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I had to login to see the replies to this one.  If you can do this all in 30 min I might hire you!  Be worth every penny of the $12 I would have to spend. 

Using the BOOTP server program is a crap shoot for me.  There are the rare occasions that I may win, but usually it fails.  I have never had a problem with disabling it via RSLinx though which it looks like you have tried unsuccessfully.  Looking at your screen shots, it looks like some kind of permission error from the PLC itself.  I will note that with my processor L32E - I get the BOOTP checkbox in the ethernet configuration.

I always carry a wireless router for my checkouts.  It not only allows me to connect to the PLC wirelessly but lets me do my SCADA checkout with an iPad.

You may not have access to structured text programming if you do not have that option with your version of RSLogix5000.  If you have that option, you can add a routine and when you add it you will see that you can select structured text instead of ladder or function block or SFC.  If you don't have anyone that is familiar with structured text, then you will have to decide whether that meets your requirements of simple.  If you have technicians that are going to think that is Greek if it s not ladder then you may need to just plug and chug as you show in your example.  Program for your audience.   The code that Travis posted is pretty nice.   You may want to replace the  := with a RES instruction with the same counter array.  You can also achieve the same for loop in ladder if you don't have access to structured text.  

I never used the 5/01, but isn't it a block I/O with onboard ins and outs?  That generally shows up  as  a module and will be missing in a 5/03.

You can use the SCL block to scale your 4-20 into KW and the TOT to totalize your daily value.  

Its been a couple days so maybe the pinout on the last post solved the problem. I would seriously doubt the equipment is dead from sitting on the shelf. The PLC 5's were tough and hard to kill. If I remember correctly the red processor light is just an indication that no program is available in memory. Also if you have a good cable and the PC is attempting to conect the COM light will generally flash - even if it doesnt connect successfully. If you dont see that then you need to check the cable. I would focus on using the computer with the serial port built in for your testing. Adding the USB adapter just adds another level of "go wrong" to the whole setup.

We use amazon S3 services for this. I have a mac so the expandrive utility also makes this much easier. I am regularly loading up files of 150GB with no issues.

Even better, dont manipulate your SWM bit directly from the HMI. Use a separate "pushbutton" bit to latch or seal in the SWM in your logic.

The micrologix 1100 is pretty cheap and allows you to connect via Ethernet which is easier to communicate with than RS232 ($200-300 on ebay). I always suggest to my students to start out with the freebie software that Rockwell offers and the RSEmulate tool. This will get you started and you can always invest in more expensive software and hardware later. Once again you will not be able to do online editing, but its a great way to get started. Another thing you could look at is seeing if your local rep will give you something to work with for a short period - a test drive.

Yeah I think panic pretty much summed it up. If you take my first answer and instead of using the .tt bit to turn on TagO use the .dn bit with an XIO (or Normally Closed) to turn on TagO. Of course this assumes from your post that any time less than 3 seconds of on time for TagI will result in TagO being on. So if TagI is off then TagO should be on (0s being less than 3). If we are all still missing this then maybe you could post more on the application and we may understand better what you are trying to do.

If I understand what you are asking, you could just use tagI to run a timer (TON) set for 3 seconds and activate your output - tagO - with the timing bit (.tt). That would activate the output for the first three seconds each time tagI comes on.

Raj, First of all, thats not really a good topic for someone who has just started programming. Secondly it would be a really tough subject to cover in a forum. Questions about it maybe, but not a how to reply. I think it might be better to discuss how the AOI is used so you better understand that and then attempt one again when you come up with a need for one. It looks like from your question that you are expecting the AOI to take place of tasks, programs and subroutines. This is incorrect. The AOI is just as the name implies - an add on instruction. An extra instruction of your design that works in addition to the instructions that come built into the processor (ie, mov, cop, etc). Now can you take an existing subroutine and put it in an AOI? Sure, but you want to be careful using this. Once the AOI is created and inserted into your program, you can only change it offline and subsequently with a download. This removes a lot of flexibility from you when making online changes. So an important thing to determine is will you ever need to change the AOI? Generally an AOI is created when you find something that you are doing repeatedly with no changes to your logic over time. Thats why I suggest waiting. It doesnt sound like you have been programming long enough to have any program modules that have been using repeatedly. I have used AOI's in the past for some of my alarm logic, and for a batching subroutine among others. The alarm logic worked well for me. It was tested logic that I put in an AOI. The batching subroutine was more of a work in progress. We would add features each project and thus add the potential for problems. We ended up getting rid of the AOI and using a simple subroutine (or program) instead. I write all this to save you some of the struggles I went through when first working with AOI's. They really should be used sparingly and carefully. When the time comes to work with one, Rockwell has some pretty good documentation covering it and you may want to look for one of the AOI's that are available from them to see how a working one is put together. At that point if you have further questions, I am sure there are plenty of people on this forum that will be happy to answer pointed questions on the topic.

