BobLfoot

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Posts posted by BobLfoot

  1. Posted

    I'll just add that when I had new apprentices to train about robots, I'd go to our biggest robot and while moving it in teach mode I'd say, "This robot will not hurt you, I guarantee you won't feel a thing as it seperates your head from your shoulders.  After all take not of the 10 Inch I-Beam dent it made the other day when it took a break from working."  "Don't fear the robot, but don't disrespect it, either".

    1 person likes this

  2. Posted

    Let me start off by saying that I have 36 plus year of experience with Industrial Automation and Robotics and take great exception to the sensationalism expressed in these headlines.  Please allow me to rant and hopefully save another young engineer from a similiar mishap.

    https://www.foxnews.com/us/robot-attacked-tesla-engineer-at-texas-factory

    https://nypost.com/2023/12/26/business/tesla-factory-worker-attacked-by-robot-which-dug-claws-into-back-arm/

    Websters tells us that an attack is "a belligerent or antagonistic action".  Such action is by definition not possible by a non-sentient piece of automation equipment.

    The American Industry Standard for Robotics has been ANSI-RIA 15.06 and it clearly states that anyone entering the working envelope of a robot must posess the Teach Pendant or Alternate Disconnect Means at all times.  

    Now reading the articles it appears that this was a multi-robot cell as the "engineer was programming two other robots in the cell."  Thus if his work did not involve the Third Robot it should have been under Lockout-Tagout_Try per OSHA 1910.147.  Had that been the case this catastrophe would not ahve occurrred.   If the Third Robot needed to be under power then it's pendant or disconnect should have been in the control of the Enginner and the 3rd robot limited to slow speed allowing for stopping when the errant action occurred.

    There is another possibility I would mention, something malfunctioned in the controls design and the safeties the Engineer thought he had, did not operate as intended.  The designer in this case will need to explain what happened.

    In closing , let me point out this incident occurred in 2021 and this is 2023 almost 2024 and we're just hearing about it.  If the Industry really wants to get better we'll "Fail Forward" and teach other robot users what actually went wrong here and make sure others don't have the same mishap.  That Mr. Musk would be a world class response. 

  5. Posted

    On 12/17/2023 at 2:32 AM, IvanBratanov said:

    As long as I know any actions related to passwords breakdowns are not allowed here at the forum. If there is a password on the PLC that means there is a copyright on the program inside. That is the main purpose of the password.

     I suppose the site admin could take a stand on the matter, but I think it is forbidden.
     

    Anyway the problem that started your topic was solved.

    Thank you @IvanBratanov The prohibition on password cracking discussions exists to respect the hard work of manufacturers and vendors.  Many manufacturers frequent the site and monitor it.

  6. Posted

    Some random thoughts

    1. Can you add a display object which shows the "Curr_Screen" variable somewhere on a few of the windows and make sure it is one of your known identified values?

    2.  In the "Curr_Screen" data change script add a numeric memory variable.  Set it to 0 at the start of the script and add 1,2,4,8 respecitvely to it for each if then that executes.  Monitoirung this will tell you what the scipt is doing.

    3.  Try adding buttons on a sandbox screen that can show each button bar.  see if they remain visible.

  7. Posted

    This is a static long time existing system.  RSLinx sits on a Development PC along with RSlogix.  The PC connects by Ethernet to a ControlLogix Gateway consiting of an EN2T and DH/RIO cards.  There are six nodes on the DH+ network, Node1-PLC5 , Node2-PLC5, Node4-PLC5, Node6-PLC5 , Node14-DHRIO card and Node24-DHRIO card.  Node1 and Node2 returned the error and then didn't.  Node4 and Node6 would g0o online just fine.  I did observe once I got online with nodea 1 & 2 that both had expereinced some excessive Scan Time.

  11. Posted

    23 hours ago, ElectronGuru said:

    @BobLfoot I believe 391 is Step Logic, not Stop Logic. This displays the current step of the Step Logic profile, assuming step logic is being used. 

    There is also a Drive Status 2 at parameter 393 (previously suggested) that could be helpful, but the drive status parameters need to be viewed while trying to run, and I don't think he's done that, yet.

    Aging eyes and small monitors.  Step / Stop looked much the same.

    I was trying to find the parameters which contained the Status Information about if it actually enabled and if any stop signals are present.

  16. Posted

    1 hour ago, spur341 said:

    Joe E. and pturmel, thanks for the messages. I dug through some of my old software and found both Windows XP and Windows 7. I'll read up on VMs. Thanks again.

     If you're running Windows10 Professional or Enterprise you should have Hyper-V VM Manager by default.  It will run the RSLogix but be a hassle doing plc conconnection thru USB or serial.  For usb and serial I'd reccommend VMWare.

  17. Posted

    Welcome to mrplc.com.

    I believe that you will find that asabtcp.ocx comes from Automated Solutions - https://www.automatedsolutions.com/products/activex/asabtcp.asp

    and you will need to purchase the license for it from them.

    It has been some years since I used the AS ocx, but I will warn you that when I was using it you needed to be careful transferring arrays.

    By this I mean that when we used it back 20 years ago , the Rockwell OCX loaded element 0 thru element N while the Automated Solutions OCX loaded element N through element 0.

    We had defined element N being "FFFF" as a trigger to process data , so when we switched to Automated solutions our code started processing data while it was still loading.

    Quite a mess until we sorted out what was happening. 

  20. Posted

    IT is old school and time consuming to code, but if you are input limited, but do have 4 inputs and some spare outputs you can diode isolate the same output of each switch and use one input for all 1st output of all switches.  you then poser one switch at a time and after powering the switch read the inputs it generates and then move to the next switch.  Had to do this once on an old omron system that only had 5 spare inputs left but an entire 16 bit bak of outputs spare.

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  21. Posted

    So I am posting back after finding the correct answers.

    Servers 1, 2 & 3 are setup under RDLicensing to use Server 3 as Per Device Licensing.

    Server 4 is setup under RDLicensing to use itself as Per User Licebsing.

    I then split the cals as 25 per device , 25 per user,

  22. Posted

    I have an Aveva System Platform 2020 System using thin clients and RDS Services.

    Server 1 - OI/HMI Server - supports 10 Thin Clients and one console session

    Server 2 - OI/HMI Server - supports 10 Thin Clients and one console session

    Server 3 - Development Server - Supports 1 Thin Client Development Session or RDP Development Sessions

    This all worked great during startup testing while RDS was in its 120 Day Grace period.

    My IT Depart has stood up Server 4 which has RDS Cals for 50 users.

    Now the question no one can seem to answer - What is the procedure to setup RDS Licensing so that Servers 1,2 & 3 draw their licenses from Server 4.

    Mr. Google shows tons of possible videos , but none seems to be a direct answer.

    Anyone with IT RDS experience that can shed some light?

  24. Posted

    I concur with @pturmel that option 2 is the best approach.  

    I would however be sure and run your connection count calculations for the I/O to the processor.

    There is a slim chance that you might want multiple ethernet cards in the Host Rack. I'm thinking one card for Programming and Scada Access, one card for five stations and another card for five stations.

    You'll also want to consider using Ethernet Ring with all its bells and whistles for maximum uptime.

    You also might consider two CPU in the Host Rack and configure for redundancy.  Obviously the cost goes up, but so does the stability.