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I hope that a DEV pins this & people use it. Hopefully someone with clout from Mitsubishi will pick it up and realise what a dog GX-Developer is, redesign it & I'll begin praising it! Here is my improvement requests & some reasoning... History [ BACK ] button / shortcut Lets face it, you would not use Internet Explorer if it didn't have a Back button, you'd go get FireFox. In a breakdown situation when you drill down into contacts, 3, 4, 5, levels, then realise your on the wrong path, you want to go back maybe 1 or 2 or 3 levels. now what was that address??? I forget. dang ANNOYING. Instant X-Ref dock-able pane (like CX-Programmer address reference) You click a contact & all usage is there in a docked list below. Simple & VERY useful. Customisable shortcuts for ALL OPERATIONS In my some areas of my work, a mouse is simply not up to it. And to be frank, I prefer sticking with one or the other, I hate being forced to move between mouse & keyboard. Don't move the carrot, I will. If I select a contact, then go into write mode, I DO NOT WANT THE APPLICATION TO MOVE THE CURSOR TO THE TOP OF THE RUNG OR ANY OTHER POSITION!!! dang annoying! Remember position when launching GXD Every time I launch GXD on my development machine with 4 19" monitors, GX insists on opening up across all screens, I want it to load just how I left it last time!!! More characters in my comments The highly restrictive comment length of 16 characters is simply ridiculous & leads to confusion - especially for persons unfamiliar with the ladder. Sure, restrict on screen viewing to 16 characters, but show the rest of the comment in the status bar or a tool-tip when the object is highlighted or something (take a look at AB and OMRON) Proof read ALL dialogs I still chuckle at the crap that is displayed when presented with confirmation dialogs. True Forcing & toggling - WITH STATUS With Omron you can FORCE ON, FORCE OFF & CANCEL FORCE or SET / RESET. The contact & coil will show a lock symbol signifying the item is forced. On line function help. I am pretty up to speed with the functions & instructions across a few PLCs but parameter help NEVER goes a miss. God help beginners. Normalise Ladder So i don't draw my rung in a perfect straight line, it is still 'electrically' sound, but GXD says NO! The ladder editing is almost as bad as AB. Omron rules here - please don't take my word for it, try it out! Commented Rung Browser Comment your most useful rungs & call up the 'Commented Rung Browser'. you are presented with a list of items... Station Normal Home Position Station Complete Cycle Time Counter Cycle Counter HMI ... you click on item 3 & you are taken to the logic for 'Cycle Complete' Highly effective, intuitive, immediate custom help info & encourages users to maintain comments. I have more, but my fingers ache & my blood pressure is rising. Please add your comments. NOTE: I am not against Mitsubishi, I have to use it, but compared to others I have used, it is simply miles behind. I want it to catch up to the rest because when I come to chose a PLC for a project, I will immediately discount Mitsubishi regardless of cost or PLC capability on the basis of the technicians maintaining it would hang me having used OMRON and AB & it slows me to a craw both developing (inconsistent shortcut keys) and debugging (restrictive comments, no history, all of the above) . NOTE2: The version I own is V8.05 (i think) so if any of this is already catered for, let me know & I'll amend it (and perhaps buy an upgrade!). Steve.

Hi, we have an obsolecence issue with PLC3-10 & are looking at upgrade options. Idealy, I would swap out the PLC3-10 processors for modern AB processors & (initially) reuse all of the existing RIO. The logic behind this thinking is that the thousands of IO points can continue to function and be slowly migrated to modern IO over a loger period of time - this would minimise the hardware changes duing the relatively short shutdown period & allow us to utelise the modern processors with minimal risk. Q: Do the newer processors (e.g. 5000 series) have the ability to connect to and use IO over RIO (i.e. is there a RIO scanner for the newer AB PLCs)? Q: Is there a 3rd party RIO scanner that would allow another type of PLC to run the facility (the departments prefered PLC manufacturer is Mitsi) Any other advise would be greatly appreciated. Regards, Steve.

As per title... How can I set the PLC Clock from ladder? (PLC3-10), I've searched the forum & read the manual but it I can't seem to find the info necessary to set the PLC clock from ladder - is it even possible? Thanks in advance, Steve.

