SYNOPSIS FOR B.

TECH PROJECT
ON

2D XY PLOTTER

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Under the Guidance of
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NAME OF THE GUIDE
DESIGNATION OF GUIDE
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BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY
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IN
BRANCH OF STUDY
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Faculty of Engineering & Technology

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Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and
Studies, Faridabad
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MONTH, YEAR
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 ABSTRACT

In many specific laboratories the students use only a PLC simulator software, because the hardware
equipment is expensive. This paper presents a solution that allows students to study both the hardware and
software parts, in the laboratory works. The hardware part of solution consists in an old plotter, an adapter
board, a PLC and a HMI. The software part of this solution is represented by the projects of the students, in
which they developed applications for programming the PLC and the HMI. This equipment can be made very
easy and can be used in university labs by students, so that they design and test their applications, from low
to high complexity [1], [2].

Keywords: PLC, automation, stepper motors.

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 INTRODUCTION
The car motor manufacturer General Motors was first interested (in the late 1960s) in the application of
computers to replace the relay sequencing used in the control of its automated car plants. The first PLCs
offered relay functionality and replaced the original hardwired relay logic, which used electrically operated
devices to mechanically switch electrical circuits. They met the requirements of modularity, expandability,
programmability, and ease of use in an industrial environment. These controllers could be easily installed,
used less space, and were reusable. By 1971 PLC had spread to other automation industries such as food and
beverage, metals and manufacturing, pulp and paper. Today the automotive industry is still one of the largest
users of PLCs [3], [4].
The main purpose of a control system is to keep the behavior of a system within certain parameters. In
industry, two common classes of control systems are used:
• open loop control systems (the output is generated based on inputs);
• closed loop control systems (the output is maintained at that level , so that there is no difference between
the process variable and the set point ).
The low-cost solution in industrial applications, for open- loop positioning control systems, is to use stepper
motors. Usually, the stepper motors were designed to provide precise positioning control within an integer
number of steps. They have stable open loop operation to any step position and consequently no feedback is
needed to control them. In positioning control systems with or without feedback it is necessary to identify
what is the zero position (home position), which is a unique location somewhere over the course of travel [1],
[5]-[11].
II. DESCRIPTION OF THE SYSTEM
The proposed application is used in laboratory by the students. The idea presented in this paper is to control
an old XY Plotter with a PLC-HMI system. It makes the lab works more practical, getting the students closer
to real world applications. Our system permits that the laboratory be more practical, in order to provide
students an experience closer to real world applications.
The main hardware parts of the solution presented in this paper are: the XY plotter, the adapter board, the
PLC and the HMI, as is shown in Fig. 1.
We kept from old XY plotter just its mechanical parts and the stepper motors, because we want to simulate,
as much as possible, an industrial system with the hardware part of the proposed solution.

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 The adapter board is designed to make an easy connection between the plotter and PLC. On the board there
are switches, LEDs, stepper motor drivers and connectors. The switches are connected at PLC inputs and are
used for: homing and drawing selection, START command and emergency STOP command. The LEDs are
connected at PLC outputs and are used for signaling. To drive the stepper motors we use two stepper motor
drivers, model A4988 Black Edition, from Pololu Robotics & Electronics [12]. We chose this type of driver
because of the following features:
• is cheaper than one industrial, but it’s very similar to it;
• has simple step and direction control interface, that permits to direct connect with pulse train and direction
PLC outputs;
• can deliver up to 1.2 A per phase in full-step mode without a heat sink or air flow and up to 2 A per coil
with sufficient additional cooling
• offers adjustable current limiting;
• has over-current and over-temperature protection;
• allows a wide operating voltage range (from 8 V to 35 V);
• it is a microstepping driver, so it offers higher resolutions by allowing intermediate step locations which
are achieved by energizing the coils with intermediate current levels [12]. The chosen PLC is FX3G-
24MT/DSS, from Mitsubishi Electric [13]. The main reasons for why we chose this model of PLC are
follows:
• it is not a very expensive one;

• it has the capability to position independently two axes using Pulse/Direction

method. In this method one PLC output sends pulses (the maximum frequency for

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FX3G pulse train is up to 100 kHz) to the drive unit, while the other PLC output
specifies the direction of travel;
• it accepts many positioning instruction, which very helpful in programming. The PLC, illustrated in Fig. 2,
is mounted in a plastic box and its inputs and outputs are connected to two 25 pin female D-SUB connectors.
This allows using the PLC in many other applications and reducing the time used by students for achieving
of hardware part in studied application.
The connection between the PLC box and the studied hardware application is made by 25 pin male to 25 pin
male cables. These cables have all 25 lines wired straight through pin-to-pin for ease of compatibility.
For human machine interface (HMI) (an interface which permits interaction between a human being and a
machine) we used XV-102-D6-70TWR from EATON, which is both PLC and HMI. It is compact, high
performance and intelligent micro panel solution that offers full graphical displays and maximum power at a
highly competitive price. The type of HMI has integrated interfaces for Ethernet 100/10, USB Devices, USB
host and for communication (RS232, CAN, RS485). The display is 7.0" widescreen TFT- LCD, 64k colors,
WVGA with resistive touch type [6]. To make the HMI more portable, it is mounted in an old LCD PC
monitor plastic case, as is illustrated in Fig. 3

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TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION
ALGORITHM

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 Conclusion

The solution is recommended to be used in laboratory works with students, because it can provide a

closer experience to the real world applications. The students develop software applications whose

degree of difficulty increases gradually.