Sign in to follow this  
Followers 0
Ron_S

Chinese SC09 copy

35 posts in this topic

Do you think Mitsubishi could actually learn something from the Chinese copy market? That may seem a strange question given that we trust and buy only Mitsubishi cables. But, 6 months ago I needed a USB SC09 for my desktop PC to run programs on my 'test' plc's My desktop pc doesn't have a serial port and is running Windows 7. The price of an original normal SC09 (of which I already have 2) is something like £240 (a lot of money for a bit of cable and a few chips) whereas I could see the copies on ebay for about £16. Of course I was wary but reasoned that I wasn't actually going to connect it to real plc's out at work. - so I bought one. I have been using it since then almost daily and it has never faulted or given any trouble (even using it with a virtual win xp drive for GX works) And, the second point which I really like is that this copy has communication red and green LED's on the protocol convertor to show you data is being transmitted. (like the Siemens ones) Do you think Mitsubishi should seriously think about their pricing of their cables (given the competition now) and also include the communication indicators in new models.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Good point but all the latest Mitsubishi hardware is programmed via a standard USB cable.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I realise that but there are still a lot of FX and A models out there. And I am glad a lot of plc manufacturers are going for normal USB connections. How many of us have had to put our reading glasses on and squint trying to orientate and connect the flimsy round plug into an FX programming port. (I have bent the pins before now)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I think we've all had this problem with bend pins for the FX connections. I bought a programming cable set from Diatrend. It's a set with all the connection to Mitsubishi hardware They also added the LED's on the converter unit. It also has a 4G SD card inside with all the drivers which is a nice plus. IT's not cheap it will cost you around 250 euro's though http://www.diatrend.com/IFcable/difc-fsb2.htm
1 person likes this

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
A handy bit of kit to have in your bag - but I wouldn't use more than half of them.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
The list price of a SC-09 (part# 43393) is 130EURO. Seems I missed the exchange rate decaying of £. Edited by djtron

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Keep in mind here that Mitsubishi doesn't make the cable. They get it from Beijer. At least the one they sell in the US is a Beijer product. Why do you think they went with USB ports on all new devices? Much more convenient than those powered RS232-RS422 converter cables.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Gambit... Do you speak Korean? The kit looks great, but I can't read the website?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Hope, Gambit will forgive that I give the answer for him. The website is Japanese, not Korean. Google Chrome helps a lot to translate from any ;)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Ah, that's better. I tried Google Translate, but since I didn't know what language it was in, I chose auto-detect. It picked Korean, and returned gibberish! Changing the language to Japanese made a world of difference! This kit is fantastic, but the price is unrealistic. 52,704 yen is about $450 US. I'll stick with my home-built kit, I think.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
May be it will helpful. If to look at the right corner of browser line, you are able to see two square boxes with letters inside and arrows between. It's a website online translator, which detect an original language of website, both and the language that is native for you, automatically and correctly basing on a set of data, in particular, like a DNS server location, IPs etc., and not only by comparing fonts and words. So if some website contains a text on a local language, for example like Swahili, just push on this sign and enjoy.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I use Firefox normally, which does not have that option. I loaded the page in Chrome, and I see what you are talking about! That is neat.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
HA HA No i don't spreak koerean or Japansese but my good friend Chrome does.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
hello I don't want to hijack a post or anything but I would like a little help with a problem im having I bought a cable from ebay, usb sco9 fx, it says windows 7 compatible I have a cd with it but none of the relevant drivers work. I have the yellow cable 422 to usb with a box in the centre, two leds, on tx and the other rx. I plugged it in and it says com 7, I clicked on the drivers and it says two. one serenum.sys and CH341s64.sys are these the right drivers. I have emailed the seller and no luck yet. I have connected it to my fx1s30mr and tried connecting it. though I don't have any good instructions for connecting the hardware and software. I have gx developer, it says cannot communicate, check connections and then an ES 1802007 number the speed is 9.6 com 7 I don't know what else to do. I also have an allen Bradley micrologix 1000, would this cable work for that as well? any help would be great thanks simon

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
ninjaman, you forgot to tell us, with what model of PLC you try to connect. It's important issue to give you a correct help.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I thought I mentioned it above melsec fx1s 30mr es/ul

