IAS Blog

Panasonic Motion is simple, or its supposed to be

Posted on 02/04/2009 at 05:18 pm by IAS
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I show up at a customers to show them how easy motion can be on a Panasonic PLC. I start up my laptop and notice they have WiFi so I connect to it. Its nice to be connected. I then write a very simple program using a pre-made Panasonic function block. The function block in the picture below is the entire program.

I connect up a FP-Sigma PLC and A4 Series servo amplifier on a bench. Panasonic has done a good job of making this easy as they provide a simple cable solution to go directly from the PLC to the Servo Amplifier. I drag out my Radio Shack USB to Serial adapter and programming cable. Then connect my laptop to the PLC. I then ask the laptop to connect, which it does.

I get an error message about a memory size mismatch that its a 12K PLC connected not a 32K like I thought. The older versions of the PLC had 12K and this was during a transitional time so I pay the message little attention. Another message about a program in the controller, I overwrite it. After a very quick download its time for testing. I start the program and turn on an input to the function block telling it to Jog the Servo.

Hmm, not working.. Time for troubleshooting. I check the usual stuff and find the PLC run light is not even on. My software says its in run mode. I write an even simpler program. I turn on a single output. Strange. The software says its running and the output is on but both the run light and the output on the PLC are off. Any guesses?

Well thanks to modern technology I am connected to a PLC, just not the one in front of me. My software is set to connect via Ethernet and the IP address is that of my solar electric and Solar hot water systems at my home. If I had been paying attention I would have seen the "Ethernet" message in the lower right corner of the software.

The output I was playing with was Y0. That is connected to a pump to circulate hot water in my system via a relay. If anyone was at home they probably would have heard the relay contacts making noise as I was pulsing the output. No harm done. I re-loaded my program and moved on with my presentation.