Know-how protection in TIA Portal: working with a block you cannot open
A know-how protected OEM block will not open. What TIA Portal still lets you do with it, why the compile error sits in your call, and how to clear it.
PLC & HMI
Every PLC and HMI tutorial on plctr.com: project setup, ladder and structured text, communication, troubleshooting and commissioning, written from the plant floor.
Scaling an Analogue Input in STL: The Integer Maths and Where It Overflows
A DINT stops at 2147483647, and 27648 multiplied by 77673 is 2147503104. That is the whole of the problem with fixed-point scaling in STL: the arithmetic is exact right up to the statement where it is not, and *D reports the crossing by setting OV and OS rather than by refusing to run. Here is … Read more
Scaling an Analogue Input in FBD: SCL, NORM_X and the Raw Counts
On an S7-1500 a 4 to 20 mA channel reads 0 counts at 4 mA and 27648 counts at 20 mA, and a channel with wire-break diagnostics enabled reads 32767 when the loop opens. Those three numbers decide the rest of this page: what goes in the MIN and MAX pins of NORM_X, what SCALE_X … Read more
S7-1500 area length error: what the diagnostics buffer is telling you
An S7-1500 area length error leaves the CPU in RUN with the ERROR LED on. Read the buffer entry, find the index that runs past the array, fix the order.
Tracking a Carton Through Four Zones Without Losing It: A Shift Register the Encoder Drives
A 1024 PPR encoder on the tail roller of an 8 m belt, read in X4 by a 5069-HSC2xOB4, gives 652 counts for every 50 mm of belt, and a shift register that moves one cell every 652 counts knows where a carton is to within one cell whether the belt is running at 0.500 … Read more
PROFIBUS segment length and baud rate: the table you actually need
Maximum PROFIBUS segment length at every DP baud rate on type A cable, with repeater rules, termination values and the meter checks that find the fault.
Commanding a PowerFlex 525 from a ControlLogix: The Command Word, the Reference and the Status Bits
Bit 0 of the PowerFlex 525 logic command word is Normal Stop, and it has to be sitting at 0 before bit 1 will ever start the drive. That footnote under the table in Appendix D of 520COM-UM001 is behind most of the drives that show a green connection in the I/O tree and still … Read more
PowerFlex 525 F004 UnderVoltage: Brownouts, Bus Volts and What to Check
Several drives faulting F004 in the same second is a supply problem. How to work out the bus volts, log the sag safely, and read the trace it gives you.
Two Motors on One VFD: When It Works and When It Does Not
P033 [Motor OL Current] on a PowerFlex 525 holds exactly one number. Land two 3 HP motors on T1, T2 and T3 and that number is now watching the pair as though they were one 6 HP machine, which leaves neither motor protected. That single parameter is the whole argument. Two standard induction motors will … Read more
PowerFlex 525 F013 Ground Fault: Finding It Without Guessing
F013 is current leaving the motor circuit for earth. A megger routine that separates motor, cable and junction box, with the readings that decide it.
Download without reinitialization in TIA Portal: keeping values after an interface change
Add one Static to an FB and every setpoint in the instance DB goes to zero. How the memory reserve prevents it, how to size it, and how to recover.
TIA Portal HSP missing: getting a new device into the hardware catalog
The CPU says V4.6 and the hardware catalog stops at V4.5. What a hardware support package does, how to install one offline, and when you need a newer TIA.
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