and I will have to go back and read the post, but I think GREGOR just wanted to receive SMS. I wonder if that requires the expensive SMSC number that was mentioned above. Reception only would be far simpler then duplex communciation.

I am not doubting your information, but you did say you checked on this about a year ago. With all of these POCKET PC and PALM OS phones I think there has to be a away to tap into these features without paying homage to MA (C)Bell.
Exactly.  If you have a phone that is capable of sending and receiving SMS messages, has a serial port, and an SDK that gives access to all these features, then I think you have a potential platform for sending commands to a TriPLC from anywhere.  And you should even be able to receive messages from the TriPLC assuming you have another SMS-capable phone it can send messages to.

But I don't think anyone expected you'd be able to do this without cellular service and a plan that offered SMS messages.  So obviously this is a setup that would involve monthly bills.


79
Technical support / Re:RECEIVING SMS MESSAGES
« on: August 16, 2004, 12:47:16 PM »
Just to satisfy my curiosity I checked out the SDK's from Kyocera and PalmOS and confirmed that full access to the serial port and SMS messaging is available to the developer.  And I even see mention on palmos.com that you can develop stuff using VB which surprises me.  I thought it would be C/C++ only.

I might mess around with this if I get some free time.  While I love my 6035 I rarely use it's more powerful abilities.

80
Technical support / Re:RECEIVING SMS MESSAGES
« on: August 16, 2004, 12:21:49 PM »
I like the way you think.  8)

However I wonder how hard it is to get cellular services to connect old phones to their network?

One phone that would skip the need for seperate devices is Kyocera's 6035 Smartphone (buy-it-now price  on eBay is typically $100) and I know it works on Verizon's network since I have one right now (my second, actually).

The SDK is free to download from palmos.com.  Although I'm usure about what can be done with the serial port.  I don't know if can only be used by the hot-syncing tool or if custom apps have full access to it.

81
Technical support / Re:T100MD+ Clock Frequency
« on: July 30, 2004, 02:35:26 PM »
I'm not clear on what your app has to do but have you looked at the stepper or PWM outputs?  They can achieve some pretty high frequencies.

82
Technical support / Re:Problem storing decimal numbers longer then 9 digits
« on: July 27, 2004, 06:05:48 PM »
You can probably do this but it won't be simple (I don't think).  You'll have to work with chunks of the string and loop through it.  Also, this assumes you are only planning on displaying the result since the final answer goes into a string.  Basically you are limited since there are no unsigned or 64-bit variables available on the TriPLC so you have no way of working with this data as a number.

Operand 1 is stored in A$
Operand 2 is stored in B$
Result will be stored in C$

This assumes both operands are the same length.  You'll obviously need a way to deal with operands of different lengths (i.e. "1234567890" + "123")

Code: [Select]

D = 0 ' Set the carry to "0"

FOR I = LEN(A$) TO 0 STEP -1 ' Start from the end of the strings and work backwards
     A = VAL(MID$(A$, I, 1))
     B = VAL(MID$(B$, I, 1))
     C = A + B + D
     IF C > 9 THEN
          D = 1 ' Carry the 1 for the next column (next iteration)
          C = C - 10
     ELSE
          D = 0 ' Clear the carry so it won't get added in the next iteration
     ENDIF
     C$ = STR$(C) + C$ ' Build up the answer string
NEXT

IF D > 0 THEN ' Add the final carry if there is one
     C$ = STR$(D) + C$
ENDIF


Something along those lines.  I haven't tested that but I think it should get you pointed in the right direction.  You can probably do other operations ( subtraction, multiplication, division) with similar loops.

83
Technical support / Re:Problem storing decimal numbers longer then 9 digits
« on: July 27, 2004, 08:01:40 AM »
I think bitshifting is the way (not sure of the specific steps) but do you have to convert them to integers?  Because even if you figure out how to handle such large numbers you're not going to be able to do any math with them (at least not easily).  Why not leave them as strings?

