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#11 Let's automate using GRAFCET, Gemma with Node-red & Factory IO

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Hi everyone, I guess some of you know Factory IO, a very easy software to learn automation, handy to connect to lots of PLC and simulators to learn how to code automation with them. So this time I've used Node-red in a Raspberry Pi to connect with Factory IO and to code a GRAFCET with Gemma guide automation program to try if we could use just Node-red to solve an automation problem. To control real I/O, I've finally decided to use a ESP8266 wifi arduino connected to the RPi working as a wifi access point and using MQTT protocol, so it's been connected the Rpi wifi AP just with the Arduino, a PC and a phone to control the Node-red dashboard.  Besides this, I've had to install also a Mosquitto broker in the RPi to do the MQTT communication with Arduino. You'll see how we can test our Node-red code with Factory IO but, after this, we can stop Factory IO and just let the Arduino I/O to change our automation  states and control a real machine. Here you have the video to ...

#10 Siemens NX & Tia Portal drives you to make a digital twin

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Hello everyone. Siemens NX is a great tool to create your 3D designs and assamblies and help you as a mechatronic designer to create new machines but , in fact, it can go beyond that. He has a very useful utility called Mechatronic Concept Design (MCD) where you can give phisics to every piece in your design and later connect these pieces to Siemens Tia Portal (using PLC-Sim Advanced) or even any PLC (using OPC UA) to test your PLC programming on your Mechatronic design converted in a digital twin So you can avoid future programming or concept mistakes in the real machine. Keep an eye on this because is going to be very used in the automation early future. Regards.

#9 Nodered & FactoryIO operation

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Hi everyone, Today I'd like to introduce you Factory I/O simulation software, you can easyly create your digital twin and test it before make it real or, if you prefer, you can use one of the scenes it has ready to use. You can test the trial version for 31 days. It has multiple drivers connections to several PLC's brands, Siemens PLCSIM or even with Modbus or OPC UA protocols. In next video I will show you how Factory I/O works with an automation controlled a little bit different. In spite of using a PLC I used Nodered working as a PLC running a Grafcet program with Modbus communication protocol. Take a look and let me know what you think about.

#8 Ubidots: A nice cloud dashboard for your automation projects

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Hi everyone, Today I really like to recommend you ubidots.com. It's actually a IoT platform to monitor and control your IoT devices easily. With a very nice interface you can design a dashboard to monitor and control your devices like Arduino, Raspberry pi or even PLC's if you use a gateway as Node-red for example. You can test it with its free subscription with 3 devices and 10 dashboard widgets for free and with very few steps if for sure you can figure out lots of uses. Here you have a video with a very simply home automation I tested using Ubidots and a Node-red front end from sensetecnic, another very nice cloud platform to talk about.

#7 Siemens Tia Portal PLCSim simulating S7-1500 & HMI & Wincc Runtime. Good automation leaning tool.

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Hi everyone, Siemens Tia portal is one of the best automation tools which integrate PLC, HMI, and Scada Programming besides drives, servos and much more. You can download Tia portal easyly from Siemens web site, then you just have to create and account and you will get a trial for 21 days. https://support.industry.siemens.com/cs/document/109772803/descarga-del-simatic-step-7-incluyendo-safety-y-wincc-v16-de-prueba-(trial)?dti=0&lc=es-WW I recommend to install SIMATIC STEP 7 Basic/Professional, STEP 7 Safety Basic/Advanced y WinCC Professional (trial) and STEP 7 PLCSIM (trial) to try the simulation although you can install SIMATIC S7-PLCSIM Advanced instead, with much more options and which you can even simulate a more realistic S7-1500 controller. https://support.industry.siemens.com/cs/document/109772889/descarga-del-simatic-s7-plcsim-advanced-v3-0-de-prueba-(trial)?dti=0&lc=es-ES Here you have a video where to see how it works:

#6 Node-red on IBM Cloud

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Hi everyone, As you can notice, Node-red is a very handy tool for IOT, and of course, also for IIOT but we have to think that sometimes we want to publish our dashboards on Internet, to monitoring or to control our IOT appliances. To do so, we could open an Internet external connection (VPN, Port forwarding,...) to our hardware but we actually could use another option, to publish our data through a hardware in the cloud, and then you can access from everywhere. To do such thing you could use AWS IoT Platform, Microsoft Azure IoT Suite, Google Cloud's IoT Platform. ... but finally I've given a try to IBM Watson IoT Platform. Why? Because you can easyly create a free Node-red instance to test it and it works perfectly. Here you can check how it works:

#5 Modbus TCP & Siemens, S7-1200 Server / Client

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Hi everyone, Modbus is a very used protocol in industrial applications, In fact, there are two types, Modbus RTU and Modbus TCP. Modbus RTU was the first one used, based in RS485 protocol, and there are lots of motor drives and sensors which still are using it. But lately, Modbus TCP is very used because is the same protocol but  implemented over TCP networks and you can find TCP networks everywhere, so the physical layer is very easily ready to use. Lots of PLC's have a Modbus server implemented by default (Scheneider, Wago,...)and you can read and write their internal memory easyly, but others need to implement Modbus protocol adding some program. This is the case of Siemens PLC's, if you want a Modbus server or a client you need to add some blocks that Tia portal has ready to use in its libraries. Let's see how it works...