Multistate Block Example

With the Multistate Digital Input block configured as a stand alone block, you can monitor the status of a mechanical valve (VALVE1) with contacts at the open and close positions. Usually, you would create a Digital Input block to provide simple ON/OFF digital status. However, with the Multistate Digital Input block, you can monitor and display to operators the pending, or middle, status of VALVE1 as well as the ON/OFF status.  

The operators can use a Multistate Digital Input block to retrieve the open and close digital values from the PLC and configure one of four raw values that represent the status of VALVE1. The following figure illustrates this concept.