C-more Micro HMI: Controlling Beeps from AutomationDirect

In this example we told the C-More Micro to watch the PLC TAG at address DS100 plus 1, so that would be DS101 on a Click PLC for beep control. If the C-More Micro sees bit 0 of this TAG change from a 0 to a 1 it will turn the tones ON – let’s do that, put a 1 here and we get tones. , if it sees the PLC change bit zero from a 1 to a zero it will turn any tones in progress off. For example, if we have a tone in progress enable this alarm, then if the PLC sets this to a 1 and then back to a zero, it will kill the alarm tone. Again, it is the transition from a 1 to a zero that disables the tone. Simply writing a 0 to this TAG when it is already a 0 won’t silence the tone, so be careful about that. The C-More Micro has to see bit 0 change from a 1 to a 0 to silence the tones. The alarms are still in progress, jus the tones have been silenced. Note that setting the tones to ON by setting this bit to a 1overrides everything. Likewise, setting it to a zero from a 1 silences everything that is currently in progress. The alarm condition will still be present – just the tones are silenced. Using this option the PLC can turn beeps on - or even generate patterns of beeps - anytime it wants to get the users attention, signal issues, or anything else you may want it to do. It can also kill tones anytime it wants –again - regardless of what is going on. One more example: If the PLC has this TAG set to a zero and then a new alarm comes in – the alarm WILL sound – remember – the C-More micro has to see a transition from a 1 to a zero while the tone is on to disable it. Lets kill that … That’s Beep Control via a PLC. You can also use this to modify the behavior of the panel - Normally, the only way a user can silence alarms is by taking care of the alarm condition. Sometimes it is nice to be able to silence the tone while you are working on the alarm so you don’t get a headache. The PLC can enable that feature by setting bit 16 which is a 32768 decimal – let me put that in there – that’s going to set bit 16. Note that if you are using a 16 bit BCD number that would be an 8000. By setting this bit, the PLC is telling the C-More micro it is ok to let the user silence the alarm by touching an object on the screen or a function key. Lets try that. Bit 16 is set, so we are going to enable an alarm, so now we can silence that alarm by hitting a function key, or by hitting an object on the screen. That’s a real handy feature to have and your users will thank you for that. Setting all of this up this up is easy – just go to the Navigation Windows Function Tab and select PLC to Panel OR the Setup Menu PLC to Panel. Go to the PLC to Panel Tab, put a tag in here for the C-More Micro to monitor for this screen number – the C-More Micro will watch that TAG and then use it to change screen numbers IF that feature is enabled – we don’t have it enabled right now. The very next TAG at that address plus 1 – if we enable it – is our beep control word. And by the way, there is a third one at the screen number plus 2 that allows the PLC to control the backlight color of the screen. But this video is about beep control so we are just going to enable that one right now. And that’s all there is to it – with this enabled, when the PLC writes to the screen number plus 1, the C-More Micro will be watching that and will react accordingly. Note that there is a handy reference down here that tells you that at that address, if the PLC writes a 1 to bit zero, it will turn the beeps on, if it writes a zero, it will turn the beeps off. And remember – the C-More Micro has to see a transition from a 1 to a zero to turn it OF and a transition from a zero to a 1 to turn it on. You can’t just over wright a 1 or a zero. Likewise, if the PLC writes to bit 15 he can enable the disabling of beeps by touching an object on the screen or a function key. So that’s all there is to controlling beeps from a PLC – be sure to check out the other videos in this series. And as always, please send us any topics you would like to see covered – or - any other comments for that matter – we appreciate the feedback!