hmiman

Hi Kaiser, Thanks for the link. The spec of +/- 10V is not applicable in my situation as we use current output. The table does state a drive capability of 0-750 Ohm. That answers my question. Thanks, Deon

Hi, I had a problem where what was thought to be a loop powered current to pressure converter was not starting up during commissioning. It appears now that it requires a separate 24V supply. During fault finding I did notice that the voltage at the output of the 1756-OF8 channel was at 20.2V @ 20mA output. I could not find the specification in the 1756-UM009D-EN-P manual. This led me to wonder if this is in fact normal and needs to be considered in future loop powered applications. Other loop powered control valves in the plant seem happy at 20V out of a 1756-OF8. Do we only get 20V in 4-20mA mode? Thanks, Deon

Hi, I have also ran across this problem a few times while interfacing with gateway devices, but never had the time to properly solve the issue. My only workaround was to change the values in the EDS file in a file editor and then re-import the EDS, then recreate the device. Not fun, but it gets the plant running. Cheers,

Solved. 20-COMM-D DeviceNet Adapter user manual explained it vaguely. For anyone struggling in future, do not forget about the M-S Input and M-S Output parameters. These tell the drive how much data to expect, avoid the E77. Also, a restart of the module is required after changing these. Hope this save someone a long night. Regards,

Hi, I am struggling to get a DeviceNet network going. We got an E77 on all three SMC Flex soft starters. This seemed to be caused by the I/O data difference. Resetting the I/O parameter data from the scanlist caused the the input and output size to defaults of 4 bytes. This sorted out the E77, but now obviously the data in the other words are not read. Can somebody please help me add the phase currents to nodes? I am desperate. Any help is greatly appreciated. Regards,

Thanks. I will try to sub-contract the communication component to a Mitsubishi specialist. I thought it would be somewhat involved to get this set up. Thanks for the input.

Hi, I need to estimate time and cost for a customer that wants a new control system for a small plant. The current control system uses Mitsubishi A2ASCPU-S1 controllers with A1SJ71C24-PRF Ethernet modules. The customer does not want to spend any money on replacing the I/O, but is willing to purchase a new controller. The proposed solution is to install a new ControlLogix controller and read the Mitsubishi I/O through Ethernet. Has anybody done anything similar? If so, I would appreciate any tips on how to establish this communication and what any do or don'ts. Will this be done using message instructions? This is not the ideal solution, but unfortunately I do not hold the budget. The fact that I have never touched a Mitsubishi controller makes me a bit nervous of this approach. Any help is greatly appreciated. Regards, Deon

My opinion is that InTouch as a stand alone product is also just OK. If you have the skills and patience to master it, there is not much that it won't do for you. Where InTouch really shines is when used in conjunction with Wonderware System Platform (ArchestrA). In this environment, it is unbeatable in my opinion. Here you can configure templates that can contain all attributes and scripts, including effortless auto addressing to ControlLogix controllers. .NET is also fully supported. I have worked extensively on Wonderware InTouch and to a lesser extent FactoryTalk View, but I have never priced a Rockwell solution so I do not have an informed opinion on the price comparison. My advice: stick with Rockwell if it is a stand alone machine and System Platform is not to be used. If you can go all Wonderware, do it. This is very subjective, so do not hesitate to ask more detailed comparisons.

Thank you very much for the reply, Ken. I have never quite understood sites' reluctance to upgrading software. I will put my best argument forth. Cheers

Hi, I have a FactoryTalk View Studio project. My colleague developed it in v5.1, but the client uses v5.0 as the standard. Can I downgrade the version? I have both versions installed, on different machines. Using the v5.1 machine to publish a convertible v.5.0 .mer file and trying to restore from that runtime application did not work. The error messages received do not provide very informative messages. Help will be much appreciated. Regards,

Use the OTL and OTU instructions. The OTL instruction will latch (set the BOOL to 1) if the conditions before it were met and the OTU will unlatch the bit if its conditions were met. The OTE instruction is dangerous as it alters the bit even if its conditions were not met (will set to 0 in that case). If you choose to use the OTE, that must be the only place where that bit is destructively used. Good luck.

Hi, The FactoryTalk licences attach themselves to a piece of hardware on your machine when they are deployed. This is to prevent you from copying it to another machine. Thus, everytime you start the licence request, it verifies if it is still in use on the original machine. You have most likely attached it to your network card, which gets de-activated on battery mode for power saving. You have two options: 1. Disable the power saving mode on your NIC to have it permanently on. Disabling the device will cause it to disappear from the FactoryTalk licence clients sight, thus failing. Disavantage: Higher power consumption on your laptop, thus decreasing battery life. 2. Rehost the licence and attach it to your hardrive. Disadvantage: Harddrives are more prone to failure than NICs, so you will have a lengthy phone conversation with Rockwell if you lose your harddrive. My recommendation is to rehost the licence and use the harddrive instead. Hope it helps.

Here in South Africa, Wonderware SA is the distributor of Software Toolbox's product, including TopServer. They recommend it. Makes me wonder...

Hi, I work in a plant with similar setups. Part of the plant works through ArchestrA and part through a tag server. I have found that the Wonderware DAS servers are fine for very small HMI projects connected to a single PLC. As soon as it gets bigger, a little larger calibre OPC server is required. I have used RSLinx, but also found its performance lacking. We now use TopServer from Software Toolbox. In my opinion, it blows everything out the water. Maybe we were both doing something wrong or maybe Wonderware's DAS servers are just a little light in the pants. Regards,

Hi, I empathise, I really do. I work in a manufacturing facility that has also become neglected over the years. One area did successfully motivate a control system upgrade a few years ago. It works. FactoryTalk Batch running ControlLogix PLCs. I continually use this area as motivation to upgrade the other areas. FYI, the other areas are running on Modicon 984s using IEC ladder, IEC FBD and 984 ladder with zero consistency inside a every controller. Reading it is like trying to build a puzzle of a picure of baked beans. There is a big catch though: buying the hardware and control system software alone won't help you at all. It needs to be coded according to an international standard, e.g. S88, and your own site standard while adhering to the vendor specifications all the way. Our system was designed around the S88 standard and the site standard uses very well thought out control modules. What it comes down to is that it doesn't matter what solution you take, it will cost you a lot of money and take a lot of time and effort. My suggestion to you is to develop some decent standards and control frameworks and then have a system integration company execute the work for you. Get as much information handy before you embark on anything. This goes for everything including P&IDs, Conceptual Functional Specification, Electrical diagrams etc. If you don't button these down before you start, your upgrade work will never complete as people will just add work onto your project. Should you take on this project, I suggest you plan it very carefully w.r.t. your standards and future expansion plans and also to commission it thoroughly. Pull this off and it is your ticket into financing for future control system upgrade project. Don't allow your new system to perform worse than your old one after commissioning, then you are screwed for future. Good luck.