MICRO PROGRAMMABLE

LOGIC CONTROLLERS:
LOW COST AUTOMATION
FOR THE STAGE
OR LEARNING TO LOVE LADDER LOGIC
BY LORE
he LoweU Da\~es Festival Stage was an ideal
place to perform Shakespeare's As YOIl Like It.
Cantilevered above a canyon and overlooking the
San Diego Zoo, the occasional roar of a lion or the plaintive cau of a peacock added to the mystery of the Forest
of Arden. But now the forest-or, rather, the tree that
represented it-teetered on the brink. The graceful span
of its wire and foanl branches a1tel11ately threatened and
beckoned the stagehands scattering in the canyon below.
nder the deck of the outdoor stage, the \~nch operator
carefuUy extracted himself from a chow mein of aircraft
cable and splintered wood. He had been distracted, it
seems, by a spider "as big as a house cat" and had sent
the tree moving in the wrong direction. The Forest of
Arden now rested on the upstage lip of the stage-three

"The Forest of Arden, " in As You Like It, at the Lowell Davies Festival Stage/
Simon Edison Center for the Perf. Arts, 1990. Scenery by David Jenkins,
lighting by Peter Maradudin, costumes by Robert Wojewodski.

18

SPRING

996

1D&1

SCHREIBER
feet beyond its intended stop and but a wafting breeze
from obli\~on. As the production manager, my assistant
and I crouched beside the tree, waiting for our cue to
shove the 'forest' back down-stage, I thought, "There
must be a better way!" The better way turned out to be
the micro version of a programmable logic controUer.
Progranlmable logic controUers (PLCs) are computer-like de\~ces designed specificaUy for the control of
machinery or processes. Prior to the development of the
PLC, most automated machinery was controUed by
electro-mechanical S\\~tches caUed relays. Dozens of relays might be required to pelform even simple machine
control and hundreds might be necessary for complex
operations. Besides being expensive, power-hungry and
prone to breakdowns, the single greatest drawback to relay-based control systems was that they were hardwired.
Making a simple change in a control sequence meant re\lliing the system. For the automotive industry, \\~th
highly automated assembly lines and yearly model
changes, the cost of "reprogran1ffiing" such systems in
both labor and loss of production was staggering. In
1968, in an effort to eliminate relay-based systems, General Motors wrote the design specifications for the first
progranlmable logic controUer. Several control manufacturers responded to the chaUenge and in 1969 the first
generation of PLCs was born.
Although the first generation was designed to fill the
needs of a single industlY, advances in electronics have
increased the capability and reduced the cost of PLCs so
that now nearly evelY induslIy that uses machinelY employs them. They are found in manufacturing, of course,
but also can be found controlling elevators, vending machines, anmsement park rides and stage machinely. Entertainment industly companies like FeUer Precision,

Scenic Technologies and Show Tech depend on PLCs to

control the specialized machines in shows like Dam//
Yankees, Sunset Bou/evard and HolV To Succeed In
Business. The increasingly high-tech spectacle of Las Vegas shows like Buccaneer Bay and EFX would be impossible without these devices.
PLCs come in a \\~de vaIiety of brands and models.
On the high-end are modulaI' systems featuring a central
processing core with an open back-plane onto which
specialized control or sensor modules are mounted. Depending on the modules selected, these systems may cost
several thousand dollars. On the other end of the scale is
the "micro" PLC. Several manufacturers, GEIFanuc,
Allen-Bradley and Aromat among otilers, offer a micro
PLC which lacks tile modular design of its more-expensive cousins, but still provides the solid-state equivalent
of more than a thousand relays, and hundreds of
counters and timers. These units run about $350.00 for a
"starter kit" which usually includes the PLC, programming software and a serial cable for downloading programs from a personal computer.
Physical differences among brands are minor. In
general, tile micro PLC consists of a plastic housing that
is a bit smaller tilan a brick or a paperback copy of At/as
Shrugged and considerably lighter than eitiler one. Screw
terminals are provided for all inputs, outputs and power
connections. Generally, the input terminals are arrayed
along one side of tile unit and tile output terminals along
tile opposite side. These terminals are called VO (input!
output) points and tile size of the unit is specified by ilie
combined number of points. The smallest of tile micro
PLCs are commonly 14 point units with 8 inputs and 6
outputs, but they are often provided witil a port to add an
expander unit which usually doubles tile available VO.
Micro PLCs are furtiler specified by tile type of inputs available: digital or analog. Analog PLCs are used to
control de\~ces tilat supply or require continuously variable data such as temperature or pressure and are not as
useful for controlling stage machinery. Digital units, on
tile otiler hand, use simple ON/OFF devices like pushbuttons or toggle switches for input. Connecting an input
device to a digital micro PLC is simply a matter of connecting one wire from a switch to an input terminal and
the otiler wire to tile common temlinal. For tiuee-\vire,
solid state sensors like proxinlity or photo-electric
switches, most micro PLCs prO\~de a 24 VDC ternlinal adjacent to the input ternlinals (VPP in Figure I) to provide
power for the sensor. In tllis case, one wire connects to
the common, one to tile power supply and the load \\~re
to one of the inputs. In either case, closing tile switch
turns the input ON. Most micro PLCs are capable of supplying 75 to 100 ma for external sensors and the individual inputs typically draw less than 10 mao
Outputs are either single-pole, single-throw relays
(simple 0 /OFF switches) or the transistorized equivalent. Of the two, the relay output is the easiest to implement and requires little or no additional circuitry; one
merely hooks a source of power to one side (terminal)