84
Technical support / Re:Interesting projects
« on: July 22, 2004, 11:28:21 AM »
We've used the T100MD in the following projects:

- A vacuum platen/press system that's used for assembling layers of flex circuits and foam adhesives.

- A large jig for clamping long planks of wood and then actuating up to 8 biscuit joiners.  The planks are used in making floating docks.

And we've also started using them in our product line (semi-automated BGA rework equipment), initially to add some enhanced functionality (stepper control, additional I/O) but soon we plan to completely replace the custom microcontroller that we've relied on up to now.  We may even move to replace the Opto22 UltimateIO system we use in our higher end machines.

85
Technical support / Re:Input ASCII character using serial port
« on: July 19, 2004, 12:18:57 PM »
That's really strange.  I'm not sure what to make of that.  Are you still using the InputStr.pc5 sample program?  Because I can't see anything in there that should send data back out the COMM port so you shouldn't be seeing anything returned to hyperterminal.

Maybe once support sees this they'll have some ideas.


86
Technical support / Re:Input ASCII character using serial port
« on: July 15, 2004, 09:54:22 AM »
Those are host commands that you are sending.  I'm not sure if you can expect INPUT to be able to read them since the PLC automatically handles them.  Maybe it's a race to see who gets to the comm buffer first, the INPUT statement in the ladder or the CPU's communication algorithm, which is why the results are inconsistent.

Just send the ASCII characters you want to appear on the screen.

87
Technical support / Upload program to PLC w/o using Trilogi
« on: June 30, 2004, 02:18:11 PM »
We are currently using the T100MD888+ PLC in a simple machine we sell.  We've written our own Windows application that communicates with the PLC (and some other devices) using serial ports.  We're not using TLServer since we have no need for it (and we want to simplify things as much as possible).

However, one thing we can't do easily is upgrade the PLC's program if required.  The only way to do that now is to use TLServer and Trilogi however it would be nice to make the upgrade transparent to the customer.  When we send a software patch or upgrade they simply install it like they would any Windows program and then when they start our application it handles updating the TriPLC if necessary.

I sniffed out what was going on over the COM port and noticed that the commands used during the transfer are simply undocumented Host Mode commands.  It doesn't seem like it would be a major feat for our program to follow these same steps (with the help of some tips and guidance by you).  However we'd obviously need Trilogi to output some sort of compiled binary file that our main application can upload.

Any thoughts on this?  Any other users out there who think this would be useful?

88
General Discussions / Re:Is traffic light control system is using PLC program?
« on: June 30, 2004, 07:25:17 AM »
I'm not sure if you are referring to Triangle's product when you say "the PLC" but in general I would think PLCs are used for traffic light control.  They might be sold as "traffic light control units" but essentially they are just PLCs, I'm sure.

Asking what can you do with a PLC is like asking what can you do with an oven.  Sure you can make pizza but there are plenty of other foods you can cook, too.  (You can even dry your socks in them.)  PLCs are very versatile and can be used anywhere you have inputs and outputs you want to work with programmatically.  Essentially their use is only limited to the inventiveness of their users.

89
General Discussions / Re:Software compatible with Siemens
« on: May 28, 2004, 01:19:54 PM »
Maybe you aren't aware of it but these forums are for Triangle Research's PLCs.  You might have more luck in a Siemens forum (if there is one) or a more general PLC forum (like http://www.plcs.net/)

90
Technical support / Re:How to express the fuction such as sin/cos
« on: May 26, 2004, 03:34:25 PM »
There's nothing built-in but you could use lookup tables.  Some Google searching (try "integer sine cosine") and/or some old computer science textbooks might lead you down the right path.

Here's a newsgroup thread that discusses using lookup tables for this purpose.

People have also mentioned using Taylor Series calculations to generate sine and cosine values but the formula looks pretty complex.

Pages: 1 ... 4 5 [6] 7 8 9