Factory I/O is great and very affordable, I love it, but I have a couple of doubts that I can’t find answered anywhere:
Conveyor encoders – how many pulses per revolution (or per scan) do they actually output? I need the exact number to make the tracking calculations realistic.
Diverters / pop-up transfers – they always run at max speed. In real projects we almost always slow them down a bit so heavy boxes don’t tip over. Any chance we could get independent speed control for diverters?
Box identification – I want the simulation to look real, so I’m currently using the Vision Sensor because it’s the only way I’ve found to get a clean number (INT) from the part.
I would love to use normal “Box” parts with RFID or barcode, but the help is super short and I don’t know how to turn the RFID tag into a readable INT or STRING in the PLC. Is there any simple example that shows how to do it?
Just honest questions from someone who is still learning but wants to get as close as possible to a real distribution center.
Those pulses aren’t exact due to the communication between everything running on your PC, including the recorder. With experience, you’ll learn to slow down the scene if it has many elements, otherwise it will sometimes fail. I should also mention that one of the virtues of this simulator is precisely that IT’S NOT PERFECT. This will force you to develop your ingenuity, and you’ll have to replace some elements like sensors, adapt tapes, and even delay a robot to make sure it works. I’m telling you this as someone who doesn’t have a lot, but a little, experience with both the simulator and as a programmer, and believe me, that will teach you a lot…
Thank you for reaching out to clarify your doubts. We’re always glad to help our community!
Conveyor encoders – how many pulses per revolution (or per scan) do they actually output? I need the exact number to make the tracking calculations realistic.
Our encoder is purely didactic and has some limitations. It was developed to work at a rate of 20Hz, and it has a resolution of 0.0225m. This resolution has been calculated for a speed of 0.45m/s. Unfortunately, we do not have the number of pulses per revolution. You can learn more about it here.
Diverters / pop-up transfers – they always run at max speed. In real projects we almost always slow them down a bit so heavy boxes don’t tip over. Any chance we could get independent speed control for diverters?
Unfortunately, currently it is not possible to adjust the speed of these parts. We will consider this for future updates. Thank you for the feedback!
Box identification – I want the simulation to look real, so I’m currently using the Vision Sensor because it’s the only way I’ve found to get a clean number (INT) from the part.
I would love to use normal “Box” parts with RFID or barcode, but the help is super short and I don’t know how to turn the RFID tag into a readable INT or STRING in the PLC. Is there any simple example that shows how to do it?
The RFID reader outputs INT values, so there is no need to convert them. Before reading an RFID tag you have to write it. Have you tried doing this? Did you run into any issues?
I’ll leave the documentation page for the RFID reader and RFID tags here, so you can check it out if you haven’t already.
I hope this helps! If there is anything I wasn’t very clear about, please feel free to ask more questions.
