Industrial Mechatronics

Lecture # 6

Hammad Nazeer
Office: B Block, Blue Faculty Room
Email: hammad@mail.au.edu.pk

Timers

Mainly used for providing delays in between sequences &

operations

There are 4 different types of Timers:

Off Delay Timers

On Delay Timers
Retentive On timers
Retentive Off timers

Non Retentive

Examples of Usage:

Consider a garage light which should remain ON for 2 minutes before

turning off.

Off Delay Timers

The timer turns ON as soon as the input turns high

Starts incrementing when the input has turned false and turns OFF
when a certain time has been achieved

Examples:

A garage light which should remain ON for 2 minutes before turning off.
Consider a car whose ignition key has been turned off but the car
engine remain ON for some time
Cooling fans remain ON for some time after the oven has been turned
off

ON Delay Timers

Starts incrementing when the input has becomes true and turns
ON when a certain time has been achieved

It turns OFF immediately as the input turns OFF.

Examples:

Consider a car whose ignition key has been turned ON but the car
engine turns ON after some delay
An On delay timer would allow an oven to reach a specific temperature
before starting production

Retentive Timers

Retentive timers:
They dont lose their accumulated values once the enable input lines go
low
They retain the accumulated value until the enable input lines goes high
again
They function like stop watches. They can start and stop and retain their
current values until a reset button is pressed

Non Retentive timers:

The timer value goes to Zero once the enable input goes low
Thus non retentive timers lose the accumulated value

Basic Similarities in Timers

There are some basic common aspects in a Timer blocks made by

different PLC vendors:
Timers will have a number to identify them (for example T7 in case of
Rockwell)
Time Base:
Timers can be programmed with different time basis, for example 1 second, 0.1
second and 0.01 second
Example:
If a timer has 0.1 second time base and the user entered 50 as the number of delay
increments then delay would be 5 seconds

Preset Value:
The preset value is the number of increments the timer has to count before it
changes it output. 50 is the preset value in the previous case

Accumulated Value:
It refers to the current increment the timer has reached during its operation

Rockwell Timers
On Delay Timer:
It starts accumulating when the rung
becomes true and continues until the
preset value becomes equal to the accumulated value or the rung
goes false
Basic Symbol used is T and the file number is 4 (T4).

Status Bits Usage:

Enable Bit (EN): It turns on immediately when the rung goes true and
remains set until the rung goes false or timer is reset
Timing Bit (TT): It remains true when the rung goes true or
accumulated value is less then preset value
Done Bit (DN): It is set when the accumulated value equals the preset
value

Example of On Delay Timer

The preset value is 4000ms, so delay of 4 seconds.

Addressing Special Bits

RsLogix 500

RsLogix 5000

Rockwell Timers
Off Delay Timer:
It starts accumulating when the rung
becomes False and continues until the
preset value becomes equal to the accumulated value or the rung
goes True

Status Bits Usage:

Enable Bit (EN): It turns on immediately when the rung goes true and
remains set until the rung goes false or timer is reset
Timing Bit (TT): It remains true when the rung goes False and
accumulated value is less then preset value
Done Bit (DN): It is set when rung becomes true and reset when
accumulated value is equal to preset value

Example of Off Delay Timer

The preset value is 3500ms, so delay of 3.5 seconds.

Retentive ON timer
Similar to ON timer except that it retains its value.
The preset value is 4000ms, so delay of 4 seconds

How can we use the timer after the cycle has completed?

Example

Example
Consider

the scenario in which a start button turns on the Heater

and the Stop button (normally closed) turns it off. Initially there is a
delay of 10 sec before the heater turns ON. After the heater is
turned OFF the cooling fans remain ON for 5 minutes

Cascaded Timers
The

timers are connected to each other and thus are called

cascaded timers
Each timer drives the other timer

Mainly used when a single timer cant provide the delay

required

Timers of other PLC Vendors

GE

FANUC TIMERS & CONTACTS:

There are of the following basic types:

Enable Input

ONDTR
TB

ONDTR (On delay timer) Retentive timer

OFDT (Off delay timer) Retentive timer

TMR (On delay timer) Non retentive timer

R
PV

%R0001

Contact addressing in GE FANUC:

%I represents inputs %I0005 represents real input 5

%Q represents outputs %Q0003 represents real output 3

%R represents system registers
%AI Analog Inputs

%AQ Analog Outputs

Output

Time
Base

Timers of other PLC Vendors

Gould

Modicon Timers & Contacts:

The figure shows a Non retentive Gould

Modicon Timer.