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
This really should be a new post rather than tacking onto an old one. You would probably get more people reading it. I know I don't re-check old threads for new comments unless it's one I was interested in to begin with, and therefore subscribed. If the cable is showing up and giving you a port number (COM 7), then the driver is probably working. I would check the communication settings. I haven't programmed an FX1S in a while, but I usually use 115.2kbps speed. Can you provide a screen shot of your transfer setup screen?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
ninjaman: I also just got one of the USB-SC09-FX cables to use with a Mitsubishi Melsec FX-1N PLC. I also got the small 3" size driver disk. I was able to successfully install the cable on two different XP systems. I would suggest plugging the cable up first to let the system detect it, and then select the right path to install the drivers. There are several youtube videos that do a great job explaining how to instal them. I used the advanced settings to "Update drivers", then went through each folder and attempted to install all of the ones related to my cable and the windows xp operating systems. It installed a few of them and on some of them it would indicate that it was not as good as the one I had already installed. When you finally get it right you should find:- under hardware settings, -under ports, -you should see the SC-09-FX cable with the comm port indicating it was successfully installed. In my case it was identified as " Jiacheng" Comm port 10. To effetively establish comms with the plc, you may have to go into hardware settings/advanced and change the port to match with your software. I was using GX Developer to read and edit. Good luck!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Excuse, I missed it. I agree with other members, that it may cause by driver installation. Also, 9600-7-E-1 is suitable settings, if the baudrate speed on PLC porgramming port has not been changed before! So additionally you can try to connect with PLC on 19200 Baud. If I remember it correctly, other baudrate settings the PLC doesn't support.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
when I look in the usb properties it says, 8 bit none and 1 bit instead of what is mentioned above. 7 bit even 1 bit. I have tried to change these with no luck. I cant change the settings on the usb properties. just in gx developer. if you put this in search on youtube it will show the video I made of me trying to get the cable working with the plc "problems with sc09 driver for plc cable Mitsubishi melsec fx1s" Edited by ninjaman

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Ninjaman: I watched your youtube video, it looked like you were almost there. When you were on the usb port settings (the same place you change the baud rate), there is a box below that that says "ADVANCED". Click that to change your com port. Hope that helps. I did not mess with the data bits, baud rate or any other stuff, just matched the comm ports. I actually used comm port 2 on my computer. Hope that helps.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Ninjaman: I would also select the drivers by "browsing" to the location of the disk and opening it up by expanding each folder and finding the drivers that may appear to be related to your operating system and plc brand. It seems to me that the disk they included with the cable may be a generic driver disk for every cable the company sells that can be used with many different cables. The cable that I used even looked like it might work on an AB micrologix1000? Although I did not try it.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Keep in mind that Mitsubishi does not sell a USB cable, and there are literally hundreds of companies selling them online. We can't tell which one you have or what the right driver is. For that, you need to go back where you got it. Not every clone cable uses the same chipset, and so not every one uses the same driver.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
when I plug in the cable it automatically downloads a driver called ch340. I think this is by winchiphead.com they have information about a chip called ch340.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I will agree with Crossbow on that. It is really hard to know which cable you have. The cable vendor should recommend the driver, offer a video, or at least some installation instructions. If they did included a disk, I would make sure that when the software wizard starts, you select to manually install them from your own location. In most of the videos that I watched, the user first copies the drivers they need to a new desktop folder first before connecting the cable. Then- when you connect the cable, the computer will detect it and ask you what you want to do. It should provide some path for you to "browse" and select the drivers from your desktop folder you created. If it has already installed some form of driver automatically then-This might also require you to "update" your driver with your own file you have in that desktop folder you created. You should be able to look at your installed hardware and find the cable and update the driver. I did all of this with an Omron usb cable about two years ago and it was not easy. It was a learning experience to say the least. But when I had to do this on the Mitsubishi cable last week, it seemed much easier. My best advice is keep trying and be patient. I have found that eventually you will get a message from the pc informing you that you already have a better driver installed. Also- I will add that the videos I watched point out that there are drivers for the OS and the Cable that must BOTH be installed for the cable to work correctly. Hope that helps!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!


Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.


Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  
Followers 0