EEprom Cycles for a data log

[uknanoman]

Hi Tech
          I am currently using your new wx100 series to develop a control system for a silo filling control system. One of my requirements is to be able to log data as various events happen,
currently for each event I have used the code below - albeit with varying text on the end according to the event - to write the data to the EEprom area

X$ = STR$(DATE[3])+ " "+STR$(DATE[3])+" "+STR$(DATE[2])+ " "+STR$(DATE[1])+ " "+STR$(TIME[2])+ ":"+STR$(TIME[3])+ " "+ "Enter Button Activated"
Save_eep$ X$,Datalogpointer
Call Incdatalogpointer

The datalogpointer variable simply gets incremented by every call to Incdatalogpointer and eventually reset after say 100 datalogs.
this seems to work ok apart from some strange goings on of the eeprom manager when reading back what I have written.

My question is twofold
1) How many times on the wx100 can the eeprom be written / rewritten
2) Is this the fastest way to do it as I notice a delay in the plc scan cycle when actuating this code

 

[support]

The EEPROM on Wx100 has erase/write cycle life of 1 million cycles. Erasing and writing of EEPROM cells does take a bit of time and may affect the PLC scan time. When you save a string to the EEPROM you are saving multiple bytes of data (up to 40 bytes per string) so the time delay multiplies by the number of bytes.

If you are developing an OEM equipment that you intend to manufacture in quantity (> 100 per year) then it is possible to add other useful components that can enhance your application need such as FRAM (works like EEPROM but with no life limit and a lot faster - writing to FRAM takes very little time since there is no "erase" cycles to deal with).

Wx100 is an excellent brain board platform (similar to our SmartTILE-Fx brain board system) that allows OEM customers to design and build their own custom carrier board (we call these "terminal boards" in Wx100) which can include customized components such as FRAM and battery-backed RTC (for applications that have no internet connection but still need to keep a real time clock running).  Please contact support@triplc.com to discuss your application if you wish to pursue an OEM custom terminal board design.

We are currently also adding new HTTP client capability which allows Wx100 to very easily connect to a HTTP or HTTPS web server to upload data via HTTP POST protocol, or download data from a web server via HTTP GET protocol. You can also log data to local data files in your PLC file system and then periodically upload the selected files to web server via HTTP mutlipart POST protocol before deleting it. This is in addition to the support of MQTT protocol already available on your Wx100 and thus further enhancing its IIoT capability.

You may like to consider using these new capability to log your data to a web server for permanent storage when it becomes available (should be pretty soon). Please register your interest by emailing to: support@triplc.com and we will contact you to provide free upgrade instructions when the new software and firmware are released.

[uknanoman]

Hi Tech
          Thanks for this prompt response. I have used the Fram before on Nano's but it does not look like there is anywhere
left to plug into as I already have the TERM8 I/O Board fitted. Having said this I noticed that there are 4 reserved pins on
the header, is there a way the standard FRAM RTC can be utilised with these pins?

Regards uknanoman
 
 

[support]

Sorry the FRAM-RTC on the Nano-10 and FMD PLC cannot be used on the Wx100. They are different interface.

To use FRAM on the Wx100 would require custom-designed carrier board since we don't provide this on our standard Wx-TERM8 or Wx-TERM16. It is therefore not an option for one off type of projects.