Giz99

Another good reason to install all your PLC software on a seperate Virtual Machine. When you get a bad install, reload your backup or clone and start again. I have had issues like thing with GE, Allen Bradley and others.

The insulation on welding cable is not designed for continuous use. My electrical inspector will fail any installation which uses welding cable for a non welding application. His reasoning is that it is not identified in any of the tables in the electrical code.

You will find that the welding cable does not have any rating on it. If you look in your electrical code you will not find welding cable mentioned for continuous current carrying applications. The DLO able is a great multi strand cable but it can be expensive.

Did you see if there was a new .eds file for the drive and install it?

I have been using a program a lot from logmein.com The free version will allow you remote control of another computer. You can use this troubleshoot or anything else you want. It is really easy to setup.

Phoenix Contact makes a 24VDC UPS. http://www.phoenixcontact.ca/news/248_7867.htm

I just set up a Generic numbered company. It was easier and I only need it for Banking and Invoicing. When people need help they know who to call. Some day if things ever slow down, I will think about a catchy name. Giz

I have been using the Phoenix Contact Thermomark S1 for the past year. It is a small bench top printer which accepts different sizes of wire labeles, heat shrink, and other types of labels. I uses a software package to print from a PC and you can export from Excel or EPlan. Giz

I have used a couple of Red Lions and they are great. They are easy to set up an program. On one of them I am using them as an interface between two different types of PLCs manipulating data in their structured text language and sending it back to PLC variables. The nicest option is that you can upload the complete program from the unit. AB panel view plus only keeps a compiled version. Giz.

I have two laptops and I use the converters from Quatech. They are rock solid and I have not found anything that I cannot connect too serially. PCMCIA version http://www.quatech.com/catalog/rs232_pcmcia.php Express Card version (had to buy this when I found that my new laptop did not have a PCMCIA card) http://www.quatech.com/catalog/expresscard_performance.php I also have a devicenet PCMCIA card that I need to use occasionally. I bought a PCMCIA to express card converter by Duel Systems http://www.duel-systems.com/products/adapters.aspx what works well with my AB card. I wished manufactures of new equipment would put USB or ethernet ports on their equipment instead of serial ports. I still see this on recently released equipment on a regular basis. Giz

I like to use page and line numbers then increment each wire number on the same line. For PLC hard wire, use the I/O Address. For Remote I/O I have assigned internal bits as the I/O address at design time. For some of the I/O such a as devicenet you don not always know the address until you configure it on line then it is too late if it is incorrect. By assigning the generic internal address the configured I/O just gets re-mapped in the code. Giz.

A less expensive option may be to use one of the Red Lion HMIs or other controls. They can host a web page of the data you require and may work out less expensive then an AB card.

Omron works quite well with Devicenet and the Devicenet card seems reliable for GE. Watch out for cabling lengths and practices. Giz.

I purchased one called a DuelAdapter by a company called Duel Systems P/N DA-001 I needed to use a AB devicenet card on my laptop and this was the only thing I could find on the market. To my surprise it has worked extremely well especially since AB cards can be a nuisance at times. The cards is kind of bulky but it works. Goodluck. Giz

S7 likes to integrate the HMI software into the program. If you have a program with HMI's programmed in Protool or WINCC Flexible and these packages are not installed on your program you will get these messages. You can still go on-line with the PLC and do changes. Once you install the HMI software these messages go away. Giz