of the output relay and the load to the orller and that is it.
Load limitations vary among brands, but output relays
aI'e typically capable of 2 to 5 amperes at 250VAC or
30VDC for resistive loads.
If the input devices are simple 0 /OFF switches and
the outputs are simple ON/OFF s\\~tches, what good is a
PLC? Why bother witil the middleman? The answer, of
course, is progranlmability. Using only tilese simple 01 /
OFF s\vitches, PLCs can perform quite complex control
sequences based on an internally stored progranl.
For most PLCs, full-size or nlicro, the programming
language is called Relay Ladder Logic, which is a reflection of the PLCs origins. Working with Relay Ladder Logic
(RLL) differs from traditional computer programming.
PLC progranls are not written, rather, tiley are drawn and
tile resulting diagranl resembles a ladder, hence the
nan1e. Software bundled \\~th the starter kits allows the
programmer to build the diagrams on a personal computer by selecting from a menu of elements. Once the
ladder is complete, tile progranl is up-loaded to tile PLC
via a serial cable.
It may be daunting to consider learning yet another
progranlIlling language, but RLL is really quite simple,
consisting of only two primary commands: ON and OFF.
To demonstrate how simple RLL really is, we \\ill build a
progranl to prevent the Forest of Arden (rom wandering
off in the wrong direction using only ON/OFF switches
and ON/OFF commands.
For ilie purposes of tilis demonstration let's assume
tilat ilie Forest of Arden is moved by a standard stage
cable \\~nch powered by a permanent magnet DC motor,
which, in turn, is driven by a regenerative motor drive.
Selecting a direction for the regenerative drive requires
only a light duty, single-pole/double-ilirow toggle switch,
or, for our purposes, a PLC. To complete our system, we
\\ill place a limit s\\~tch at each end o( ilie forest's track
and give the operator a single, large, green push-button
to put tile forest in motion. The PLC will decide wllich direction is appropriate and when to stop.
Figure I shows how each of ilie components are
connected to a typical PLC. One wire from the operator's
push-button is connected to Input I and the oilier wire to
the PLe's common. Likewise, each Unlit switch is connected to an input and to rlle common. Activating a
S\vitch completes ilie circuit and turns its corresponding
input 01 . On rlle output side, the fonvard and reverse
wires from the regenerative drive are connected to Outputs I and 2 respectively. The drive's common \\~re is
connected to ilie common terminal shared by ilie two
outputs. In tllis case, activating an output will connect either the forward or reverse wire to the drive's common
and tile motor will start. Each input and output has a corresponding indicator light on the face of the PLC that
lights when tile input or output is ON.
Figure 2 shows a simple RLL progranl. On tile left
and right are two vertical lines called rails, which are
schematic representations of the actual power rails, were
these electro-mechanical relays. "Power" flows down ilie
TD&T

S P R I. G

19

OPERATOR PUSH-WTTON (NORMAllY OPEN TYPE SWITCH)

INPUT TERMINAil

VPP: SUPPUES

1-8

24 VDC

COM: COhV,'ON FOR INPUTS

ON-STAGE UMIT SWITCH

(NORIMllY OPEN TYPE)

OFF-STAGE Uh"T SWITCH

(NORlMllY OPEN TYPE)

LED PANEL: A UGHT FOR

.I.CH INPUT AND OUTPUT.

