Wow! Our recent CLICK/C-more giveaway had an overwhelming response with over 200 entries and many, many great applications. It was nearly impossible to narrow the field to one winner – so we didn’t. We decided to choose two lucky winners along with our top ten favorites. The two Grand Prize winners received a CLICK of their choice and a C-more micro HMI. The top ten received vouchers and we also sent everyone a little thank you for participating.
Now for the winners:
- Grand Prize Winner 1’s application entry: “In conjunction with an HMI and some sensors I want to make a barn temperature controller for our llamas. They need heated buckets of water in the winter. When the index of temperature + humidity gets to 140 or above we need to run fans. I want to use the PLC as my I/O collection and output point and HMI as the interface to the control system” Llamas…need I say more! 😊
- Grand Prize Winner 2’s application entry: “We have all of our coolant and machining oil in one location in our shop because of the proximity to our city floor drains. When our operators need coolant for their machines they have to carry a 5-gallon bucket back and forth from machine to the coolant area until their machine is full. This sometimes can take many trips and poses a hazard for splashing coolant over the top of the buckets. We are toying with the idea of running a hose from the coolant area to our CNC department. We would use an HMI for the operators to put in how many gallons of coolant they would like. They could then take the hose to the machine and directly put a measured amount coolant in the machine from the hose. This would be faster and easier for the operators and would reduce the risk of spilling coolant.” This just sounds like a really cool idea…cue rimshot.
Some of our top ten favorites included:
- “I want to use the CLICK PLC to control a Solar panel array. It will turn the panel East and await the sunrise. Then it will track the sun’s travel throughout the day to ensure maximum output. Using an analog input that is scaled for the brightness of the sun. When sunset arrives, the CLICK PLC will drive the solar array panel back to the East.”
- “The CLICK PLC was used as the heart of a simple control system to run an interactive wave machine used in The Living Core section of the Frost Museum in Miami. Guests use one of three buttons for a small, medium and large wave. The PLC uses the button contact as an input to run the mechanical system which rotates a paddle in a small reservoir of water, pushing a wave up a “shoreline.” After one movement of the paddle, the PLC returns it to its home position. The PLC also uses two prox sensors as inputs to indicate the wave paddle is at “home” or fully “extended”. The PLC program includes a reset function activated by pressing two of the input buttons at the same time.”
- “Timer for Collegiate Pistol Target Shooting. There are a number of different courses of fire used, from the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the International Shooting Sports Foundation (ISSF). These (the start/stop signals and the timing) will be programmed into the PLC, selected by an external switch. Outputs (lights, buzzer, clock pulse for a (large) external time display) will use a standard relay output module. Using the PLC instead of a PC or a microprocessor-based custom design allows for simple reprogramming by the end user (the NRA and ISSF rules change more often than one might wish).”
We also had a couple that we found very interesting:
- Using the CLICK PLC to control a presentation – why didn’t I think of that?!: “My sister is a radiography student and was tasked with building a model of an x-ray circuit and presenting it to the class. We used a CLICK PLC to control LED lighting that lit up on the model circuit to draw attention to the section she was talking about during her presentation. A push button switch was used to advance through the sections. She was the only person in here class to get a perfect score and the only one who wasn’t asked to write a follow up paper on circuits.”
- File this under “I had no clue!”: “I have built an analog version of an Automated Intravenous Pressure Bleeding Control system that devoids 98% of the blood from a salmon or fish with a similar anatomy and venous system. I have this system functioning as designed and am looking to design a PLC based version with a multitude of preprogrammed presets for selecting parameters for different sized fish based on the weight of the species being pressure bled for elevating the quality and taste of the fish. Removing or devoiding the blood from the fish’s body removes the sometime rancidity that can occur, rendering an off taste in the fish, for a true and clean flavor of the flesh.”
And we have to mention a few of the funny ones:
- “I will use it to make a bed lifter: A device that tilts a bed and slides the sleepy head onto the foot-end floor when it is time to start the day.”
- “I plan on using a PLC to control my Wi-Fi router, so that my kids can’t use the Wi-Fi until their chores are done. Or at least until they figure out how to fake the sensors to make it seem like their chores are done.”
We want to thank everyone who participated in the contest, it really was fun to read the applications and ideas that were submitted. If you didn’t win the Grand Prize, don’t worry we will have another contest very soon…hint, hint. But thanks again for trusting us with your automation needs and as always please let us know how we are doing by visiting our Reviews page at https://www.automationdirect.com/adc/Form/User/CompanyReview
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