Thank you very much Ken - this information is very good news. "PLC-2/3/5 migrations are a substantial part of my business" - Are you in the UK? Do you do software conversions PLC3 --> ControlLogix? Do you do full conversion & installation? Cheers, Steve.

My AB inexperience shows here & the manual was as clear as mud but I think I've sussed it, Use the MVS (Move Status) function and write to the extended addresses (instead of Status file S1)... E0.0.0.14 YYYY E0.0.0.15 MM E0.0.0.16 DD E0.0.0.17 hh E0.0.0.18 mm E0.0.0.19 ss Steve.

Hi newpageboba, thanks for taking the time to reply, i'm pretty sure you cant simply write to these registers! Could you explain how to set these via ladder please? What function (example ladder would be great) Cheers, Steve.

CX Programmer has approximately 10 levels of history. Again, I feel strongly about this - having had this facility since LSS (1980s) I miss it A LOT. I thought my liking to Internet Explorer without a back button should have provoked enough emotion to elicit a few "yeahs". I (and approximately 100 technicians I work with on approximately 50 CX-Programmer installations - all live and on-line 24/7 used daily for monitoring, modifing and debuging live production lines) can say with out any shadow of a doubt that this function speeds up ladder debugging & fault finding by aproximately a factor of 10 - I have seen it first hand & done it myself. And to be honest - what effort is it (for the mitsi programmers) to add a navigation stack - very little! (relatively speaking) Finally, 'Crossbow', please understand, I wish to better this product - while my frustrations may not sound like much to you, they annoy me greatly (having used products that do offer these nice touches).

GX Works2 (Simple Mode) At the time of writing this - I am not sure of which version I have (i'm not at work right now) but my first impressions are not so favourable. I find the ladder editing and navigation to be a big let down - below are a few of the frustrations I have with this post 2008 product... single undo level in edit mode is simply not good enough still no ladder normilisation (i.e. circuit is electrically sound but will not store!) still a restrictive number of comment characters still no navigation history to take you back to previous locations when navigating the ladder (a major pain IMO - you would change your internet browser immediately if it had no BACK button!) menu items still active when they shouldn't be scrolling in ladder moves cursor (god knows why) no indication in ladder of an items forced state while the cross ref window is a step in the right directions, I wish it was instant & dynamic (i.e. click a contact, coil or function with memory area - instant x-ref below) while not immediately obvious why - I would love to see copy & paste between the ladder editor and Excel. e.g. when writing ladder for multiple stations where only addressing changes - being able to copy and paste between excel (to use its fill functions and cell references etc) greatly simplifies & speeds up development! (I will explain why if in detail if you wish or just try it yourself in CX Programmer) Others - I forget right now NOTE: This is by no means an exhaustive review (I do intend on doing this & feeding back to mitsubishi soon). Please feel free to correct me if any of the above frustrations have already been addressed in newer versions. Regards, Steve. I will update this post with version details ASAP

I'm not sure what version you are using (or the version I have for that matter - i'm not at work right now) but my first impressions are not so favourable. More here... http://forums.mrplc.com/index.php?s=&s...ost&p=82618 <EDIT - Moved post to the iQ Works improvements thread>

The port number can be changed in Kepware, so if need be I'll do that. I'll give it a try, thanks very much for your swift reply. Steve.

Hi, I was wondering if anyone here could assist me in the setup of a Q Series PLC with a QJ71E71-100 for OPC connection via UDP. In line with the PLC being replaced, I Ideally need the new PLC to allow the existing Kepware communication settings to work. I am pretty unfamiliar with the Mitsi PLCs / GX Developer & setup so some screen shots or step by step guide of how I can set it up to allow a UDP connection on Port 263 (as set in Kepware - decimal i guess). I'd appreciate a quick response if possible. Many Thanks, Steve.

I can't disagree more. This capability is something many of you may not even realise exists in other packages, but I tell you this much, it is a ABSOLUTE BOON! Let me explain... You write a portion of ladder You copy it as mnemonic you paste it into excel & replace the address parts of the functions with ="D" & (1990 + (COL() * 10)) You copy it across 10 columns - instantly you have written the ladder for 10 more stages, incrementing the D2000 address by 10 - WITHOUT ERROR Now this is a simple example, but being creative you can apply the same logic to contacts, coils, etc etc. Some might argue that a function block is more suited & it is, but sometime the ladder will require customised parts - so use this method to make the base circuit then put it in excel, parametrize it, copy xxx times, paste back in & its written. DEFINATELY saved me hours of work & looking for the 1 function i forgot to update!!! Steve.