A UGHT

ON CONFIRJ"S

CLOSED ORCUIT FOR THAT

SWITCH: PGM

INPUT OR OUTPUT.

htODEAll.OWS

TRANSFER OF RU

PROGRAM FROh' A

vpp

PERSONAL COMPUTER
TO THE PLC.

I
I

POWER IN

IIOVAC

4
4

TERMINAil FOR

0
5
5

0
6
6

0
7

OK

COMO

OUTPUTS

PORT

'------'---''--J

COM

COM PORT: SERIAL

PORT USED TO UPLOAD
THE Rll PROGRM'.

o
OK: UGHT

ON

INDICATES SELF-

DIAGNOSTIC FUNCTION CONFIRI.1S All.

MOTOR FORWARD

INTERNAL ORCUITS FUNCTIONING

\
\

PWR: UGHT ON INDICATES THAT

I 10 VAC COMING IN.

UNIT HAS

PROPERLY.
MOTOR REVRSE

...J

OUTPUT TERhllNALS: OUTPUT DEVICES CONNECTED TO

---J

COMMON

AND

5 AND 6

I,

MUST SHARE COM/.tON VOLTAGE. OUTPUTS 4.

CAN HAVE DIFFERENT VOLTAGES

Figure 1 - Micro PLC Connections

Most input devices connected to the PLC are either "normally open" or "normally closed" type switches. The programming symbols used
in RLL are called "normallyopen contact" (-I I-) and "normally closed contact" (-1/1-), but it's important to not confuse the logical
conditions (ON/OFF) represented by the programming language with the physical devices connected to the PLC.

'":2:
0
I.:>

:2:

::>

'"

INPUT I

INPUT 2

OUTPUT I

(PUSHwrrON)

(ON-STAGE UMIT)

(MOTOR FORWARD)

V1

LEFT POWER RAIL

Figure 2

RIGHT POWER RAIL

Rung One reads, "If the operator's push-button is ON and the limit switch is
OFF, then Output 1 will come on and the motor will start forward. "

left rail, across the rung to the right rail, completing the
electrical connection to whatever de\~ce is represented
by the parentheses. Along the rung to the left of the parenthesis are conditions that must be met before power
can flow to the de~ce. These conditions are represented
by the schematic diagram for contacts that are either nOI~
mallyopen (-11-) or normally closed (-Vl-).
This schematic diagram system for progranlming,
20

SPRING

996

TD&T

with its use of the symbols for normally open and nOI~
mally closed contacts, was taken directly from the old relay-based system. However, the terms "normally open"
and "normally closed" are often a source of confusion to
tllOse new to RLL diagrams. To avoid tllis, an easy way to
keep things straight is to read tile -I 1- symbol as meaning ON and the -Vl- symbol as meaning OFF. (T1link of
the international symbol for "no," the circle with a slash
through it. The RLL symbol with a slash means NOT ON.)
Each rung in an RLL program is essentially a truth
table: if all tile conditions specified on the rung are mel,
then the de~ce in the parentheses adjacent tile right
power rail \\~ll switch on and stay on only as long as the
conditions continue to be met.
Figure 2 is our basic program for the Forest of
Arden. The rung is drawn with one ON contact (-I 1-)
and one OFF contact (-Vl-) representing the PLC inputs
to which the operator's push-button and the on-stage
limit switch are connected. The de\~ce represented by tile
parentheses is the PLC's Output 1, wllich is the motor in
forward motion. The program may be read thusly: "If the
operator's push-button is ON and tile linlit switch is OFF,
tilen Output 1 will come on and tile motor will start fOl~

