drluggo

I have not been able to find a clear answer to this problem. I have a running batch process which spans across muliple Controllogix PLC's. I need to make changes to these and run recipes which run on units in each of these controllers. I want to make these changes and simulate the process in order to test and train operators. The recipe would need to run through each unit in entirely with multiple units running simultaneously. What is the best way to do this. From what I understand, Emulate and Softlogix require changing the processor from the real hardware and possibly moving slot assginments. This will cause permanent changes to the code that I do not want because I will be putting it back on real hardware. The other option is to purchase (5) L62 processors, QUITE EXPENSIVE!!! I cannot be the only one looking to do this. What do people do in these cases to take a running system, load it on a development platform, develop and test, then load back onto the target sytem for commissioning. Any help on this topic is appreciated.

Is it me or is there a seriouss disconnect in Factory Talk between "Macros" and VBA code for a display. In Office Applications (Excel,...), these are one in the same. In Factory Talk, they are different and I am struggling to figure out how to accomplish what I want. I simply want to display the currently logged in user on the display. For some reason the built-in system\user will only display ?????? on the display so it was suggested that I use the CurrentUserName() method to get this. So I go into VBA code for the display and in my Animation Start I place the following: Text2.Caption = Application.CurrentUserName() Works perfect!. Only catch is that it only works on startup and will not update when a new user logs in. So I need to create some kind of event (using timed for this example) so I wnat that Caption to be updated every two seconds. BACK TO FT APPLICATION and create and event that triggers every two seconds. Easy enough. What do we want to do when this event occurs, we want to run the Application.CurrentUserName, but how do I call that since I am no logner in the VBA world and I do not have access to this (or I don't know how) inside of the worlld of FT application "macros". MAybe jsut a little confused but ideally I would like t oopen up the world of objects that appears inside the "True" VBA code for hte display for macros inside of the application. Am I way off here?

Lars, thanks for the quick reply. Well , that worked but since that is a property of the current application, I had to write VB code to get to it. This means that I will need to create an event to trigger it to update, such as something like OnUserChange. I was hoping for something that would just always display the current user and not force me to write any custom code. If anyone knows of anything that will work in that manner please let me know, but for now I will proceed with the VB method.

I am wiriting a Factory TAlk applicaiton and using FActory TAlk Studio local edition version 6.0 for a standalone application that will reside on a Versaview workstation. I have the need to display the currenlty logged in user and I am having trouble. For testing purposes I am doing the following: Current User: s......s So I have a string variable and the tag that it is linked to is system/user. All I get on the display is ????????. I am able to display all other vairables (both string and numeric), and OPC data from a PLC, just not the logged in user. I also have a button where I can changed the user, and the login is always successful as seen in the FT diagnostics, but it just does not appear to want to display the user name, although I know the application has that information. I do not have a fixed number of characters so I assume that it would just try and display the entire string if it can, regardless of the length. Am I missing something here? Any help is certainly appreciated.

I have attached a Visio of the physical rack with two options. In the first option I shuffle some of the cards which I would rather not do. In the second option I leave hte original configuration. I completely do not understand why I cannot leave the rack with the cards as is and access it that way. On the diagram of the existing configuration, I have also shown at least according to my understanding which input and output words on the ASB card will be used. From what I understand this is just flat memory of 32 In and 32 Out words and does not care how you break up your racks and groups. Please helo, if I had a SLC laying around I would try this and figure it out, but I don't. Am I way off on this? IO Options.pdf

I have been struggling this for weeks. I have read the manuals up and down an there are not any exapmles of when I have two 32 DI modules next to each other and then two DO modules next to each other. Here is what I am thinking: SLC 13-slot chassis with 1747-ASB in slot 0. Lets assume that I have properly addresed slots 1-4 as Rack 1 and slots 5-8 as Rack 2 and using 1/2 slot addressing. So for rack 3 I have: Slot 9 = 1746-IB32 Slot 10 = 1746-IB32 Slot 11 = 1746-OB32 Slot12 = 1746-OB32 Please do not tell me to rearrange the cards because I cannot due to drawings, etc. I am communicating with this using a CLX and lets assume that the Rack is defined as R3 in my CLX. Is this how I access my I/O? Slot 9 - R3:I.Data[0].xx and R5:I.Data[1].xx Slot 10 - R3:I.Data[2].xx and R5:I.Data[3].xx Slot 11 - R3:O.Data[4].xx and R5:O.Data[5].xx Slot 12 - R3:O.Data[6].xx and R5:O.Data[7].xx Nowhere in any document that I have seen is it clear about what to do if you have multiple input cards next to each other or mulitple output cards next to each other. If you know of a document that explains, this please let me know.

Wanted to bump this to the top. I am really struggling with this one.

