First steps into Beckhoff's newly released TC3 Vision. Setting up basic metrology using the provided convulated functions and simplifying them using custom structs and functions.

TwinCAT Vision Part 1

Creating a deterministic, persistent enabled, HashTable FB which uses strings as keys

Persistent Hash Table

EtherCAT CRC error between IPC and first ethercat device due to cycle time and port ethernet election

EtherCAT Master CRC Error

New Year, new look, new blog platform, new comment system.

Moving to Next.js and Isso

FB_init and the Call After Init pragma may seem like the perfect place to put code that only needs to be run once, but be sure to check the fine print. The information may not be available outside the cyclic PLC context. Here are functions that might not work as expected.

The perils of FB_init and others

Does your PLC program catch all possible sensor failure modes, however unlikely?

Considerations for sensor failure modes

The many different ways Beckhoff allows servo offsets. This post covers four different ways with PLC code examples and their respective pros and cons.

The ins and outs of Servo Offset

Delayed, Debounced and Intermittent Timers and Triggers

The trigger output behavior of the R_TRIG vs F_TRIG is different on the first PLC cycle. During normal operation they are inversely identical.

Triggers, falling vs rising and PLC startup yields different behavior

Edge localization testing using a variety of algorithms and parameters. Results on edge detection performance and steady state as well as computation load and CPU sizing.

Twincat Vision Edge Detection Performance and CPU sizing

Investigating irregular edge distance calculation using TwinCAT standard tools. Explanation of root cause and discussion of potential solutions.

Twincat Vision Edge Distance Incorrect Results

All POUs can have their device tree path automatically initialized into a variable. This can used as a unique string identification for the part of the code and can be used for easy identification of errors, logs, counters, etc.

Automatic Instance Path for Error and Log Identification

Using Timescale Continuous Aggregates and auto switching between them for quickly and efficiently displaying time series metrics in Grafana with automatic trend line calculation while preventing loss of data information and misleading visualizations

All Posts

TwinCAT Vision Part 1

Persistent Hash Table

EtherCAT Master CRC Error