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http://www.plcdirect.com/


For those of us using the Koyo/PLC Direct PLC's on our beamlines,
PLCDirect now has a web page at http://www.plcdirect.com/
It is fairly new, but there are two things of note:
   1) An upgrade to the programming software is online.  
   2) PLCDirect has just announced its micro PLC, this is the
      Koyo 105.  10 Input points and 8 output points.  The
      press release is online.  I have ordered two of these units.
      Send me email if you would like to take a look at them when
      they come in.  Right now, they have a $199.00 starter kit
      which includes 7A relay outputs as well as programming
      software. $249.00 buys you a different starter kit with different
      output options.  

On another note, our EPS system using the Koyo 405 PLC/Linux monitor is online 
and functioning.  Some of its features are:

	Vacuum Valve Monitoring and Control
        Flow Monitoring by directly reading the
           Proteus 100 flow meter tach output as well
           as the relay output
        Vacuum monitoring of the Varian Multivac controllers 

        Data logging of vacuum and flow values every 15 minutes using
        the cron command in Linux.

        System isolates portions of the beamline in case of vacuum
        failure.  Valves can not be opened unless vacuum status
        has returned (prevents accidental venting of the beamline).

        X11 interface via expectk gives beamline scientists
        control over all of the devices.  EPS can be disabled/enabled
        remotely.  As time permits, we will put together a WWW
        interface.

        PLC logs the last 15 EPS trip events, Log is downloaded at
        15 minute intervals if the log has changed.  Apparently,
        the Front End EPS system doesn't log its trips.

        Network Time Protocol is run on the Linux box to keep it 
        synchronized to 'true time'.  Once a day, the realtime clock 
        in the PLC is set.  This keeps the logs synchronized to
        'true time' within 1 second.

        The Linux box and the PLC are both located in the 5BMA radiation
        enclosure.  There were no failures of either of these systems during
        the last run.

        Not one line of 'C' code was written to support this system.

- John

-- 
John Quintana                          Internet email: jpq@nwu.edu
DND-CAT Synchrotron Research Center    Voice Phone: (708) 252-0223
APS/ANL Bldg. 432/A003                 FAX Phone: (708) 252-0226
9700 South Cass Avenue                 WWW: http://tomato.dnd.aps.anl.gov/~jpq/
Argonne, Illinois 60439