ward." Tote that every condition must be met for the motor to run: if the operator takes his hand off the push-button or the limit switch turns 0\ then the conditions will
not be met and the motor will stop. ~ow there is no danger of the Forest of Arden overrunning its spike; once it
hits the limit switch it will stop.
Of course, it would be nice if the operator could
take his hand off the push-button to swat a spider (or
scratch or whatever) \\~thout the forest coming to a halt.
We can accomplish this by adding an '"OR" branch to the
rung. One of the great benefits of RLL is that the o. /OFF
status of the de~ce in the parentheses may be used as a
condition on the rung as well. Figure 3 shows the OR
branch. The program reads: "If the operator's push-button is ON or the motor is going forward (meaning Output
1 is ON) and the limit switch is OFF, then the motor will
run." This rung represents the typical "latch-on" ability
of RLL. Once the motor starts, the OR branch becomes
true, by-passing the push-button and latching the motor
ON until Arden reaches the limit switch. Once the limit
switch goes 01 , that condition will be false and power
will cease to flow across the rung; the motor will stop and
the OR branch will become false as well.
Act II, scene ii-it is time for the Forest of Arden to
exit. The operator pushes the big green button and nothing happens. Obviously, we need to draw another rung to
reverse the process. Figure 4 shows the new rung. Note
that we have added another limit switch for the off-stage
position, connected to Input 3 and another de\~ce (motor reverse) connected to Output 2. This rung may be
read: "If the operator's push-button and the on-stage
limit switch are ON and the off-stage limit s\\~tch is OFF,
or the motor is OK in reverse and the off-stage limit
s\\~tch is OFF then the motor will run." We have latched
the motor 0(, as in the first rung, until the off-stage limit
switch is reached. In this case, the Forest of Arden will
begin to travel off stage only if it is already on stage
against the on-stage limit switch, but once it starts, that
condition is by-passed by the OR branch.
If our winch operator is slow to remove his hand
from the switch, however, things will get interesting.
Imagine that the forest has begun to travel off-stage; it is
no longer against the on-stage limit s\~tch, which goes
OFF-but the operator still has his hand on the big green
button. Now, suddenly, the conditions in Rung One are
met as well as those in Rung Two: the push-button is 0 I
and on-stage limit switch is OFF. Output 1 (motor forward) switches ON. However, Output 2 (motor reverse)
is still ON too, and the regenerative drive is not happy!
This sort of RLL programming problem is what often frustrates those used to BASIC or other sequentially
executed progran1ming I:mguages. In BASIC, each line of
code is read and then immediately executed. Relay Ladder Logic operates a little differently. First the status of
the inputs is scanned, then the program (ladder) is
scanned and then the outputs are updated. The PLC
makes this scan several times each second and any
change in the status of an input or output is immediately

INPUT I

INPUT 2

OUTPUT I

(PUSHwrrON)

(ON-STAGE UMlT)

(MOTOR fORWARD)

'"oz
\)

OUTPUT I
(MOTOR FORWARD)

'"

LEFT POWER RAIL

RIGHT POWER RAIL

Figure 3

Rung One reads, "If the operator's push-button is ON, OR the motor is
going forward (meaning Output 1 is ON) and the limit switch is OFF, then
the motor will run. "
INPUT I

INPUT 2

OUTPUT I

(PUSH-BUTTON)

(ON-STAGE UMIT)

(MOTOR FORWARD)

'"oz
\)

(..

OUTPUT I
IOroFt fORWARD)

'"

INPUT I

IMH.wf_O_N!

INPUT 2

INPUT 3

OUTPUT 2

ION_TG'...U_M'_T!---..,.....-_I_O'-IF-STAGEI-U_M_'T)

I'-I'OTOR REVERSE)

OUTPUT 2
(MOTOR REVfR5E)

LEFT POWER RAIL

Figure 4

RIGHT POWER RAIL

Rung Two reads, "If the operator's push-button and the on-stage limit
switch are ON and the off-stage limit switch is OFF, OR the motor is ON in
reverse and the off-stage limit switch is OFF, then the motor will run. " (Rung
One is the same as in Figure 3)

available to the entire progran1. (That is why it is possible

for the motor outputs to latch themselves ON.) If one
imagines the power rails and rungs to be pipes full of water and the conditions to be simple valves, it may be
easier to ~suaJjze how RLL works. Pressure is applied
continuously through the left power rail to each rung;
whenever a valve opens on a rung, water will flow, regardless if that rung is on the top or the bottom of the
ladder.
The solution to the unhappy regenerative drive
above is simply to add another condition to the first rung
that will prevent it operating at the same time as the second. There are several possible ways to do this, but the
simplest is to add the off-stage Limit s\~lch to Rung One
making it a mirror of Rung Two. (See Figure 5) Now the
forest will begin to move only as long it is at one end of
the track or the other, against one of the Limit switches.
The operator's push-button is by-passed once the motor
starts in either direction.
TD&T

