Custom Equation

Monitor
COMMANDbatch V1.7.4.1 & Later
5/18/11

Command Alkon Inc.

5168 Blazer Parkway
Dublin, Ohio 43017
1.800.624.1872
Fax: 614.793.0608
Part Number: 25368
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(205) 879-3282

5168 Blazer Parkway

Dublin, OH 43017-1339
(614) 799-6650

www.commandalkon.com
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other countries.

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 Contents

Contents ........................................................................................ 3

Introduction .................................................................................. 4
Purpose ................................................................................................ 4
Audience ............................................................................................... 4
Revision Summary ................................................................................. 4

Custom Equation Monitor ............................................................... 5

Launching the Custom Equation Monitor .................................................... 6
Columns on the Form .............................................................................. 7
Equation Column ................................................................................. 7
Action Column ..................................................................................... 7
Result Column ..................................................................................... 8
Condition Column ................................................................................ 8
Background Colors ............................................................................... 8

Custom Equations Form ................................................................. 9

Background Colors ............................................................................... 10
Operator Characters - Described ............................................................ 11
Generally Available Global IO’s ............................................................... 12
Device Variables ................................................................................... 12
List of Variable Suffixes ......................................................................... 14

Index ........................................................................................... 16

5/18/11 3
 Introduction

Topics in This Section

Purpose
Audience
Revision Summary

Purpose
This document explains how to access the Custom Equation Monitor and what
the information on the form means. It is assumed you are already familiar
with how custom equations are created and used in COMMANDbatch;
however, if you are not, refer to the online help for the Custom Equations
form.

Audience
This document is intended to be used by Command Alkon installation and
service personnel, as well as plant personnel authorized to install, configure,
and use COMMANDbatch.

Revision Summary

Date Version Revision

Aug. 31, 2005 V1.04 Document created.
Nov. 1, 2005 V1.04 Entered changes per review QA.
Nov. 16, 2005 V1.04 Minor changes per QA review.
Jan. 30, 2007 V1.06 Updated manual with changes added for Custom
Equations form help, namely, a new section on
Special Global IO’s.
Mar. 8, 2007 V1.06 Improved Notes, Tips, Cautions, and Warnings with
better icons and formatting.
Oct. 14, 2008 V1.7.4.1 Revised the section on device variables and pro-
vided a list of variable suffixes and their meanings.
May 18, 2011 V1.8.1.2 Corrected examples of SYSTEM UP custom equa-
tion to equal ! COMM ERROR instead of 1.

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 Custom Equation Monitor

Custom equations fall outside the scope of sequences and hard-coded batch
logic. The Custom Equation Monitor shows how these “custom” equations are
handled in real time, as well as the output statuses and interactions among
each equation’s conditions. Custom equation logic works on changes in device
state. For example, when the specified logic in an equation is satisfied, an
output can be turned on. When the logic is no longer satisfied, the output can
be turned off.

Topics
Launching the Custom Equation Monitor
Columns on the Form
Custom Equations Form

Note: Equations imported from Spectrum are left in an Unknown status,

meaning they will not be evaluated and not displayed. It is
recommended that these equations be re-entered in
COMMANDbatch so their current state can be displayed.

5/18/11 5
 Launching the Custom Equation Monitor
1. Open the Custom Equations form.
2. Click the “Monitor” button.
Custom Equation Monitor

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 Columns on the Form
Information displayed in the columns on the Custom Equation Monitor is
described in this section.

Topics in This Section

Equation Column
Action Column
Result Column
Condition Column
Background Colors

Equation Column
Displays the current value of the output IO code, followed by the IO name.
• Equations are listed in the order in which they were entered.

• A gray icon displayed in this column means the current state of the
output IO is OFF.

• A green icon displayed in this column means the current state of the
output IO is ON.

