Gary.Johnson

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Everything posted by Gary.Johnson

  1. Cleaning touch screen

    Got an interesting question a bit ago. With the COVID19 scare going on our operators want to start cleaning touch screens with a 29% Ethanol/water mix. Our facility uses Omron NS and NTs and a handful of TCP Quickpanels and Profaces. The manuals I've found say weak solutions of solvents are acceptable but don't say what the OEM considers a 'weak solution' to be. Anyone tried cleaning an industrial touch screen with Ethanol?
  2. Good morning Michael.

    I'm looking for help connecting a CS1 to an existing Kepserver system. I saw the thread where you were helping someone and figured you might know what I'm doing wrong. i added a post that should help the OP get his ETN21 gateway set. I would have posted my question there but I don't want to clutter the thread.

    Anyway, the system I'm working on hosts a bunch of CJ1s that have been working for several years. I added a CS1 to the system a few days ago and Kepserver reports unable to write to a couple address. The quick client shows all tags as BAD. I've gone over the setup several times looking for typos and other mistakes and as far as I can tell the CS1 setup is identical to the CJ1s in every respect except for model (CS/CJ). I'm starting to wonder if there is something different about CS1s.

    Any ideas?

    V/r,

    Gary Johnson

  3. CS1G-CPU43H connecting Kepserverex

    Not sure if it's too late to help with this but setting the default gateway in the ETN21 is different from the EIP21. The EIP21 has a dedicated spot for the gateway address. In the ETN21 you have to add an entry in the IP Routing Table. Set the IP address to 0.0.0.0 and Router's IP Address to the address of your gateway.
  4. Greetings all, Looking for a DIN rail mounted router ('layer 3') for an Ethernet/IP application that requires port forwarding/translation/redirection. Finding lots of devices that can do 1:1 NAT but PAT seems to be much less common. Prefer something easy to get in the USA. TIA
  5. kepserver with cx programmer

    I have several machines communicating with Kepserver using CIO6000 to 6143 and haven't had any problems.
  6. Rung wrap read only?

    Tried to activate rung wrap view and saw the attached dialog. I don't recall seeing it in older versions. Is this a bug?
  7. fresher need help for change screen

    Assuming you have a NS series display there are controls for displaying numbers and strings. Omron manual V073 explains how to use them.
  8. question @ and !

    Those symbols can mean different things depending on where they are used. If you have a CJ or CS series PLC, Omron manual W394 explains how to use them.
  9. Industrial router recommendations

    Thanks, took a look and Red Lion devices can't route by IP address/port. The search continues.
  10. CX-Programmer improvement requests

    OK, found something else to cry about. Consider the following: Project includes EIP network so addressing is through network tags (arrays). Each device on the network gets its own array/tag. I add unique comments for each address associated with a given device. When I use any of the addresses in the PLC, whether entering as array[index] or typing the literal address directly, CX-P displays the tag name/comment instead of the unique comment associated with the individual address. If I want to see address specific comments I have to use a XFER block to copy the tag/array into a parallel set of addresses and attach the comments to the parallel addresses. Very wasteful in terms of memory, program size, and time. It would be swell if CX-P gave priority to individual comments and only showed the array comment where there is no comment attached to a particular address. Example attached. EXAMPLE.cxp
  11. Industrial router recommendations

    Thanks kaare_t, One of the things slowing my search is filtering the verbiage. Some folks think of a 'port' as the physical hole you plug a patch cable into, others think it is an attribute of a logical address. Some suppliers offer 'Layer 3 switches' where others call them routers and some offer 'routers' with no (TCP/IP) layer 3 capability at all. I end up having to download the manual or tech spec to identify the specific capabilities and protocols the device supports. Very time consuming.
  12. Got it sorted out. "Implicit messaging" is ODVA's term for mapping memory areas of a given device to Devicenet master allocations. In the case of the Watlow devices it's a list of parameters like presets and temperature readings that are mapped to DRM21 addresses in order of appearance. The first parameter in the list is mapped to the first allocated address and so forth. Watlow provides a piece of software called ASSEMBLY PROGRAMMER for configuring their devices and you have to have it to use their temp controllers. The units as delivered can't be controlled over Devicenet. I suspected this but the manufacturer of the machine I'm working on mucked things up so badly that it was impossible to tell from his code. The fellow I spoke with at Watlow was an expert on their devices and how to configure them but wasn't much help trying to translate that into Devicenet. I had to configure a device, add it to the network and sift through PLC addresses until I stumbled onto the numbers I was looking for. Time consuming but it got the job done. Thanks again. Hope this helps the next guy who runs into these devices.
  13. Got a real head scratcher and I'm hoping for some guidance. I've been handed a system that communicates with field devices over Devicenet but instead of reading/writing CIO addresses the PLC and devices are exchanging hex codes via something called "CIP implicit messaging". I've pretty much figured out what CIP messaging is but the OEM didn't bother to provide a map of the specific addresses in use. I'm looking at an overcomplicated chunk of programming that employs multiple levels of indirection (for loops, index registers, pointers, arrays...) and no documentation to explain how everything works. Before I spend days/weeks trying to pry information out of the OEM or reverse engineer the entire system I'm hoping there is some sort of correlation between these CIP message addresses and the CIO addresses allocated to the nodes in CX-Integrator. Any insights?
  14. Thanks PdL, I did that when I was initially handed the system. The device(s) in question are Watlow EZ-Zone temperature controllers. The configuration in the DRM21 allocates four 8 bit registers as polled inputs and four 8 bit registers as polled outputs to each of the Watlow nodes. The EDS file supplied by Watlow shows 80 bytes one way and 84 the other. Some of the controllers are dual channel and require a minimum of 16 bytes in each direction to exchange the minimum information required to operate them. This leads me to believe that the configuration in the DRM21 has no bearing on CIP implicit messaging. I guess the next question I have is does this CIP implicit messaging operate independant of the I/O configuration in the DRM21 and if so, is it possible to (re)configure the devices to operate like normal Devicenet nodes or do I have to figure out how to exchange CIP implicit messages?
  15. Replace button/label text