SPRING

996

21

Of course, the operator is now removed from the

loop. What happens if the Forest of Arden needs to be
stopped for an emergency, to prevent, say, a Rosalind
run-over? Simple-we add a big red button to the
operator's control, attach it to Input 4 and add it to each
rung as in Figure 6. Tote that, in this case, we're using a
normally closed switch. The emergency stop switch must
be ON for the motor to run; hitting the button opens the
circuit, turning Input 4 OPE This is the safest arrangement, since any interruption of the emergency stop
switch circuit-a broken wire, for exanlple-will stop
the motor.
Restarting the motor after an emergency stop can be
a problem. If we assume that the forest was stopped midtravel and that it is no longer against one of the limit
switches, none of the conditions required to start the motor are met. The solution is to either manually activate
one of the limit switches or add another rung that allows
the operator to take manual control. (One method might
be to draw a rung that requires that the start button and
the emergency stop button be depressed simultaneously

INPUT 3

INPUT I

INPUT 2

OUTPUT I

I_OF-I~rEI-U_MI_T)---,.---_IO_N--t",A ,GEI-U_MI_F)

IPUSH-TI-0_N)

I_M;OTOR FORWARD)

OUTPUT I
(",laTOIl FOR'WARD)

l\)

:z
:::J

INPUT I

INPUT 2

INPUT 3

OUTPUT 2

lPUSH-WTTON)

(ON-STAGE UMlr)

(OFF-STAGE UAur)

(MOTOR REVERSE)

I
OUTPUT 2
("IOTOIl REVERSE)

0::

Figure 5

LEFT POWER RAIL

RIGHT POWER RAIL

Rung One reads, Hlf the operator's push-button and the off-stage limit
switch are ON and the on-stage limit switch is OFF, OR the motor is ON in
reverse and the on-stage limit switch is OFF, then the motor will run
forward. HRung Two is unchanged from Figure 4.
INPUT I

INPUT 3

INPUT 2

10_F~_rEl-uA_"T_) _r-_I_ON-I-STAGE UAIIT)

lPUSH-l_0_N)

INPUT 4

OUTPUT I

I<MERGEN! STOP) IAlO(R FORWARO)

UJ

:z
o
\)
:z
:::J

OUTPUT I
(MOTOR FORWARO)

0::

INPUT I

INPUT 2

INPUT 3

INPUT 4

I_ON--IfEI-UA_"T_)_r-_IO_F~-tSTAGEt-UA_"T_) _1<M_ER-fGENl SFOP)

lPUSH-ll-o_N)

OUTPUT 2

IAlO(R REVERSE)

OUTPUT 2
(Al0TOR REVERSE)

Figure 6

RIGHT POWER RAIL

The Emergency stop switch on each rung reads, Hlf the E-stop is ON and the
other rung conditions are met, the motor will run. H

