What are the Pros and Cons of Photo Eye and Decision Points

Question

question

Aaditya J asked Mar 05 2019 at 11:51 PM tannerp edited Mar 08 2019 at 8:02 PM

What are the Pros and Cons of Photo Eye and Decision Points

I am designing a Conveyor layout, with different hold times and area restrictions. I am confused with Photo Eye and Decision Points. Can you please elaborate why we have Photo Eye and Decision points.

Software Version:

FlexSim 19.0.0

decision points photo eye conveyor system

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Joerg Vogel commented · Mar 06 2019 at 6:28 AM

A photo eye is a visible object, that behaves similar to the real object. Sometimes you need a location that sets or gets data to or from items that you need only in a simulation model, then you use a decision point.

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Aaditya J Joerg Vogel commented · Mar 06 2019 at 1:27 PM

Thanks for the reply. I am looking for mostly the triggers portion of it. In case of Photo Eye We have "On Cover, On Block, etc" on Decision Point we have "On Arrival, On Continue, etc" what is the purpose of this triggers, which conditions we can achieve with that?

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David Seo Aaditya J commented · Mar 06 2019 at 1:40 PM

@Aaditya J

DP can't get the status of the flowitems's blocked, Covered time, etc. It can only check to arrive and to continue.

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Aaditya J commented · Mar 06 2019 at 2:05 PM

photoeye-vs-decisionpoint.fsm

I have Uploaded a model, please find below the problem statement.

- I need to hold the part between PE1 and PE2 for 15 min, including its travel time from PE1 to PE2. I have updated the labels to track the times. I am doing same with DP, you can observe the times they are waiting in the zone are different. Please guide, can we use Photo-Eye the same way as DP to govern the hold logic.

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photoeye-vs-decisionpoint.fsm (36.3 KiB)

tannerp Aaditya J commented · Mar 07 2019 at 10:09 PM

@Aaditya J, The discrepancy in your model comes because your PE1 assigns the "time" label immediately and the DP1 assigns the "time" label On Continue (after 10 seconds). You should use the same trigger events in both cases to achieve the same timing. It's just an issue of the FlexSim order of events.

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Aaditya J tannerp commented · Mar 08 2019 at 5:18 PM

Yes, I know that. Do we have any such state in Photo Eye like continue in Decision Point. As I do not want to use two different object. If not then I will shift all my Photo Eyes to Decision Points. Please suggest.

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Answer 1 · 2019-03-08T19:48:34Z

tannerp answered Mar 08 2019 at 7:48 PM tannerp edited Mar 08 2019 at 8:02 PM

What you see in the triggers pick-list is what is available, so the photo eye doesn't have an On Continue trigger built in. That said, you could use custom code to open/close the ports in Process Flow with event triggers, although that might be more trouble than it's worth.

I would recommend using whichever object's behavior you think accurately represents your process in real life. It sounds like you want the items to stay for an extended period of time (15 minutes) at the second photo eye/decision point. If that's the case, use the decision point because it seems to be modeling your desired model behavior correctly.

There's not really a universal right and wrong choice. Like @Jörg Vogel stated before, a decision point is a modeling tool, not a real life object. Maybe this can help you decide.

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