PLC/HMI Touchscreen Fermenter Project

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PLC-Guy

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2010
Messages
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Location
Atlanta
Been Away For Awhile, However Have a New Fermenter Project Going,
Total Automation, Allen Bradley MicroLogix1200-WAR PLC With a
CTC PS10 HMI Touchscreen, RS232 DF1 Communication Network.
Will Use Natural or Propane Gas & Electric Heating, Rosemount
Temperature & Pressure Transmitters, All Stainless Steel Construction
Supporting Everything Tri-Clover Clamps 304SS.
Built In C.I.P. S/S Plumbing w/S/S Body Pneumatic Actuator Valves
(Fill, Drain, C.I.P.).
All Electrical Connections Are Quick Disconnect, Brad-Harrisons.
Already Have The HMI Touchscreen Programmed, Getting Ready To
Build Up Roll Around S/S Hoffman Cabinet Backplane To Support All Electrical.
Next Step Is Sanitary TIG Welding On Fermenter Vessel, 20 US Gal.
Thought Process Is, Always Want To Go Bigger, Thanks To The
Tri-Clover Clamp Setup, Transfering All Controls & Instrumentation
To Future Bigger Vessel Should Be Easier.
This Is Going To Take Sometime To Complete, Have All The Hardware,
Allen Bradley PLC RSLogix-500 Programming Will Be Step By Step Process,
All Rosemount Xmtrs Already Calibrated, I Have My Own HART Communicators
and Resistor Decade Box. I Use To Be a Instrumentation-Guy Also.
Might Be Awhile Till I Return Here To Homebrewtalk Forum, Busy Like
The Rest Of You. Hope You Like Whats Going On Here, Will Try &
Help Others As Always w/Automation.

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Doing Some PLC Programming & Calibration & PID Loop Tunning Since Last Visit
Almost Done With Bench Setups, Then Create Step by Step Programming For
Each Process Step.

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This is purely for fermenting, correct?


... You have a heat stick for fermenting? I'm missing something.
 
Garage Gets Cold In Winter, Help's w/a Stuck Fermentation, Will Use
The Heat Stick @ 85-102 Degrees & Cut Off Once Fermentation
Has Started/Restarted.
 
Wow that is awesome. How hard was the coding? Can you do step mashes automatically.

I Use Allen Bradley/Rockwell Software RSlink Lite (Freebe) and RSLogix-500
Not Free, New w/o Student Cost, Aprox $800.00, Purchased Mine From
Ebay and Seller Transfered Registration @ AB/Rockwell To Me, Paid Aprox
$125.00 About 5 Years Ago.
The Software Covers All Allen Bradley SLC5 Processors & Micrologix.
The Software Helps To Eliminate Most Field Device Relays.
To Scratch The Surface, Timer Controls ms or Secs w/On or Off Delays
When Timer Is Enabled, When Timer Is Done/Finished, Current Accumlated
Time, Pretty Much Above Applies To Counters, Math, DIV, ADD, SUB, =,
<,>, And/Or, ect, PID Loops, Counters Up & Down, Alot More.
They Will Control Any Electrical Device, AC, DC, Analog, Inputs & Outputs
For Just About Any Situation(s) If You Can Imagine How You Want To
Control It & Make It Do It, It Will, From Simple To Complex
For Most Parts In The Software, It's Drag & Drop In Your Statement,
Assign It, Give It a Description, Can Name a Symbol To It For Fast
Searching In Program, Add a Page Title (All Page Titles Can Be Viewed
@ Once, Click On The One u Want, Software Takes You There In Program).
Can Also Add a Rung Description (Enter In Specfic Description Of What
You Have Done/What The Logic u Just Created Is Suppose To Do, ect)
I've Been Doing This For Aprox 25 Yrs, I Use Allen Bradley Products,
There Industrial, Made For 7-24hrs Usage Non Stop. Pricey For New,
I Use Ebay Alot, Get Great Used Deals, My Processor Costed $260.00,
New 6-800.00 Micrologix-1200-WAR(Dual Communication Ports/1 For PC,
2nd For HMI Touchscreen) It Was Still Factory Sealed, Analog Input Card, 4 Channels, AB# 1762-IF4 $80.00.
Granted This Is Not The Usual Automated Home Brewers Setup, This
Would Be a Great Choice For a Microbrewery To a Brewery.
All Temp/Pressure Transmitters Are Clover Clamped To Vessel's w/
Electrical Quick Disconnects From Electrical Control Panel (CP).
Someday If I Expand or Sell (never) Transfer Complete System On
Another Vessel(s) Is Like Plug & Play and Alittle Recalibration To Adjust
To New Vessel(s). The PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) Processor
Like The One I Use Is Small In Size Only, Can Add Up To 29 More
Remote I/O (Input-Output) Racks, Max Distance 4000ft Network,
Each Rack Can Have a Combination Of I/O's, AC, DC, Analog and
Multiple Operator HMI Touchscreens All Controlled By a Central Operator
In a Control Room/Office or If You Can Afford It (Not Me) via Ethernet.

