PLC LED controller specifications

Inside the PLC cabinet

Description

The PLC LED controller is part of the Auditory Sphere Lab and consist of a modular PLC from the Panasonic FP2 series. It controls the Red and Green LEDs in the setup.

How does it work

The PLC LED controller is programmed with 'FPWINPRO 7' PLC programming tool of Panasonic. The program can be found here. The program starts automatically when the PLC is switched on. The program controls 256 relay outputs for switching 128 red and 128 green LEDs on or off. The intensities of the LEDs are controlled by Pulse Width Modulation (PWM).

From Matlab you can sent up to 16 LED configurations to the controller. With a trigger pulse you can let the LED controller know that it should present the next configuration. The LEDs are numbered 0 to 127 and there are red and green LEDs. With the test buttons on the door of the PLC cabinet you can switch on all red or green LEDs at once. A configuration specifies the ON or OFF state for all red and green LEDs with two arrays of 128 bits. The intensity of the red and green LEDs are not individually addressed, but set for all red or green LEDs at once with one number between 0 and 50.

How to use

You basically have to do two things:

• Specify the configurations (LED patterns) in matlab and sent it to the PLC.
• Specify triggers in your experiment code in matlab.

A Matlab example:

1:  n = 8;
2:  s = ledpattern(n);
3:  for i=[1 3 5 7]
4:     s(i).set([1 3 5],'r');
5:     s(i).set([2 4 6],'g');
6:     s(i).intensity('r', i);
7:     s(i).intensity('g', i);
8:  end
9:  leds = ledcontroller('fp-web2.local');
10: leds.write(s);

• In line 1 the number of ledpatterns is specified.
• In line 2 a ledpattern array is created with n ledpatterns
• Between line 3 to 8 the odd numbered patterns are looped through.
• In line 4 to 7 a collection of red and green LEDs are set and intensities are assigned to the red and green LEDs.
• In line 9 a led controller object is created with the name of the Ethernet connection.
• In line 10 the ledpatterns are written to the ledcontroller.

After running this program the PLC controller can be triggered. Upon receiving a first trigger pulse the PLC will present the first ledpattern. The second trigger will display the second ledpattern, but since nothing is written to s(2) all LEDs will be off. The next trigger will display the next ledpattern etc.. The end result is that the LEDs will go on and off each time with a higher intensity.

You can find the Matlab code and examples here.

Technical desciption

Component	Specification
PLC type	Panasonic FP2 series
PLC CPU	FP2C2LJ FP2SH CPU with COM port
PLC Ethernet unit	FPWEB2 FP Web-Server 2, 10/100MBit/s
PLC Output units	FP2Y64TJ FP2 64out transistor NPN (2x for Red and 2x for Green)
PLC Input unit	FP2X16D2J FP2 16in (12-24V)
PLC PWM unit	FP2PXYPJ FP2 multi I/O PNP
PLC Programming connection	RS232 serial interface (special cable)
PLC Programming tool	FPWIN PRO 7.0
Current PLC program	PLC program FART2 v2.1 FPWIN Pro 7.pro Date 29-05-2018
Location of program	Gitlab: biofysica\experiment\sphere Panasonic PLC
Number of channels	128
Configuration programming connection	Ethernet
Configuration programming tool	Matlab function: ledcontroller, ledpattern
Configuration buffer	16 ledpatterns
PLC cycle speed	1.35 ms
Led timing	Random delay between 1.35 ms and 2.70 ms after trigger 1 to 2 PLC cycles
Timing pulse	Trigger-echo within 40 microsec of LED response
Shortest On-Off interval	5.4 ms (4 PLC cycles) in normal mode 1.35 ms (1 PLC cycle) in cycle time mode
Trigger input	5V (triggers LED configurations)
Gate input	5V (enables or disables all LED outputs)
Intensity regulation	PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) @30 kHz
Output voltage	12V
LED type	Bivar 5BC-3-CA-F, common anode, PNP
LED light	Red 625nm 4mcd; Green 568nm 6mcd
LED load	1 kOhm in series
LED Testing	Red test button (all 128 Red LEDs) Green test button (all 128 Green LEDs)
LED Connector type	Binder 719 series 5 poles (connects also the speakers)
LED Connector pin assignment	1 +5V 2 Red LED signal 3 Green LED signal 4 Speaker+ 5 Speaker-
LED Connector color assignment	1 Black 2 Red 3 Green 4 Yellow 5 Blue

Panasonic FP2 series

Component	Specificatie
FP2C2LJ FP2SH PLC	1 ms cycle time when <20.000 steps per cycle (120.000 steps max) Measured cycle time 1.35 ms
FP2Y64TJ output unit (4x)	64 channels 24V NPN output Current 0.3A max Response time <0.3 ms
FP2PXYPJ multi I/O unit	PNP transistor PWM output 30 kHz Duty cycle 0-100% in steps of 1% Max output 800 mA
FP2X16D2J input unit	16 channels Current 8 mA @24V Response time <0.2 ms