SLC 5/05 Revision Numbers Question

[Ethan45654 0]

Hi everyone, new guy looking for some guidance. I've got a customer running an old machine on an Allen-Bradley SLC 5/03 processor. They want to upgrade the machine to an SLC 5/05 to add ethernet and make it more consistent with their other machines in the plant. We're looking at some used options, but I'm struggling to find documentation on the hardware series and/or processor revision numbers. The only thing I could find on the internet is that hardware series C introduced a new Ethernet daughter card. Are there any other important changes between hardware series? Also, what is the meaning of the processor revision number? Can anyone point me in the direction of some better documentation for these numbers?

[Ken Roach 194]

Series C hardware controllers do have a new Ethernet daughtercard.    It supports 10/100 Mb/s full duplex and has better performance than the old daughtercard, and I recommend it.

There is a deeply nerdy reason why the SLC-5/05 operating system and daughtercard upgrades released in 2008 or so weren't simply called "OS502", but it's impossible for even A-B engineers to explain coherently.

Series A and Series B controllers will be functionally identical.

You can dither around and find release notes for each revision, but I wouldn't bother.    Just get OS 501 FRN 11 for any Series A or B controller, and OS501 FRN 13 for a Series C controller, and load it using ControlFlash.   SLC-5/05 firmware used to be chargeable, but now it's a free download from the Product Compatibility and Download Center.

 

 

[Ethan45654 0]

Thanks for the info! I didn't realize that the the firmware was available for free now. Managed to get a good deal on a series C controller, so I think we're all set. Just out of curiosity, is there any real significance to the hardware revision number? Or is that similarly irrelevant?