This month, DMC New York decided to make a Survivor-themed video (inspired by real-life events) to help showcase our new office space!

Check it out below or on our YouTube channel along with all of our other office update videos.

Season One, Episode One

In this episode of Survivor, several office plants die under Jeff's care while Jon is out of the office. Will the bond between coworkers survive… or did Jeff lose his chance at being the Survivor? Tune in for an episode jam-packed with betrayal, alliances, and intense drama as the office decides Jeff's fate.

Filming the Video

Before we welcomed Becca and Serena to the New York team, I was frequently the only one in the office as everyone else worked onsite. This partially inspired the Survivor video, as we all seem to get "kicked off the island" from time to time. 

The untimely demise of Jon's plants (our central conflict) did also occur roughly one week before filming, so any tension and severing of ties you see in the video may or may not be real. 

We utilized three different cameras for the filming: a webcam above the pool table normally reserved for a billiards tracking project, a knockoff GoPro, and a regular smartphone. This helped us get a perfect shot of Simon chugging a glass of milk on the first try. This was critical, as he said there was no way he would do that twice. 

Overall, filming was a ton of fun (especially breaking in our shiny new wooden floors with a bit of reckless file cabinet racing!)

Find out what other fun things are going on at DMC.

Wish you were with us? Check out our Careers Page.

The post DMC Survivor: Voted From The New York Office appeared first on DMC, Inc..

I am currently working on a project which involves pumping melted butter through storage tanks and out to loading trucks. The butter system has multiple melting ovens that deliver to storage tanks, with the ability to transfer butter from tank to tank. The system has many valves and pumps for filling and discharge, and a flow meter to measure the amount of butter delivered to the trucks. This was an excellent opportunity to utilize the power of the Open Library. This project uses Open Library Version 1.1, a Siemens S7-1500 PLC, two Comfort Panel HMIs, and was programmed using TIA Portal v13 SP 1 Update 8.

Using the Siemens Open Library, along with the heavy documentation included, allowed me to quickly get this project up and running. The documentation walked me through how to import the Open Library, add Function Blocks into my project, set up Data Blocks for HMI interfacing and Errors, and even how to implement the Library Function Blocks in my code. At this point, all I had to do was drag and drop in all my devices!

Once I had the basic logic in place, the next step was creating the HMI screens and popups. The documentation walked me through the implementation of the library icons and popups, showing me how to insert the faceplates and map the PLC tags, HMI tags, and the objects together to give me control and animations for each device. This enabled me to have manual control of all the devices in the project through the HMI. Up to this point, the only changes I’ve made to library objects have been resizing faceplates and changing font sizes, which is a huge chunk of development and time saved. 

Solenoid Valve HMI Popup for Interlocked Valve

System Mode Control Popup

Left: Valve Currently Opening/Closing. Middle: Valve Closed in Manual Mode. Right: Pump Running Forward

However, I found that I needed some extra functionality to the Solenoid Valve block that the library block was lacking. The ball valves used to start and stop flow did not stop rotating at the fully open or closed limit. If the output signal to move the valve remains on after the open or closed limit switch is activated, the valve continues to spin, which is not ideal. Thanks to the Open Source License, I was able to go and change the functionality to what I needed. Since I duplicated the block from the Open Library, almost all of the functionality remained exactly the same, which meant I could still use the icons, popups, UDTs, and documentation from the Open Library block, with a small note detailing the changes I made. 

Original Open Library Block 

Modified Logic to Stop Moving Valves

The Siemens Open Library allowed me to quickly get a functioning Manual Mode and HMI by simply dropping in the library blocks into my logic and the faceplates into the HMI screens, without spending the time to implement animations that linked the devices, popups, and faceplates. You can download the Siemens Open Library to give a try yourself.

Check out the Siemens Open Library Website. 

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