22

SPRI NG

996

1D&1

to run the motor off stage until it hits the off-stage limit
switch.)
So, two simple rungs progranlmed into an inexpensive micro PLC have solved the problem of the wayward
Forest of Arden and allowed for a rather sophisticated
stage effect at the push of a single button. By automating
control of the winch, the chance of human error is reduced while maintaining sufficient operator control for
the safety of the performers. This is a vely simple exanlple of the potential for machine control using micro
PLCs, but they are capable of much more.
When the current, Doug Schmidt-designed, revival
of Damn Yankees was being tried out at the Old Globe in
San Diego, a similar motion control problem occurred,
but this time the object in motion was a pallet. The pallet
was designed to travel on and off stage carrying various
bits of scenery. nlike the Forest of Arden, however, the
pallet was required to stop at several intermediate points
between the extreme on- and off- stage positions. One
possible solution was to add a limit switch for each intermediate stop, but that rapidly would have consumed all
the available inputs on the PLC and made adjustments difficult during rehearsals. Asimpler solution was to employ one of the PLC's several hundred counters for each
position. Since PLCs were developed for manufacturing
and processing plants, the ability to count was an impOI~
tant part of the original design specification. Whether
counting bottles on a conveyor, passes by a cutting tool,
or, in tlus case, rotations of a winch drum, PLCs are easily
adapted to the task.
First the PLC needs something to count. There are
several ways to convert the rotation of the winch drum
into the digital signal required by the PLC. An inexpensive
method, suitable for many applications, is to mount a
solid-state proximity switch near the drum sprocket
which senses the passage of the sprocket's teeth. Each
time a tooth passes by, the sensor turns 0 . The PLC
counts the number of times the sensor turns ON and halts
the motor upon reaching a preset number. Proximity sensors are readily available in the voltage and current range
of the PLC's internal power supply, so no additional circuilly is required. Of course tlus method limits the maximum position resolution to the pitch (distance between
the teeth) of the winch sprocket, or between 5/8 and I
inch for typical stage winches.
For this production of Damn Yankees, 1/4 inch
resolution or better was required, since the pallet had a
hole in it through which an actor entered from below,
atop a small elevator trap. Misalignment would result in
the actor scraping a shoulder or worse. So, instead of a
proximity switch, I selected an incremental encoder
driven directly from the drum shaft. An incremental encoder consists of a photo-electric sensor which reads the
light passing through evenly spaced slots cut into a flat
disk rotating on the winch shaft. The selected encoder
provided 250 square wave (digital ON/OFF) pulses per
revolution, increasing the position resolution to a theoretical 118 inch for the winch in use. Like the proximity

switch, the encoder was powered by the PLC and no additional circuitry was needed. However, encoders are precision devices and are priced accordingly.
Once the PLC has something to count, it is a simple
matter to add a counter to an RLL program. Like all elements of an RLL progranl, a counter is selected [rom the
menu and then pasted into the rung. Figure 7 shows a
typical PLC counter lUld a motor control rung similar to
that used for the Forest of Arden. The counter requires
two connections to the left power rail: the upper, which
prO\~des the conditions required to count and the lower
which provides the conditions for a counter reset. Each
time the PLC scans the ladder, it checks to see if the conditions on the upper connection have been met. If so, the
counter increments by one. To prevent false counts for
events of greater duration than the PLC's scan rate, another type of RlL contact is required. This is called a
"one shot" and is similar in operation to the contacts already discussed, with one important difference: this condition is true only for a single ladder scan. The PLC reads
only the transition, from OFF to ON in the case of a "one
shot on" contact and ON to OFF for a "one shot off' contact. For the input to be read again, it must cycle between
its two states. In Figure 7, the counter will increment by
one evelY time Input 8 switches O~. (The
additional condition: CI, will be discussed
in a moment.) Once the count reaches the
preset value, 148 in t11is example, the device in the parentheses will switch 01\.
In this case, the device is one of the
PLC's many internal relays. Internal relays
are solid-state switches embedded in the
PLC's circuitry and are used to augment
ladder programs. Micro PLCs may provide
over a thousand of these internal switches
in order to build more complex programs
thlUl just the inputs and outputs would allow. They do not control external devices
directly, but are used as additional conditions \vithin the program. For example, in
Figure , the internal relay, CIO (at the end
of Rung One), is used to stop the winch
motor when the counter reaches its preset
value, by interrupting the motor latch in
Rung Two. Note that the counter is automatically reset whenever the motor is not
running. In this nllUlner, the pallet may be
slopped at any given location merely. by adjusting the preset number. To stop the pallet at several different locations, separate
counters, each with a different preset number, may be added to the ladder and selected indiVidually.

INPUT B e l
(PROXIMITY

1f-~_ITC_H)

(IN_TM~R_W_Y)---:C"'O~U::-NrrT~I-C-O-U-N-TE-R-I

--,

'"Z

\)

OUTPUT I

(MOTOR fORWARD)

/48

::l

'"

RESET

INPUT I

C 10

OUTPUT I

(PUSff-8UTTON)

(INTERNAL RE.U.Y)

(MOTOR FORWARD)

OUTPUT I
(MOTOR fORWARD)

Figure 7

LEFT POWER RAIL

RIGHT POWER RAIL

Rung One reads, "If the proximity switch changes from OFF to ON in one
ladder scan and internal relay CI is ON, then Counter 1 will increment by
one." (When Counter 1 reaches 148, then internal relay CI0 will turn ON.
When the motor stops, the counter resets to zero.) Rung Two reads, "If the
operator's push-button is ON or the motor is ON and internal relay CI0 is
OFF, then the motor will run forward." (When internal relay CIO turns on,
the motor will stop.)