Enable

Reset

The delay can be calculated by multiplying the

Preset Value

Output

Time Base

Output
Storage Register

preset value with the time base

The Timer has two outputs, one which operates when the timer
accumulated value equals the preset value and the other output is
inverted
Contact Addressing:
0 at the start represents outputs 0005 represents the 5th real

output
1 at the start represents inputs 1002 represents the 2nd real input
4 at the start represents Storage registers example 4004

Solve

Solve

Counters

Counters are used in many important industrial applications

Mainly used in Production lines where the items have to be counted

When we are counting the number of products we might use a count up

timer

When we are counting the number of parts left we might use a count down
timer

The choice of counter to be used depends on the application

Operation of Counter

There are different types of counters:

Count up
Count down

They use a low to high transition for counting action

Timers count time increments whereas counters count pulses on

input lines

Timer increments its value with each low to high transition and turns
ON when the accumulated value equals the preset value

Counters are edge triggered devices and dont accumulate when the
level is remain high (level triggered)

Rockwell Automation Counters

Rockwell Automation Counters
Use the filer number 5 for counters and the symbol C
So counter values would be stored in C5:0
Counters are retentive and a reset bit must be used to return the
accumulated value to zero

Counters have the following essential elements:

CU (Count Up bit)
CD (Count Down bit)
DN (Done bit)
OV (Overflow bit)
UN (Underflow bit)
PRE (Preset value)
ACC (Accumulated value)

Count Up Timers
Count Up Timers (Retentive):
The accumulator (ACC) value increases
with every low to high transition
The done bit (DN) is set when the accumulated value equals the
preset value
The over flow bit (OV) turns on when the counter value increases
by 32,767. It then wraps around and starts counting from -32,768
(this is how 16 bit signed numbers are stored)

The count up (CU) shows that the Counter has been enabled (it
turns on when ever the rung condition goes true)

Example of Count Up Counter

Contact B is used to Reset the counter

Example
A count up (CU) Counter is used to remove the 6th Part of

every 11 parts that are detected and then resets the

counters

Count Down Counter

Count Down Timers (Retentive):
The accumulator (ACC) value decreases
with every low to high transition
The done bit (DN) is set when the accumulated value equals or
greater then the preset value
The over flow bit (OV) turns on when the counter value decreases
by -32,768. It then wraps around and starts counting from 32,767

The count down (CD) shows that the Counter has been enabled (it
turns on when ever the rung condition goes true)

Example of Counters
Count Up & Count Down Counters can have the same
registers

Cascading Counters
What is happening here?

When will the last counter done bit (DN) be set?

What is the output?

Counters from Other Vendors

GE

FANUC TIMERS:

Enable Input

UPCTR
ONDTR
TB

There are of the following basic types:

UPCTR (Up counter) Retentive Counter

DNCTR (Down Counter) Retentive Counter

PV

UPCTR:

Output

%R0001

Every time the input turns High it increments the Counter value
by 1 and if it is equal to the preset value, the counter turn ON
The R input is used to reset the counter

DNCTR:
Every time the input turns High it decrements the Counter value
by 1 and if it is equal to the preset value, the counter turn ON
The R input is used to reset the counter

Counters from Other Vendors

Gould MODICON Counters:

When the input pin transitions from
Low to high the counter increments the
Counter value

Enable

Reset

The reset pin must be high for the counter to

Count

Preset Value

Output

CTR

Output
Storage Register

The output value goes high when the input value equals the preset value
The counter also provides an inverted output

Solve