2/28/2019 Data inside PLCs

Tutorials
What’s a PLC?
What PLCs Look Like
Wiring PLCs
Data inside PLCs
PLC Math
PLC Contacts & Coils
PLC Copy, Pack & Unpack
PLC Rotate & Shift
PLC Counters
PLC Timers
PLC Drum
PLC Ramp
PLC Filter
PLC PID
PLC Loop
PLC Subroutine
Continue?

Simple PLC How-To Guides

Search... Search

Compare PLCs
Free PLC Software
PLC How To Guides

RSS Feed

Data inside PLCs

Newsletter
Think of PLC memory as a cabinet with drawers called Registers. Data is held in these
Registers.These Registers come in different sizes, and hold different kinds of data.
Get occasional news from us.
Bits: Can have values 1 or 0. 1 typically represents On while 0 represents Off. Bits are the building Name:
block for all other types of data. Email:
Integers: Whole numbers (no decimal points). Called: Characters (char), Integers (int), long Submit
Integers (long int) or Words. Look for the bit size and whether they are signed or unsigned.
http://plchowto.com/data-inside-plcs/ 1/3
2/28/2019 Data inside PLCs
Unsigned are positive numbers, while signed are positive or negative.
Floating point numbers: Numbers with decimal points, and can be positive or negative.They are
called floating point numbers (Float), with their larger variety called double floats.
Copyright PLC How To. All Rights Reserved.
Type # bits Signed/Unsigned Min Value Max Value
Bit 1 0 1
Int 8 Signed -128 127
Unsigned 0 255
16 Signed -32,768 32,767
Unsigned 0 65,535
32 Signed -2,147,483,648 2,147,483,647
Unsigned 0 4,294,967,295
Floating Point 32 1.175 E–38 3.403 E+38
64 2.225 E–308 1.798 E+308

Addresses/Tags: The Registers are all stacked side by side in the PLC’s memory. Each location has
an Address that lets the PLC know what data you’re talking about. Older PLC software requires the
user to refer to data by this Address (example “x1023” could mean the 1023’d register). Some newer
software makes the Addresses transparent. The user gives a piece of data a name (example
“Oven2Temperature”), and the PLC keeps track of where the register is located. If the software uses
Addresses to refer to data it’s called “Address Based”, if it uses named data it’s called “Tag Based”.
Some programming packages are Address Based, but allow Addresses to have “Nicknames” or
something similar. Their benefits over standard Address Based systems tend to be limited.
Advantages to Tag based systems become evident as programs grow, and remembering what’s stored
in x1023 becomes difficult. If your program is going to have any complexity at all using a Tag
Based System simplifies the design.

Diving Deeper
Inside the Data Types: As stated earlier, all Data Types are made of Bits (1’s and 0’s). An 8 bit
number is written like bbbbbbbb (where “b” can represent a 0 or 1), so you may have 00000000,
11111111 or 01011110…. any combo will do. What these Bits mean is determined by the Data Type.

Unsigned Integers: The least valuable bit is the rightmost bit and double in value each position you
move left. The right-most bit is 1 it’s worth 1 next bit to the left 2 4 8 16 32 64 128 256 ……
(this goes on for as many bits as the Data Type calls for). Here’s what is looks like for an Unsigned
8-bit Integer:

If all 8 bits are 0 (00000000) then we get 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 0

If all 8 bits are 1 (11111111) then we get 128 + 64 + 32 + 16 + 8 + 4 + 2 + 1 = 255
So the range of an 8 bit unsigned Integer is 0 – 255
An example of something in between (00110101) 0 + 0 + 32 + 16 + 0 + 4 + 0 + 1 = 53

Signed Integers: They’re a tad more complicated check out wikipedia’s article on 2’s compliment
for a good explination.

Hexadecimal Format (Hex): Instead of writing every bit out, it is common to group sets of 4 bits
together. Each group can have a value of 0 – 15, which causes a problem since our number system
goes from 0 – 9, so we also use A, B, C, D, E and F to get a total of 16 values. (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,
9 , A, B, C, D, E, F)

Example 1001 0011 1111 0010 in Hex would be 93F2

To be clear that we’re using Hex format we tack on a ‘0x’ the the start of the number so our last
example would be written 0x93F2

Characters: (typically 8 bit unsigned integers) are often used to reprent letter or symbols.
Example: you may use them to display text on an operator panel. Use an ASCII table to see how
values are mapped to symbols.

What about the bits in Floating Point numbers, how do they break out? It get’s a bit complicated, I
don’t really want to get into that in this tutorial. It is unlikely as a PLC user that you will ever need
to know how their bits translate to values, so don’t worry about it.

http://plchowto.com/data-inside-plcs/ 2/3
2/28/2019 Data inside PLCs

1 Comment

1. Reply

James Smith
Posted March 19, 2013 at 10:51 AM

Immensely helpful. I have spent ages trying to find out what registers are and what they do. This
example makes it seem so simple, yet at the same time gives you a technical understanding of
their purpose. Great!!!!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comment

Name *

Email *

Website

Post Comment

http://plchowto.com/data-inside-plcs/ 3/3