First of all I must say that I'm still pretty new to PLC's. But I really do want to learn all that I can about them. So saying that, here's my task. My equipment is as follows: A Micrologix 1400, a PanelView C600, and a Chromalox 2104 TC., and a thermocouple. Now, my mission is to monitor the temperature and gas levels inside a containment locker and be able to input the temperature and gas level setpoints from the PanelView HMI. I must also be able to monitor a fire suppression system and initiate an visual and an audible alarm (a discrete output to be sent to the customers computer) if it should happen to go off. Not to mention that the heating unit inside this container must shutdown whenever the door opens, and that whenever the vents are open, the time and duration of this event must be recorded. So what are my analog inputs and outputs, and what are my discrete inputs and outputs? Do I really need a TC? How would you program something like this into a plc? I'm not sure at all how to begin. Can someone please help me?

 

You are asking for a lot and telling us almost nothing about what you really need to do.

AB 1400s have built in PID loops so you probably would not need a separate one, although it might simply things somewhat, depending on just how this thing has to work. .

You will need some kind of signal to determine if a gas level is out of spec, and every other condition you wish to monitor, plus outputs to turn the things on/off that need to be turned on/off.

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Bob