Weidmuller North American Headquarters Aerial Tour

So in my never-ending battle to avoid the pitfalls of boredom, I've recently starting taking aerial footage of various places.  Above is a video I filmed and edited for Weidmuller in Richmond, VA. 

I hope you enjoy, and please let me know what you think.  If you're interested in having your property photographed or videoed, please don't hesitate to contact me. 

-G

Using CODESYS to Control a Raspberry Pi and Remote I/O over Ethernet/IP

If you're a automation/computer nerd like I am, and you haven't heard of CODESYS yet, you will. CODESYS is an IEC 61131-3 engineering tool, and it's completely free...sort of.  The software is free to download.  It comes with a SoftPLC that will run on your PC.  Some HMI (human machine interface) manufacturers (Exor) use it for programming their HMI's.  In fact, some PLC manufactures like Schneider, use it for their SoMachine software.  They just change some colors and call it a day.

Long story short, you can use it to turn a Raspberry Pi into a PLC for educational and testing purposes.  This is where money comes in.  After downloading CODESYS Control for Raspberry Pi from codesys, the SoftPLC is installed on the Raspberry Pi.  It will run for two hours and then stop unless you buy the license.  It's only 35 Euros, which still isn't bad.

The video below steps through the process rather quickly, but shows the main points.  

How to Configure a Simple Weidmuller 900MHz Wireless Radio Application

Measuring Liquid Level Using a Bubbler System

Weidmuller-Siemens 900MHz Wireless PROFIBUS DP Demo

In 2009 I was tasked with a project.  A demonstration was needed to show the capabilities of the Weidmuller Wireless PROFIBUS Gateways & how they work with Siemens PLC's.  The demo consists of the following items:

• 1 Siemens 314C-2 DP CPU
• 1 Siemens ET200M Distributed I/O with analog and digital I/O cards
• 1 Weidmuller Wireless PROFIBUS Slave Gateway
• 1 Weidmuller Wireless PROFIBUS Master Gateway
• 1 Siemens HMI
• 1 Siemens Temperature Transmitter
• 1 Siemens Valve Positioner

The reason we decided to put this together was to show the capabilities of the wireless gateways as well as show the process of building a wireless PROFIBUS network.  We included code in the Siemens PLC to demonstrate cycle time, and signal strength.  By doing that, we can use this unit (along with additional atteneas) to do site surveys.

This particular demo shows PROFIBUS DP on both sides, but the gateways are limited to that you can combine PROFIBUS to Ethernet, or Modbus TCP to DeviceNet, all while communicating over frequency-hoping spread spectrum 900MHz.

I'll be updating this article with specifics on the Step7 code and the Weidmuller Wireless Configuration Utility in the future, so check back soon.

6ordon6

Integrated Process Automation

The premise of the lovingly nicknamed "WHAC Demo" is to convey the point that a $100,000+ DCS (Distributed Control System) isn't always necessary.  Some of the things we demonstrate with our WHAC demo are as follows:

• A standard PLC of medium complexity can be used for control in complex process applications
• An emphasis on diagnostic capabilities of the control system and the field devices
• The ability to communicate across many networks
• The usage of open, non-proprietary protocols

Before I continue, please forgive the mediocre photography, I will be updating the pictures as soon as I can.

fig.1

Figure 1 shows almost the entire demo.  I left my wide-angle cell phone camera at home.


Fig. 2 is WHAC Rack 1.  This rack consists of a Siemens 315F-2 PN/DP CPU.  This CPU consists of 1 PROFIBUS (DP) and 2 PROFINET (PN) ports, and comes equiped with safety features.  Some of the other components...

• ET200S Remote I/O
• Burkert Solenoid Valves
• PROFIBUS to Fiber OLM (Optical Link Module)
• Trebing & Himstedt PROFIBUS & PROFINET network monitorying modules
• Siemens SCALANCE S-612 Security Module & X206 Ethernet switch

fig 2


 Fig. 3 is WHAC Rack 2.  Rack 2 is a lot of fun... in a dorky, tech way.  It consists of a Coriolis meter, and WirelessHart gateway, another Siemens OLM, and a Siemens S212 switch.  The Siemens WirelessHart gateway allows a person to obtain process values, as well as diagnostics data from wireless or wired HART devices.

fig 3

Figure 4 is WHAC Rack 3.  These are the WirelessHart devices.  They communicate directly via the HART protocol to the WirelessHart gateway on WHAC Rack 2.  The top of the rack shows a pressure transmitter and a temperature transmitter.  The bottom rack has a standard wired HART pressure transmitter and a Siemens AW200.  The AW200 transmits the process variable as well as diagnostic data from the wired HART device.  What's cool about the AW200, is that it can be connected to four wired HART devices.

fig 4

Figure 5 is WHAC Rack 4.  Rack 4 consists of a DP Link Module.  This links the PROFIBUS DP (Barney cable, Distributed Periphery) network to the PROFIBUS PA (process automation) network.  It also has an AFD (Active Field Distributor) which acts as a redundant ring network for the PA devices.

fig 5

Just to the left you see the SIPART PS 2 Valve Positioner.

Figure 6 shows the PROFIBUS PA devices that are connected to WHAC Rack 4.  Starting from the left, we have a SITRANS DS III PIT (pressure indicating transmitter) and a 2 piece MASSFLO MASS 6000 coriolis meter.

fig 6

Figure 7 shows the SINAMICS G120D drive, a SIMOCODE module, and a Siemens motor


fig 7

Lastly, here's an overview of what the system network looks like.  Here you can see the vast network architecture involved in this demo.

If any of this is interesting to you, or if you'd just like some more information on anything in this post, leave a comment.

-GordonG