Wilcox stabilizers plc

[Kquaine]

Anybody have the upgraded Wilcox controller that utilizes the Allen-Bradley plc? Do you have a copy of the plc code either electronically or printed? Any other documentation?

 

[SKYCHENEY]

Anybody have the upgraded Wilcox controller that utilizes the Allen-Bradley plc? Do you have a copy of the plc code either electronically or printed? Any other documentation?

The guy that programmed those and developed that was named Mark. He owned a 34C and he was on this site. But I can't remember his last name at the moment. He was from the east coast and was a Captain and an engineer. I would search members but I can't figure out how to do that on this new software.

 

[SKYCHENEY]

Found it. Its Mark Giovanniello. 203-710-9739
His website is gone so I don't know if he's still around. If you can't find, I know a guy who might have the program or as least some information about it.

 

[sparky66]

You should be able to upload the program from the PLC, but it will likely be missing any useful names for the elements in the program. If you know what the physical inputs and outputs are, those can then be added to the project and maybe begin to make sense of it. What controller model is it?

I am half hoping that the Naiad gyros on my new 43MY fail so I can install and program an all electronic control solution.

 

[Kquaine]

You should be able to upload the program from the PLC, but it will likely be missing any useful names for the elements in the program. If you know what the physical inputs and outputs are, those can then be added to the project and maybe begin to make sense of it. What controller model is it?

I am half hoping that the Naiad gyros on my new 43MY fail so I can install and program an all electronic control solution.

Sparky,
Sounds like we may have similar ideas.
You are correct that all the in program documentation and I/O references would be lost if not opened with the original file. (I used to be an application engineer for Allen-Bradley). However since I am guessing there are probably only a handful of discrete and analog I/O points. So, it shouldn’t be that hard to reverse engineer. (Famous last words). I believe it the upgrade plc was a
SLC-500.

What I would really like to do is remove the existing hydraulic package and replace with an electrical motor and gearbox solution. Hopefully attaching gearbox output to the existing fin shaft.

My thought was to use the plc upgrade program as a reference to see how the control loop works. How the gyro was used to generate a fin position command to the old hydraulic system.

 

[Kquaine]

Found it. Its Mark Giovanniello. 203-710-9739
His website is gone so I don't know if he's still around. If you can't find, I know a guy who might have the program or as least some information about it.

Mr Skycheney,
Thank you for Mark’s information. I will try to reach out to him and see if he is still around.

 

[sparky66]

Sparky,
Sounds like we may have similar ideas.
You are correct that all the in program documentation and I/O references would be lost if not opened with the original file. (I used to be an application engineer for Allen-Bradley). However since I am guessing there are probably only a handful of discrete and analog I/O points. So, it shouldn’t be that hard to reverse engineer. (Famous last words). I believe it the upgrade plc was a
SLC-500.

What I would really like to do is remove the existing hydraulic package and replace with an electrical motor and gearbox solution. Hopefully attaching gearbox output to the existing fin shaft.

My thought was to use the plc upgrade program as a reference to see how the control loop works. How the gyro was used to generate a fin position command to the old hydraulic system.

I am not sure if the best solution is a high ratio gearhead directly coupled to the fin shaft that will need to deal with a fair amount of torque, or a servo driven ballscrew actuator that would act in a similar manner to the hydraulic cylinder(this is what I would be leaning towards). You would likely need to run a generator if you went the servo route.

I am an Applications Engineer for Beckhoff Automation, and we have the controllers, a hydraulic control library, and a 3-axis accelerometer/tilt sensor. I would think that a PID control loop would work. I also have some ideas for different modes of operation.

 

[Kquaine]

I am not sure if the best solution is a high ratio gearhead directly coupled to the fin shaft that will need to deal with a fair amount of torque, or a servo driven ballscrew actuator that would act in a similar manner to the hydraulic cylinder(this is what I would be leaning towards). You would likely need to run a generator if you went the servo route.

I am an Applications Engineer for Beckhoff Automation, and we have the controllers, a hydraulic control library, and a 3-axis accelerometer/tilt sensor. I would think that a PID control loop would work. I also have some ideas for different modes of operation.

I was looking at pid loop with input being actual roll and compared to 0 degrees of roll. The output would generate a fin position command. I would use the rate of roll angle change as a feed forward to the position command. The faster the rate of change the faster the fin moves.

I would size the output torque of the motor/gearbox package to be the same as the hydraulic cylinder and torque arm package