In my SLC rack I will have the following: Slot 0: 1747-ASB Slot 1: Empty Slot 2: Empty Slot 3: 1746-NI4 Slot 4: 1746-NO4I Slot 5: 1746-NI4 Slot 6: 1746-NI4 Slot 7: 1746-NO4I Slot 8: 1746-IB32 Slot 9: 1746-IB32 Slot 10: 1746-IB32 Slot 11: 1746-OB32 Slot 12: 1746-OB32 Originally, I was thinking that this would be Rack 4/5 with single slot addressing and Rack 4 (Full) would comprise slots 1-8 and Rack 5 (Half) would comprise slots 9-12. However in the documentation it does not appear that I can use single slot addressing for hte 32 point cards. So I have to use 2 slot addressing for those. However, the dip switches on the card only have one setting for addressing mode so I cannot use single slot and 2-slot mixed. Can I access the analog cards with 2-slot and how would this affect my rack and group configurations? Any help would be appreciated. If someone can point me in the right direction that should be all I need. I have the manual on the 1747-ASB which talks about the addressing modes, but my only experience has been with single slot and I am not sure how to break this up for 2-slot addressing. -Chris

YES, when I change the M0 and M1 to 32 words, it gives me the same dialog as your screen shot. Also, in analyzing the program, they only use up to word 29 for both input and output. So it looks like my deivces in the field are already setup as Racks 1-3 and group depends on which word (i.e. R0G0 is words 0/1, R0G1 is words 2/3,.....) If that is the case, I can add BTR to subsitute for any of the driect access to that 1747-SN card and the local chassis becomes Rack 4 (Full) and Rack 5 (Half) to access the local I/O. As far as the cards on the local chassis, I have done this before and it is tricky but I can make it work so I am not too concerned at this point, it was just the reote racks I was not sure of.

I understand what you mean by removing the scanner card and daisy chining the existing devices. That is what I was originally planning on. I did think you were saying that there is a way to leave it and access the other scanner, but I will be installing a 1747-ASB to the local rack and connecting in the remote I/O to that. My problem really is how to address that existing remote i/o. As you can see from the attachment .I do not have the graphical GFile editor (V81.0?) in Logix500 but I have attached what I see in the configuration. I have also shown some rungs where this I/O is referenced in the program. As you can see there are no block transfers and the I/O both analog and digital is referenced directly to words on that scanner card in slot 1. I will have limited downtime to make this conversion and need to know that I am at least close. I am thinking that the devices are already configured as a rack/group series, but I just do not know what that is. If I knew how they are configured, I would know how to address in the CLX, but I am at a loss. Am I going to have to dig through the manuals on these things or is there some way to tell by how the code is configured? Or better yet, can I access them in a similar manner from the CLX? I am good with the local rack as that will become rack n and rack n+1, depending on the way that the others are already configured. Thanks, Chris G File Config.doc

OK, that is promising. I can certainly leave the existing scanner and definitely will. So then am I correct in stating that RAck 4 will be the exsitng SLC rack, slots 2-9 and rack 5 will be the existing SLC rack, slots 10,11,12? That takes care of that. The Gfile setting is as follows: Size = 3, then in the detailed configuration it looks like Offset 0 8224 -1 -1 When I expand this out to binary 8224 becomes 0010 0000 0010 0000 and -1 is 1111 1111 1111 1111 When I look at this in the 1747-SN documentation, it looks like Rack 1 starts at group 2 and is a 3/4 rack and rack 3 starts at group 2 and is a 3/4 rack. So rack 0 and 2 are not used then??? Am I reading this properly and if so, is that all I need to address these? Also, then in my CLX I just add the block transfer code to read/write the data?

I am converting a SLC to Controllogix. I have done one of these before so I am familiar mostly with what needs to be done, except for mapping the new I/O addresses. I will be keeping the I/O in the existing SLC and addressing it as remote I/O. I figured I would make the I/O in the local chassis as my rack #0 full and rack #1 half, since it is a thriteen slot chassis. My problem is this. The existing chassis has a remote I/O scanner that is talking RIO to some drives and a scale. This is in slot #1 and I plan on removing this along with the processor and installing the 1747-ASB to communicate with the 1756-DHRIO. Therefore the master RIO scanner will reside in the CLX and then rack 0/1 becomes the local I/O in the SLC chassis and the drives and scale are further down the RIO chain. I am not sure how to address these drives/scales. In the existing program, they are not done like I have traditionally seen remote I/O with block transfers. It appears that they are done by directly addressing the RIO scanner. For example they read the drive speed as I:1.4 and the scale weight as I:1.14 and there are a few drive commands that are addressed down to the bit level. My problem is that I do not know how to map this in the CLX. I do not have a problem adding the block transfers in my CLX program if necessary, but just do not know how to map what is currently there to a traditional Rack/Group/Slot type configuration to get the data to the right place. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Chris

Please Note - I have tried this configuration with multiple cards, multiple adapters in different racks, etc. to rule out any hardware issues..... Additionally, I have tried every possible dip switch configuration on the 1747-ASB..... I have a controllogix chassis communicating with a DHRIO card to 1 rack (logical rack #1) with a 1747-ASB module. In my latest setup, I have just the one analog output card installed in the 1747 chassis. Whenever I establish communication to the ASB, the status light on the NO8i flashes, indicating insufficient 24V. Note that when there is a noc light on the ASB, the light on the I/O card stays solid. It only goes to fault condition when the ASB goes to run status. Again this happens in every conceivable hardware scenario I have. I have even setup the analog card to use external, not rack power and the same thing. Consequently, I have BTW commands in my controllogix and they are not erroring out, indicating that they are sending data, however, I never get any millamps out on the output card. I am completely perplexed. Anyone ever seen this????

I have the need to do reads to this SLC as well as writes. Writes are working flwlessly, but now reads are giving me fits. All I do is copy the MSG instruction, change the message control tag, and set to SLC Typed Read and I get an error "Illegal command from local processor" Any ideas?

I got it. I needed to change the message format to DH+ and get the comms parameters correct. For those intereseted, the attachement contains the configuration that I ended up with. screenshot.doc