Action Column
Shows the action to be performed once the conditions have been evaluated as
being True.
Also displays the value amount, if entered. The value amount can be an Input,
Output, Global variable, Local Variable, Macro or a Constant but should follow
the rules mentioned next.
• For Increment and Decrement actions the value must be entered as an
'Eventor' based value:
One unit = 4096 Eventor units
Example: If you would like to set up an equation to increment variable
'V2' by 1 every time 'BELT START' is pressed, the equation would be:
'V2' will 'Increment' by '4096.000' when ( 'BELT START' ) is True
A simple way to set this up is to create a Local variable called 'ONE' and
set it Equal to 4096 then use variable 'ONE' in place of all equations.
• For Timer, Pulse, and Ramp, the value should be a time entered in msec.
Example: A value of 5000 means 5 sec.

5/18/11 7
 Result Column
Displays in real-time the True or False result when all of the conditions are
evaluated.

Condition Column
Displays all of the condition lines for a given equation.
The status of each condition is indicated by the color of the text in which it is
displayed:
• Green (for True, meaning the condition has been satisfied).
• Red (for False, meaning the condition has not been satisfied).
Each IO point or variable also contains an internal numeric data value.
Normally the value ‘> 0’ means True and ‘<= 0’ means False, unless a more
specific mathematical qualifier is entered on a second condition line.
The internal numeric value is shown in square brackets [ ] immediately
following the IO point or variable.

Background Colors
The following table describes the background colors used on the Custom
Equation Monitor.

Note: See Condition Column for a description of colors used for text in
the Condition column of the Custom Equation Monitor.

Colors Used for Outputs and Conditions

Color Output
Cyan Physical IO’s
Magenta Global IO’s
Red Local Variables
Orange Macros
Green Constants

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 Custom Equations Form

Use this form to enter custom equations used in control functions that fall
outside the scope of sequences and hard-coded batch control logic. Custom
equation logic works on changes in device state. For example, when the
specified logic in an equation is satisfied, an output can be turned on. When
the logic is no longer satisfied, the output can be turned off.
The Translated Text area at the bottom of the form provides a human-
readable description of the custom equation.

See Also:
Background Colors
Operator Characters - Described
Generally Available Global IO’s
Device Variables
List of Variable Suffixes
Online help for descriptions of fields on this form

5/18/11 9
 Background Colors
The following colors are used for Outputs and Conditions on the Custom
Equations form.

Color Output
Cyan Physical IO’s
Magenta Global IO’s
Red Local Variables
Orange Macros
Green Constants

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 Operator Characters - Described
The following table describes operator characters used in custom equations.
Operator Table

5/18/11 11
 Generally Available Global IO’s
The following table lists global IO’s that are predefined on most systems when
COMMANDbatch is installed.
DIS_AUTH True or False indication that the "Load" button has been
pressed.
F1_HOLD F1 thru F6 can be assigned to various devices to affect its
F2_HOLD HOLD state. Custom Equations can monitor for True or
False indications to control logic based upon these HOLD
F3_HOLD conditions.
F4_HOLD
F5_HOLD
F6_HOLD
FINAL STRT Batch number of the last batch, True indicating that it has
started or False indicating that it has not started.
HOLD WAT 1 HOLD WAT 1 thru HOLD WATER are similar in usage to the
HOLD WAT 2 above F1_HOLD definition. only for water feeds.

HOLD WAT 3
HOLD WATER
HOLD_ALL All Feeds are HOLDing.
INIT DONE
L2000T True or False indication of a received Ticket from Link
2000.
LABORT True or False indication of Load Abort.
LCOMMIT True or False indication that the Load has been accepted.
LCOMPLT True or False indication that the Load has completed.
LOAD Current Load Number.
LOAD_FREE
REQ_FINISH Number of the load being finished early because of a
tolerance error or other error condition.
VAR_SET Batch set number in use.
WAIT Feed is waiting.
WAT CLOSED True or False indication of the state of the water discharge
valve.
WAT DISCH Water is in the Discharge state.
WAT ZERO Water weighing device is at zero.
ULINKT True or False indication of a received ticket from ULINK.

