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Disclaimer: This document is written in the hope that you can utilize for your own education to gain knowledge of PLC systems (should you decide to utilize this document). Although I believe the information in this document to be accurate, it is YOUR responsibility to verify this information before implementing it in any way, especially when damage to personnel or equipment could result. By continuing to read this document, you agree to hold no one who writes, modifies, or distributes this document liable in any way (even negligence). Due to the wide variety of plant applications, some of the examples in this document may be prohibited at your location, or could cause damage to equipment, or harm personnel.
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Pushbutton Objects


  1. With a display screen in focus (where the title bar is highlighted), you will be able to click “Objects” on the menu bar of Panelbuilder32. You will notice that you have four selections for the types of pushbuttons: Momentary, Maintained, Latched, and Multistate. Let's talk about each one of these selections:

    1. Momentary: Writes a value of 1 or 0 to the processor when it is pressed, then writes the opposite value when it is released.

    2. Maintained: Writes a value of 1 or 0 to the processor when it is pressed, then writes the opposite value the next time it is pressed.

    3. Latched: Writes a value of 1 or 0 each time it is pressed – Other conditions (such as ladder logic) are required to change the state of the bit.

    4. Multistate: Is capable of reflecting the state of multiple numeric values in the processor (other than simply 0 or 1)







  1. For this first Example, we will add a Maintained Pushbutton. Click Objects | Push Buttons | Maintained to get the object, then let's draw the object on your screen just above the F1 key as shown.




  1. Next, we need to get to the configuration for this button. Double click the object you just drew on your screen to get to the configuration menu. We will be writing a SINGLE BIT with the initial state of 0. Since we have a keypad terminal only, we must tie this pushbutton to a function key. Since we drew the object above F1, we will be sure F1 is selected.




  1. Let's talk about the write tag, and the indicator tags. The write tag will reflect the memory location we want to change when the operator presses the button. The indicator tag is the memory location we look at to reflect the state of the button. Think about a lighted pushbutton you might have in your plant. The pushbutton contacts themselves might be wired to an input on the PLC, but the light on the pushbutton may be wired to the actual output that indicates that a process has been started. That is why we have two different tags for our pushbutton objects.


  1. Click the “Edit Tag” button so we can configure our tag to write to the PLC.





  1. Let's name this tag, “MyFirstPushButton”. It will be a BIT tag with the initial value of 0. Use the Pull-Down tab to select “MyPLC” from your list of available PLC's we can associate with this tag. Let's use I:1.1/0 as the address we will be writing to. We will save word 0 for block transfers if we need them later on. Press the OK button.




  1. For now, let's set up the indicator tag to be the same as the write tag as shown:



  1. Next, let's configure the indicator states for our pushbutton. This will tell the operator when the bit is high, or when it is low. At the top of your pushbutton configuration dialog screen, click “states”.




  1. When our value is 0, we will display the text “Off [F1]” When our Value is 1, we will display the text “On [F1]. We want to be sure to include the [F1] text, so the operator knows which function key is associated with the object. This is not an issue with touch pad only Panelview terminals, because the operator just touches the object itself. Configure any other properties you wish to display on each state at this time.





  1. When you are finished, download your project and verify the data table in the PLC corresponds to the state of the pushbutton you just added.