    Why didn't I think of that?
  16. Replace button/label text

    Got a project with 100+ screens and the supplier wasn't a very good speller. I need to correct a spelling error on 1200+ buttons and labels. I've read thorugh the CX-Designer help file and manual and can't find a search/replace for text, only addresses and tags. Am I looking in the wrong place or did Omron actually forget to include this?
  17. W coil not working

    Any chance your W bit is mapped to an input somewhere (Devicenet, Profibus...)? Happened to me once. Contractor fat fingered something and moved half the I/O table. First symptom was work bits that weren't working.
  18. Got into a discussion the other day regarding my company's practice of storing documentation (ring binders) and spare tooling inside the main (high voltage) enclosure. It's my understanding that anything that won't fit in a print pocket on the door has to go somewhere else not only for house keeping but also for fire safety. I would like to base my argument on a regulation or documented 'best practice' but I've yet to find one. Anyone aware of a reg/rule covering this?
  19. Copy & paste symbols in Excel

    I made a template (.xlt) file with one tab for bit level comments and symbols. Another tab is formatted with 0 decimal places for word level (DM/HR/Channels) stuff. A shortcut to that template sits on the desktop. Saves time and frustration.
  20. how to find which is input and which is out put

    The attached PDF is an extract from the CQM1H programming manual showing physical I/O and work bit address ranges. Download the entire manual from Omron's web site to get the whole story. OMRON_PLC_CQM1H_IR_MEMORY.pdf
  21. E5CN Temp. Controllers

    I've added this to my list of reasons why I advise anyone who asks to steer clear of Omron.
  22. CX-One AUTO UPDATE topic

    I'm seeing the opposite. D/L speeds from 10-60KB/s. Took more than two hours to download the April updates. It's the age of Gigabit Ethernet and Omron's update gizmo acts like it's on dialup.
  23. NS background color codes

    So that's what the 'Other Colors' button does! Thanks.
  24. NS background color codes

    Howdy all, My latest quandary revolves around setting the background color of screen objects (labels) remotely. I'm doing this by stuffing numbers into DMs and it works fine. The problem is I don't know which numbers to stuff. I've torn the Omron documentation apart and can't find anything. A search of MrPLC didn't turn up anything either. Anyone know the code?
  25. Omron USB/RS232 problem

    Howdy all, I'm ready to resume my quest to untangle the mess discussed here http://forums.mrplc.com/index.php?showtopic=9165 Before I get into it, I'm pleased to report the Dynex DX-UBDB9 USB/RS232 adapter works with Omron PLCs. Now on to the quest. I'm trying to get the following hardware talking to my Omron PLCs: The built-in RS232 port on my Dell laptop, an Omron CIF31, a Keyspan 19HS, and a Dynex DX-UBDB9. All of these have successfully communicated with CPM1, CQM1(H), CS1, and CJ1 PLCs in the past. The Dynex is the only one currently working. It communicates with all four PLC types using the appropriate combination of cables. Each adapter stopped working after setting it's COM port to any number previously used by any other adapter. Restoring an adapter's port number back to original did not restore communications. Un/re-installing an adapter did not restore communications even when the re-install mapped the adapter to a unique port number. All hardware is working. I am able to communicate with a TCP QuickPanel Jr using the built-in RS232 and any of the USB adapters. I can change COM port numbers all I want with no ill effect. CX-Programmer/Server is the only app having problems. My theory is that CX-Server has become confused by seeing more than one device mapped to the same COM port number and is unable to recover when the port assignments are changed back to unique numbers. I have been unable to identify the method whereby CX-Server stores com port numbers. Whatever it is, it survives surgical uninstallation of CX-One. Omron tech support is researching the problem. I figured I'd give you guys a crack at it while I wait for a response.