Batching system

A system for the control and monitoring of the operation of a batching process of feeding, weighing and mixing ingredients of a formula of a number of products to be made which comprises:

• a basic processor including:
• a communications bus;
• a central process unit connected to said bus;
• Prom memory means connected to said bus to permanently store digital program information;
• and
• Ram memory means connected to said bus to store changeable digital information;
• A/d converter means connected to said bus and connectable to load cells monitoring a weigh hopper of equipment used in the batching process to convert to a digital signal an analog signal from the load cells that is indicative of the condition of the hopper when it is empty;
• interface means connected to said bus and connectable to various components of the equipment in which the batching process is performed to interface these components with said basic processor to indicate their status when being used in the operation of the process, as converted digital signals, said interface means including circuit board means to provide said conversion of each of said signals to a digital signal and to transfer each digital signal to said bus and relay means to operate components of the equipment in accordance with digital signals from said basic processor;
• and a control console which comprises:
• a panel;
• keyswitch means connected to said bus and having a key-switch mounted on said panel and turnable between a first position, a second position and an off position, and having circuitry connected to the keyswitch to provide, when the keyswitch is at said first and second positions, from that circuitry different digital signals;
• a first group of pushbutton switch means connected to said bus to provide digital information to be stored in said RAM memory means, said first group including first, second and at least one other pushbutton switch means, each of said first group having a pushbutton switch mounted on said panel and having circuitry connected to the pushbutton switch to provide, when the pushbutton of that switch is depressed, a digital signal from said circuitry that is a different digital signal than that of the other pushbutton switch means of said first group, each of said first group of pushbutton switch means being operative to provide its digital signal only when said digital signal is provided by said keyswitch means when its keyswitch is at said first position, said second pushbutton switch means being operative to provide said digital signal only when said digital signal is provided by said first pushbutton switch means, and said one other pushbutton switch means being operative to provide its digital signal only when said digital signal is provided by said second pushbutton switch means;
• a second group of pushbutton switch means connected to said bus to provide digital information to be stored in said RAM memory means, said second group including at least a first and a second pushbutton switch means, each of said second group having a switch mounted on said panel and having circuitry connected to the pushbutton switch to provide, when the pushbutton of that switch is depressed, a digital signal from said circuitry that has a different digital signal than that of other pushbutton switch means of said second group, and each of said second group of pushbutton switch means being operative to provide its digital signal only when said digital signal is provided by said key switch means when its keyswitch is at said second position;
• and
• keyboard means having its circuitry connected to said bus and including a set of pushbutton switch means, each pushbutton switch means of said set having a pushbutton switch mounted on said panel and circuitry connected to the pushbutton switch to provide a signal, when the pushbutton of that switch is depressed, each of said circuitry of said set of pushbutton switch means providing a different BCD signal, each of said pushbutton switch means being operative to provide its BCD signal only when said digital signal is provided by said key switch means while its key switch is at said first or second position and said digital signal is provided by any one of said pushbuttons of said first group of pushbutton switch means or one only of said first and second pushbutton switch means of said second group,
• said digital signals that make operative the use of digital signals from various pushbutton switch means are processed by said basic processor to provide digital signals through said bus to those various pushbutton switch means to permit those digital signals to be input data to said basic processor.