Device Variables
When a device is defined, internal variables are automatically created and
utilized as part of the device's internal process logic. Some of these variables
can be used in sequence conditions to affect the operation of other devices.
Most can be used in custom equations to affect the output of equations. These

12 5/18/11
 variables complement existing channel variables and allow greater flexibility
in passing events from the batch sequencing engine to custom equations.
When device variables are first created, their values are zero. Once a device
feed starts, its device variables are set with the value of corresponding
variables in the device's internal process logic. When a load completes, device
variables retain the last known value from the load.
Examples of Device variables:

BIN01_STAR

BIN01_DONE

CEM SCALE_FLOW
CEM SCALE_FMIN

CEM_SCALE_FMAX
Examples of variables for material feeds (bins and metered feeds):

SAND_TAR

SAND_ATAR
CEMENT_HOLD
Examples of variables for non-material feeds (scale, bottle, mixer, etc.):

MIXER_SCAL

DISCH EN_STAR
AGG SCALE_ATAR

See Also:
List of Variable Suffixes

5/18/11 13
 List of Variable Suffixes
Here is a complete list of suffixes that can be used in Variables for Devices
and Material and Non-Material Feeds.

Suffix Definition Description

_TAR Material Load Target Material Feed (Batched Materials):
Mix Entry Amount * Load Size / Grad Size) at
feed start. Shown in grads.
Material Feed (Non-Batched Materials):
Mix Entry Amount * Load Size when first
material feeds for a load.
Note:
This is the only variable suffix that can be
used in non-batched material feed variables.
_MST Material Moisture Material Feed:
Moisture value for batched materials.
_HOLD Feed Hold Value true (On) when in HOLD and false (Off)
when not in HOLD.
_INIT Feed Initialized Scale value in grads when feed starts.
_SCAL Scale Material Feed:
Difference between current scale reading and
_INIT value in grads.
Scale:
Current scale reading.
Mixer:
Actual mix time.
_ATAR Batch Target Material Feed:
Batch Target in grads.
Mixer:
Target Mix Time.
_PERC Percent Complete Material Feed:
Percentage complete shown as
_SCAL divided by _ATAR times 100%.
Scale Feed:
Percentage complete shown as
_SCAL divided by _INIT times 100%.
Mixer Feed:
Percentage complete shown as
_SCAL divided by _ATAR times 100%.
_STAR Batch number feed Automatically created for all devices.
has started Increments when the feed starts.
Shows the batch number that a given feed is
running.

14 5/18/11
 Suffix Definition Description
_DONE Batch number feed Increments when feed is done.
has completed Shows the batch number that a given feed has
completed.
_RTAR Run target Material Feed:
Error, in grads, within multi-batches.
_FLOW Flow Rate Adjust Material or Scale Feed:
Used in Custom Equation line outputs or
conditions.
Automatically created for devices that monitor
the flow of material (low or no flow).
For a Scale Feed, enter a value starting from
1.00 (meaning 100% of Flow Rate).
Note:
This is the only variable suffix that can be
written to in Custom Equations as an output.
Values for all other variables are used only in
conditions as read-only.
_FMIN Min Flow Rate Scale Feed:
Used for flow-control.
Min Flow Rate (grads) multiplied by Sequence
Truck Rate
_FMAX Max Flow Rate Scale Feed:
Used for flow-control.
Max Flow Rate (grads) multiplied by Sequence
Truck Rate

5/18/11 15
 Index

C
Custom Equation Monitor
Action Column 7
Background Colors 8
Columns on the Form 7
Condition Column 8
Equation Column 7
Launching the Custom Equation Monitor 6
Result Column 8
Custom Equations 9
Colors 10
Device Variables 12
List of Variable Suffixes 14
Operator Characters Described 11
Special Global IO’s 12
I
Introduction
Audience 4
Purpose 4
Revision Summary 4

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