Excellent points. Thanks very much, I'll give it a try. Yes, I am aware hyperterminal can be used (though TBH, i've never worked with this module!), however 2 things, both RS232 ports are in use & this set-up is for maintenance guys who have the DH485 unit & standard op sheets for the PBASE method. The preference is to use PBASE, but ultimately, I might have to go the Hyperterminal way. Regards, Steve.

Hi all, I wonder if anyone could point me in the right direction. The company I work for owns a licenced copy of the PBASE software for an AB Basic module (1771-AD) on a PLC3. I have the 2 original installation disks & they appear to install correctly, but upon execution of the PBASE software, I get the following error... ErrorCode = -9 CANNOT LOAD DRIVER PACKAGE I suspect there is a disk or two missing (perhaps a driver installation disk) - am I right in this assumption? and if so, where I could get a copy! Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Steve.

Thanks for responding. I installed it on a PC running DOS 6.22 only (not DOS on windows) - the error occurs when executing PBASE. Any more ideas regarding this fault anyone? Thanks, Steve. UPDATE I have just read the installation part of the manual, it is as I had done (adding the path entry in Autoexec.bat and the files / buffers entries in Config.sys). Perhaps my install disks are no good!!! Any idea how I'd get a replacement copy? Thanks, Steve.

Yes, Y10 and Y11 were off. Do you have sample ladder? Cheers, Steve.

Hi all, The manual for the AJ71C24 card I am wrestling with says that setting the buffer address 10Dh to 1 should clear the read buffer and then it will set buffer address 10Dh back to 0. When I do this, all that seems to happen is that Y11 (Read Req) comes on, X1 (Read buffer data present) goes off. When I toggle Y11 off, X1 comes back on! Does any one have working ladder (or even a know solution) to clear the buffer of an AJ71C24 Serial card? Thanks, Steve.

I use (listed in order of preference)... Cimplicity - PROS: Pretty stable, easy to use, event driven compiled VB scripts run in own thread in the background, Cimedit / Cimview is good for maintenance personnel who want to do simple mods. CONS: Old VB implementation iFIX - PROS: True VBA, Dynamos. CONS: Dreadfully buggy, single thread for scripts, adjusting screen size after creation of document is like mission imposable. Tag database is woeful. Citect - just not right. Cant put my finger on it - I don't like many things, yet the things I don't like are not as infuriating as the things I dislike about iFIX. The Tag Debug dialog is a joke, the driver and tag setup is dreadful. Fix DMACS - yes, its old & past it, but still I have to use it occasionally. Dreadful. I despise it!

I've been in touch with one of the European developers I met a few weeks ago & asked if he would step the code (to which he kindly did). It seems the problem lies somewhere in one of the components he has no access src for (developed / compiled by the lead programmers in Japan). He agrees this is a worsening issue and has escalated this with the Japanese guys. He said he will let me know the outcome when he finds out what the underlying concern is. I'll post an update when I get more info. Regards, Steve.

Does anyone know how can I increase the maximum allowable instances of CX-Prog V7? Currently on our PCs (P4 2.8ghz 1Gb memory, Win-XP) I can open only 4 instances of CXP & would like to increase this to 8 (as it was on V3.2) I am aware that one project (workspace) can hold many PLCs but this is not liked and confusing to some people. Cheers, Steve.

Hi all, excuse my ignorance (Omron is where my experience is) but can someone give me some help understanding the relevance of settings for Ethernet in GX-Developer... For the following questions, please assume a network of 10 PLCs + 2 PCs wanting to monitor PC-Side Network NoIf I set this to 10 on all PLCs then a new PLC is added but pre-set (by contractor) to Network no 2, what is the result? I can still communicate with PLC over ethernet! is it for routing of some sorts? [*]Station Number Simply an identifier for the PC? Should all 10 GX projects on 1 PC on this Network 10 have different Station Numbers or the same number (since it is only 1 PC)? [*]PLC Side Station Number [*] Does this matter if the IP address is set to talk directly to the PLC (not routing)? [*]Network Route Access to Ethernet Module on PLC side I/FDoes setting this override "PLC Side" "Station Number" [*]Other station in same loop or access to multilevel system Does this option allow access to other PLCs on the network via say NET10? If you can access say node 5 on NET 10 nework (network number 1) would I set Network Number to this connection (ethernet) or the destination network (NET10) Thanks, Steve. ************************************** PLCs in network Q3A & Q06H, Ethernet "Network Number" : 10, NET 10 "Network Number" : 1 **************************************

Not the answer I was hoping for : Anyone else managed to get more than 4 instances of CXP open on a PC?

