Script not Functioning Like Similar Script, can't figure out why

Ignition
,
1

Hi All,

We use Ignition (Vision) at work on a few of our systems where a DCS isn't appropriate and I have started playing around with Perspective at home to automate a few things around the farm. So far I am finding Perspective to be challenging and rather limited compared to what Vision offers, but I am enjoying the challenge.

I'm a little stumped why a specific script I have written doesn't seem to fire when I want it to.

I am sensing the temperature in one of our chicken coops and then using a relay to run a plug-in to turn a heat lamp on and off depending on the temperature in the chicken coop.

I have ignition push buttons to manually control the light, one for on and one for off, and then a toggle switch to put the heat lamp into auto or manual mode. I also have Numeric Entry Fields to enter the setpoints for the on and off variables.

The issue I am having is the script only seems to fire when I toggle the toggle switch from manual and then back to auto again.

The script is tied to the toggle switch (on mouse click) and looks like this:

def runAction(self, event):
	while (True):

		if system.tag.readBlocking("[default]Viking Coop/Heat_Lamp_Auto_Manual")[0].value < 1:
			system.tag.writeBlocking("[default]Viking Coop/Viking_Coop_Heat_Lamp",0)
			break
			
		
		if system.tag.readBlocking("[default]Viking Coop/Viking_Coop_Temp2")[0].value <= system.tag.readBlocking("[default]Viking Coop/Heat_Lamp_ON")[0].value:
			system.tag.writeBlocking("[default]Viking Coop/Viking_Coop_Heat_Lamp",1)
		
		if	system.tag.readBlocking("[default][default]Viking Coop/Viking_Coop_Temp2")[0].value >= system.tag.readBlocking("[default]Viking Coop/Heat_Lamp_OFF")[0].value:
			 system.tag.writeBlocking("[default]Viking Coop/Viking_Coop_Heat_Lamp",0)

Currently if the toggle switch is in automatic mode, and the temperature falls below the 'turn heat lamp on setpoint' the light doesn't turn on until I toggle switch to manual and then back to automatic mode. The same thing happens when the temperature increases above the 'turn heat lamp off setpoint'.

I have a similar script controlling the water level in a well pit (on a different view), and it runs in automatic all day long without me having to intervene with it ever.


def runAction(self, event):
	while (True):
		
		if system.tag.readBlocking("[default]Well House/Pump_Auto_Manual")[0].value < 1:
			system.tag.writeBlocking("[default]Well House/Well_Pit_Pump_ON_OFF",0)
			break
			
			
		if system.tag.readBlocking("[default]Well House/Well_Pit_Level")[0].value >= system.tag.readBlocking("[default]Well House/Well_LevelControl_ON")[0].value:
			system.tag.writeBlocking("[default]Well House/Well_Pit_Pump_ON_OFF",1) 
		
		if system.tag.readBlocking("[default]Well House/Well_Pit_Level")[0].value < system.tag.readBlocking("[default]Well House/Well_LevelControl_Off")[0].value:
			system.tag.writeBlocking("[default]Well House/Well_Pit_Pump_ON_OFF",0)

For the life of me I can't tell the difference between the two. I'm probably missing something obvious.

The only difference I can think of is that the well pit level control is the only script tied to a toggle on the view it is located on whereas the Heat Lamp Control is on a view that also has a 2nd toggle with a script that controls the ambient lighting in the coop based on the time of day (which also works perfectly fine in automatic). I wouldn't think that should have anything to do with it, but who knows.

I'd welcome any feedback, or a cleaner way of accomplishing this in Iginition.

2

Don't use infinite loops in events. At all.

3 Likes
3

Any recommendations on what I should use instead?

4

Usually such things need a state machine. Instead of waiting for a tag to change, use a tag change event on that tag, and have it check a memory tag and any other conditions to see if it should do the next step in your sequence. Everything that could impact the sequence would have its own change event. No waiting.

Or, write a timer event that behaves like a PLC periodic task. Check inputs, compute state changes and outputs. Write changed outputs to tags. Again, no waiting.

5

Thank you, this explanation makes sense to me and I will give it a go.