A Good Place To View PLC Programming Is Utube, Search For
ie; automationnc
Pretty Good Basic Overview Of RSLogix-500 Software

Creating a Program From Scratch Takes Awhile, Spend More Time On
Thinking How You Want To Control Something, Once Done Though, If
You Add Something New or Use It As a Troubleshooting Tool, Is Fast.

ie; It's Like Artifical Inteligence, You Program To Control a Pump, On/Off
Installed a Psig Sensor Either Contact On/Off @ Setting Point (psig) or
a Psig Analog Sensor (More Software Control/Can Control By Various Psig
Levels/Readings) Now Combine It w/Temperature Sensor RTD.
Now You Can Control The Pump On/Off/ and/or/= Turn Something Else On
@ a Certain Psig Reading and/or/= Incl Temp @ a Desired Level, ect,
Now When All Is Making Beer Fine, One Of The Variables Fall Out Of It's
Range/Limit In The Software, When It Does, I Want An Alarm/Fault To
Notify Operator and/or/=/Not(Warning) Stop The Process, Cannot Restart Until Operator Has Acknowleged The Alarm/Faulted Condition, Now You Enter The Processor w/PC, Goto The Alarm File You Created, There You Will See
a PLC Bit Image Table, Much Of Zero's (0 Binary) Are Displayed, Except
You Noticed a 1 vs 0 On One Of Them, Mouse Click On It, Your Description
Tells You Its PS-1 Out Of Range, Right Click Again, Cross Reference, Goto
That Spot In Program, Review Your Logic You Created For Pump Control,
ie; You See That PS-1 (Pressure Sensor-1) Is Not Displaying (Highlighted
In Green) It's AC or DC Input Voltage Signal, I Have a Problem w/ PS-1,
Might Be Sensor Cable or Sensor Contact (Internal to Sensor) You Would
Know If The PS-1 Is On a .4Amp Din Circuit Breaker, Powered By a 24Vdc
Power Supply Inside Your Control Panel. You Could Even Add An Input Bit
To Monitor Power Supply In & Out Voltages & Create An Alarm Bit For That.

When You Have Alot Of Devices On Your Equipement, Being Able To
Locate a Problem Fast Is Important & Simple Using a PLC.
Like I Said, If You Can Think It, You Can Control It.
Now We Have Hopefully Saved Our Beer and Prevented Any Possible
Damage To Our Equipement & Maybe Ourselves.
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Check Out Utube, automationnc
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Update On RSLogix-500 PID LOOPS

Refer To The Above Pic Showing PID Setup, Loop-1 Tank-1 Temp PID

This Is RSLogix-500 Software, Quickly, The Instruction, SCP
Scale w/Parameters Is This:
Input I:1.0 Is Analog Input Channel-0 Tank-1 Temp RTD Process Variable
9761 Is The Raw Data From Temp Transmitter ie: 76.957 Degrees F
Input Min. 6242 Raw Data From RTD Xmtr @ 4.0ma (50.000 DegF)
Input Max. 31204 Raw Data From RTD Xmtr @ 20.0ma (225.000 DegF)
Scaled Min. 0 Min %
Scaled Max. 100 Max %
Output N7:36 (Process Variabale (PV) Location In PLC For Programming Use)
14 (% Output @ 76.957 DegF)ie;0%=50.000DegF, 100%=225.000DegF

PID (Instruction):
PD9:0 PLC Assigned For a PID Loop Channel-0 (Have 4-Channels Per Analog Card)
N7:36 % PV Data Received From SCP Output via CH-0 Input I:1.0
N7:46 % CV Data Sent out From PID Setup Variables You Established

PID Setup Tunning, Inputs, Outputs:
Mostly Timing In mille Seconds (ms), Adjusting Temp Xmtr Raw Data Deadband,
The Rest Is Mostly Duplicated w/SCP Instruction.
Disreguard Scaled Error SE, Programming Not Completed When Posted.