??? Doesn't make sense! How do you keep 'what' in side a subroutine? The program will run to END and then restart. The structure of your ladder means that when the conditions are met, your equals flag will switch on (assuming 0.00 is on) and the pulse output will stop - is this not enough? or am i missing something? And why put it in a subroutine? to segregate? A subroutine is most useful for running the same code a variable number of times in 1 scan (usually where some 'input parameter' changes) and this is usually data manipulation as IO is (usually) not processed till after the END instruction. e.g. ' If Fault is on, then fill D100 & call SBN 100 to do something clever using same ladder but different value LD FAULT1 MOV #0001 D100 SBS #100 ' If Fault is on, then fill D100 & call SBN 100 to do something clever using same ladder but different value LD FAULT2 MOV #0002 D100 SBS #100 ' If Fault is on, then fill D100 & call SBN 100 to do something clever using same ladder but different value LD FAULT2 MOV #0003 D100 SBS #100 If you were to use a subroutine & it was called many times - you would not switch the outputs unless you did an IO refresh in the subroutine. As your program seems to be a stepper controller only, it seems superfluous. If you are intent to have it in a SBN then I suggest something like... * Have your ON switch (or command position change) @SET a H bit (e.g. H0.00) * Use H0.00 to call the SBN e.g.... LD H0.00 SBS #100 * In your SBN when 11.02 comes on, RSET H0.00 Please clarify & I'll see if I can help further.

Hello all, I have a question I'm hoping you clever guys can help me with... Senario... 5 PLC's, all with local Cimplicity installations, all on different subnets (192.168.100.100, 192.168.101.100, 192.168.102.100, 192.168.103.100, 192.168.104.100 ) I need to connect 1 PC to all 5 PLC's to communicate via IFIX. OK, so I thought... 1. Change Subnet Mask on PLCs to 255.255.0.0 2. Change the mode on the ETN21 units to Mixed (combined) and add PLCs into table with fixed node number 3. Set the UDP number to different individual numbers (9601, 9602, 9603...) 4. Ping ALL PLCs from IFIX machine 192.168.32.2 - OK 5. Set-up the ORE IFIX driver to communicate with the PLCs What I find is that the ORE driver communicates OK with the PLCs, however, it seems to cause the Cimplicity machines to drop out (objects go all black) after a short time (2 mins). So I guess my questions are... a) Is the multiple UDP connections that cause of this concern & if so, what can be done? b) What options do I have with the current set-up (note: I cannot change PLC IP addresses) c) Can the TCP ports be utelised for the IFIX connection (if necessary) NOTE: one thing I haven't tried is adding the PC's (Cimplicity and IFIX) into the PLC's IP table with different Node Numbers. Perhaps this will help (grasping / straws)? Cheer, David.

Firstly - anonymous, thanks for taking the time to respond. Sure, I'm aware that the PC's addresses would need to be in the IP table for CX to communicate via Ethernet, however, I have the Mode set to Mixed (combined) as in Auto+Table on the ETN21 Ethernet units. As the IFIX and Cimplicity machines communicate with the PLC individually, I did not consider this to be the issue. It is when they are both communicating that issues arise. Although I cannot view it right now, I seem to remember the cimplicity log stating that the response was of incorrect length. This has led me to believe that it is somehow reading the PLC's responses to the IFIX node as its own & therefore incorrect. Just to clarify, 6 PCs (1x IFIX + 5x Cimplicity) connected via Ethernet to 5 PLCs ETN21. All PLCs on different sub-nets but Mask opened up to 255.255.0.0 to allow the IFIX machine to communicate with all. By themselves, the IFIX PC or Cimplicity PCs communicate OK. Together, the IFIX machine remains connected, the Cimplicity machines seem to 'disconnect' (for want of a better word) i.e. black objects on screen (no data). Any suggestions anyone?