IO'-P"
j~l

Uili:

~
<:l

~1ij'j,tl

~'->&.

\"'P~!:..
~

~~

'~1

0=-=
I

Damn Yankees, Old Globe Theatre,

Simon Edison Center for the Performing Arts, 1993. Scenery by Douglas
Schmidt, drafting by Craig Edelblut.

TD&T

SPRING

996

23

I.

Selecting up to ten individual counters within the

RLL program can be accomplished with the addition of a
binary-coded decimal switch. Such switches are available
for a few doUars from sources like Mouser, :'Jewark and
others, in rotary or thumbwheel configurations. Abinarycoded decimal s\vitch operates by connecting four poles
to a common in ten discrete combinations. Note the BCD
truth table in Figure 9 and its equivalent in RlL. By building a similar truth table at the beginning of an RlL program, with an internal relay (CO, CI, etc.) at the end of
each rung, control may be passed to specific rungs \vithin
the ladder. CI in Figure is an example of this programming method; the counter will increment only as long as
a pulse appears at Input 8 and CI is ON. And, according
to the truth table at the beginning of the program, CI will
be ON only as long as the number I is manually selected
on the BCD switch.
In actllal practice, determining a position for the
pallet requires a little math and some minor adjustments
for the motor's deceleration after receiving the signal to
stop. First the circumference of the winch drum is divided by the number of counlS per revolution. This provides the distance the pallet will travel per counl. In the
case above, the drum circumference was 31 inches divided by 250 encoder counts or approximately lI8 inch
travel per counl. The pallet's first move was on stage ten
feet, or roughly 960 counts (120 inches divided by .125
inches). This number was progranuned as the preset for
the first counter in the PLC using a laptop computer connected to the PLC's communications port via the serial
cable pro\~ded with the PLC. The motor was started and
upon reaching a count of 960, decelerated to a stop. The
amount of overshoot during deceleration was measured
(four inches in this case), translated into counts (32)
and subtracted from the counter's preset number. Typically, the correct number for each move could be detel'
mined in two or three attempts. However, the pallet must
cany the actual expected load for each move, since different loads will affect tlle deceleration distance. This
process was repeated for each on-stage move. (Since the

" "

off-stage position was always the same, a limit switch was

employed for that position.)
The examples above are just a few of the ways micro
PLCs may be used to automate stage machinery. In Damn
Yankees, for example, PLCs controUed not only winches
but the complex sequencing of five pneumatic valves for
the Old JoeIYoung Joe exchange elevator traps, pneumatic flipper doors on the show portals, tlle hydraulic,
pneumatic and electrical systems of the front door
"turtle" and many other effects. And these are but a few
of the possible control solutions available using micro
PLCs.
Micro PLCs can time events, count, solve algebraic
equations and much more using simple ON/OFF commands in Relay Ladder Logic. And each day, manufacturPLC

TERM/NAL CONNECTED

INPUTS

TO COMMON

'"
<

iJ

UJ

Q
UJ

8\J

,...

'" 7

<i5
B

12

13

I~

15

I
1 I

ers like GEIFanuc, Allen Bradley and Aromat are adding

greater capabilities to their micro PLCs, while prices for
these marvelous devices continue to fall. They are cel'
tainly worth a look, whether or not your forest is teetering on the blink. :.

RESOURCES:

PUSH-SUTTON

---L.

PGMIRl

000 0

RUNI

UI

Figure 8

Using a binary-coded decimal (BCD) switch allows selecting from ten

internal counters while only taking up four inputs.
24

SPRING

TD&T

Hughes, Thomas A., 1989. Programmable Controllers,

Research Triangle Park, orth Carolina: Reinstrument
Society of America.
Batten, George L. Jr., Ph.D. 1988. Programmable Controllers: Hardware and Software Applications. TAB
Books.
GEIFanuc Automation, PO Box 8106, Charlottesville, VA
22906
Allen-Bradley, 10 01 HanlpshireAve. S., Minneapolis,
MN 55438-9981
Aromat Corporation, 40 I River Oaks Parkway, San Jose,
CA 95134

Loren Scbreiber is Tee/mical Director and member

oftbe Drama faculty at San Diego State University.
PreViously be was Technical Director at the Old
Globe Tbeatre.