I will give a shameless plug for our site: http://www.PLCMentor.com Videos are fine if you are looking for help on a specific topic, but any real training requires doing. Make sure any training you find requires you to complete some programming tasks with feedback. Feedback is necessary. It blows my mind how many people pass this up on our site. Without feedback from an experienced controls professional you don't learn what you are doing wrong (or confirm what you did well). Getting a simple program to work is great, but there is so much more. Can I do something you didn't expect to make it work incorrectly? Is it organized in such a way that will be effective with larger programs? Is it documented properly? Or even if you are stuck, just some help concerning where you went wrong. I look back on the beginning of my career and shudder to think of what my programs would look like without all of the great people that nudged me in the proper direction. Good luck and hope this helps.

Your routine always has to be either assigned as the main routing in the program configuration or be called by a JSR from the routine that is. So in short - yes.

Michael, I'm a little late to the party, but I've done this in the past with some good success. Here's a couple ideas that you might try. 1. Yes periodic task is a must. I generally set mine to 1 second. I then have a setting of how many scans have to go by before I take a sample. This way my period is adjustable. 2. I generally have some adjustment for averaging. For example I might grab 60 samples and calc the average. Next time around I can use that average for 5 of my samples or 10, ect and mix them in with my real time samples when I calculate the rate. This way I can smooth out my rate display.

I'm currently working on a project with about 20 handheld scanners. The Real Time Automation ASCII to Ethernet IP gateway was specced for me so I was totally in the dark as to what kind of work it would take. I was pleasantly surprised. I watched the short vid on their site and had the thing up and working in 5 minutes. You wont get that with the point I/O module. There's two different ways to set it up also. You can set it up as an I/O drop, but the easiest way is to configure the device with the PLC IP address and tagname and it will just plop the string right into your tag. It also has two ports so you can set it up for two different scanners.

For our simulation we generally write the logic in the PLC. The logic is in a separate routine or program so we can disable it before going "live." The simulation logic is designed to manipulate inputs and other feedback appropriately when your program logic requires it. So, for example, an output to start a motor in your logic would be used in your simulation rung to control the aux contact that would be received from your I/O. This generally allows testing of most sequences and equipment logic. You may need to inhibit any I/O in your system.

Yeah that is an interesting drawing. I would also guess that it is a NOT function.

Your Task monitor showed a SOTS of 30% and it looks like it is using every bit of it. For me, 20-30% is typical. I dont really understand why your CPU is getting hit so hard. The task monitor indicates that the continuous task is using all of the available CPU time, but my continuous tasks dont seem to use the processor up that much. Granted I am looking at a 73 on my desk connected to nothing but Logix and a SCADA system. Your periodic tasks dont look to be overly aggressive according to the percentage shown, and you set your priorities different which is good. I can can only estimate what your periodic tasks are set for and they look really fast. Do they need to be that fast or can you slow them down a little to see if that affects your continuous task speed and your CPU utilization?

You can overload your processor if you are not careful with your periodic tasks. I have played with the task settings and you can overwhelm the processor so that it will not communicate at all if you set a periodic task too fast. Dont let the system overhead slice % fool you. The tasks take precedence. I would suggest using the task monitor tool to look at your various programs to get a better idea how fast they are running and what percentage of that time is actually used. If you have a 50 ms periodic task that takes 30 ms to run then not much time is left over for other functions.

Possibly he means a USB to serial converter??

Yes you need a license for each computer. You can move the activation between the two computers but it can only be active on one at a time.

Looks like to me you just have 2 pressure setpoints with alarm points set +/- around the active setpiont. Generally the characteristics of the system are similar so the PID constants at both setpoints will suffice. I would not suggest 2 PID blocks in either case.

Well of course it goes without saying that everything runs better when you get all the smoke out of the system...