Implementing a PLC Calibration Routine to Ensure Accurate Instrument Readings
+Tech TopicsAutomation NotebookFYIIssue 2 – 2004Learning ResourcesNotebook IssueProductProgrammable Control

Implementing a PLC Calibration Routine to Ensure Accurate Instrument Readings

Why Calibrate? Many applications call for a means to take accurate analog measurements. Force, pressure, electrical current, lengths, positions and other analog values that are measured must be done so with a degree of accuracy. Factory and lab personnel use calibration procedures to ensure that equipment is reading accurately. If the readings are not as…
Using Indirect Addressing in a PLC to Scale a Non-linear Analog Input Signal
+Tech TopicsAutomation NotebookIssue 2 – 2004Learning ResourcesNotebook IssueProductProgrammable ControlTech Thread

Using Indirect Addressing in a PLC to Scale a Non-linear Analog Input Signal

Indirect addressing, or pointer addressing as it is called with Koyo PLCs, is an addressing mode found in many processors’ instruction sets that specifies a register that contains the effective address. Accessing the operand requires two memory accesses – one to fetch the effective address and another to read or write the actual operand. Indirect…
Ever Wonder How AutomationDirect Customers Are Applying Their Products?
Application StoriesAutomation NotebookEnergy/UtilitiesIndustryIssue 2 – 2004Learning ResourcesNotebook IssuePLCProductProgrammable ControlUser SolutionsWater/Wastewater

Ever Wonder How AutomationDirect Customers Are Applying Their Products?

Check out some of the application stories we’ve collected and you’ll see that AutomationDirect products are used in a wide variety of applications across many different industries. — Jump to Application Spotlight D2-250 PLC PID Loops Control Pumps In Residential Water System We used PID loops in the D2-250 CPU to control three pumps and…
PLC Technology and Application Tips
+Tech TopicsAutomation NotebookIssue 2 – 2004Learning ResourcesNotebook IssuePLC SpeakingProductProgrammable Control

PLC Technology and Application Tips

Over the past ten years, AutomationDirect, formerly PLCDirect, has provided PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) products in many shapes, sizes, and I/O counts, and with a wide variety of features. Since PLCs were the products on which this company was founded, it is only natural to devote a column on the subject of PLCs in the…
How to Connect 3-wire Sinking & Sourcing Devices to PLC Input Modules
+Tech TopicsAutomation NotebookIssue 1 – 2004Learning ResourcesNotebook IssueProductProgrammable ControlTechnical Review

How to Connect 3-wire Sinking & Sourcing Devices to PLC Input Modules

When connecting a 3-wire field device to your PLC system, it is important to have a solid understanding of sinking (NPN) and sourcing (PNP) concepts. Sinking and Sourcing First, sinking and sourcing are only associated with DC circuits. DC circuits can conduct current in one direction only. This means that it is possible to connect…
Turbine Generator Application Uses Terminator I/O
ApplicationApplication StoriesAutomation NotebookEnergy/UtilitiesIndustryIssue 1 – 2004Learning ResourcesMachine ControlNotebook IssuePLCProductProgrammable ControlUser Solutions

Turbine Generator Application Uses Terminator I/O

Turbine Diagnostic Services (TDS) is a power generation field service company that provides industrial, utility, independent power producers, and municipality power generation systems for turbine generator applications. The company’s TurboNet DASH 1® Control System is a complete DCS-structured turbine generator control system, developed to meet the needs of customers looking for a stable, “crash-free” system…
HMIs and PC Control: Upwardly Mobile With Upscale Connections
+Tech TopicsAutomation NotebookCommunicationsIssue 1 – 2004Learning ResourcesNotebook IssueProductProgrammable ControlTechnology Brief

HMIs and PC Control: Upwardly Mobile With Upscale Connections

Remember when you had to be an artist to design HMI faceplates that resembled your process? Remember configuring your HMI software by filling in cryptic addresses and values, something resembling the Microsoft® Windows™ registry? Remember when your HMI was a dedicated system that only connected to a single process? Or when it was cool to…
PLC, PC, or Custom - Which Control Choice Is Right For You?
Automation NotebookCover StoriesIssue 1 – 2004Learning ResourcesNotebook IssueProductProgrammable Control

PLC, PC, or Custom - Which Control Choice Is Right For You?

Choices and change are the only constants in control system technologies today. Current industrial controller products can no longer be classified by the internal design architecture they possess. More often than not, any type of modern controller uses some portion of Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) technology in its CPU, operating system, memory, or data…