This Is How In RSLogix-500 To Do a PID LOOP, Drag & Drop The SCP,
Enter Your Parameters, Drag & Drop PID, Click On Setup Screen,
Enter Parameters Into PID Setup, Then From There You Can Use I:1.0
Raw Data Value In Your PLC Logic Program To Make Things Happen @
Certain Temps, As Well As, If Using a Analog Output Card, Use N7:36
From PID To Open Close Valves % (Steam Heat,Elec Heat (Using Analog SSR)
Pump Speeds % (Using VSD/Variable Speed Drive Controller),
Start The Next Process(s) @ Certain Temps Or Stop, Create Operator
Warnings/Alarms @ Desired Temps, If Temperature Plays a Part In Your Process
You Can Control It This PID LOOP.
My Average PLC Program Scan Time, From Program Start-End = 15ms
Alot Of Program Instructions In There.

Hope This Takes Some Of The Guess Work Out Of It For You.
 
The automationnc videos are great. Thanks for the suggestion.

Allen Bradley Makes Alot Of PLC's, They Do Mostly The Same Thing, Exception
To Processor Memory Size=Program Size and Restrictions To Logic Instructions,
ie; Micrologix-1200 Does Not Support BTW/BTR (Blocks Of Information Write&Reads)
a Requirement When Using There HMI-Panelviews, The CTC/Parker PS10 HMI Does
Not Need BTR/BTW PLC Logic. One Thing w/ Allen Bradley PLC's, The Revision
Of The PLC Has Restriction(s) or Allows Enhancements Such As Add-On Cards,
Available Logic Instructions and RSLogix-500 Software Version(s).

To Download or View The Micrologix-1200 Programming Instructions

http://ab.rockwellautomation.com/
Goto Quick Links, Literaure Library
SEARCH Enter Micrologix 1200 or 1762-RM001G-EN-P
This Is The MicroLogix 1200 & ML-1500 Instruction Set Reference Manual
Click On PDF Icon, Once Open, Quick Overview Of Instructions Is In Chap-4
Programming Instructions Overview

I Usually Find an AB/Rockwell Product On Ebay, Then Use There Part# & Come
Here For Detailed Specs, ect Before Purchase.
Be Leary Of Ebay Sellers Offering ie; Allen Bradley SLC5/03 Complete Systems,
Will Have Powersupply, Processor, Full Rack w/Cards Priced Reasonable,
You Need To Know What Revision The Processor Is, Sometimes The Seller Will
Put This Together Out Of Spare Parts From Other Purchases, Looks Like a
Package Deal, Remember The Revision# Might Limit The Use In Your Application
As To Available Logic Instructions Available & Memory Size=Program Size.
The Good Sellers Will Have 100% Postive Feedback & Offer Not DOA/Refunds/
Exchanges and Has Been Tested.
There Is Also a Small Group That You Might Be Bidding Against, You Will See
The Same Item For Sale By Them, Marked Up, Check Part Serial#s If Displayed
In Item Pics, Dont Get In a Hurry, Send Them Emails Asking Questions, No Replys,
Either on Vacation or Not Want You Want/Seller. If So As Is No Returns=NO!
You Take Your Time On Ebay Will Get Great Deals Before They Do.

Good PLC Forums Supporting Allen Bradley/Helpful Users There
***** http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/index.php
*** http://www.mrplc.com/

For My Home Use, I Use The SLC5/03 & SLC5/04 & MicroLogix-1200-WAR
 
I'am Going To Move Future Pics, ect To The
Automated Brewing Forum
I Just Wanted To Share Some Pic's and Now This Is Growing Into
Something That Really Belongs There.

Started On Building Electrical Panel Backplane, Will Post Today
Progress So Far In Automated Brewing Forum
Will Name It PLC/HMI Touchscreen Cont
 
Is this for real? Kinda takes the fun out of home brewing don't it, and I imagine it adds to the per batch cost as well. But cool technology never the less.
 
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