Walter Anderson

Hello Mouni, Please explain in more detail what you are trying to do. What data type is your variable, and how are you using it for time. Citect stores time in seconds from a particular date and has functions to convert time back and forth between this and the typical time/date formats that make sense to people.

CLR for single 16-bit words and FLL for multiple sequential words work well. Minimum bit on time to be picked up by HMI depends on how often the HMI is checking the PLC for changes. It would be really rare for the communications to happen at the right moment to catch a bit that is on for one scan. It generally works well to latch alarm bits on and have them cleared only on a command from HMI, such as a clear faults button.

Interesting posts, all. I did download the full XP SP3 rather than allow Windows Update to do the job as I had two computers to install it on here at home. On the other hand, I regularly run RSLogix 500 and 5000 on another computer via remote desktop, and that one was updated via IT Dept. administered Windows Update. I'm not sure if it was the same as you would get on an non-centrally administered Windows Update or not. My experience is limited to RSLogix 500 & 5000 and RSLinx Classic--haven't tried any other Rockwell products on SP3 yet.

Our network admin recently (a few weeks ago) deployed XP SP3 to all computers, including five I personally work with Rockwell products (RSLogix 5000, 500, and RSLinx Classic) on. So far none of us programmers have run into any issues. Good luck!

Agreed, the process must be followed by everyone all the time for it to work. In our case, we work on files on server, so it is no special pain to save them there; we already are. The "OUT-Whoever" tag on the end of the file name is used to keep two people from doing simultaneous work and one guy over-writing the other's changes. If the file says, "OUT-Whoever", we have to contact Whoever to find out when file will be available for editing again--or what portion they are working on so we can merge changes back in later. It sounds like this may not be the ideal solution for you. I hope one of the other suggestions does the trick.

We were using non-AB CF cards in our CompactLogix processors with success... until we upgraded CompactLogix to the latest firmware. At which point they all stopped working at once. AB TechConnect has one question: "Is it AB CF?" AB CF solved the problem. It does seem that for simple program backup and restore on corrupt memory that any old CF should work. But it doesn't, at least if you are running the latest firmware.

Hi Donovan, I've worked with two 1769-L32Es in one plant. One had a compact flash slot and the other did not (to our chagrin--had expected both to come with it). It appears to be optional. The current program can be stored to compact flash in the one that has a slot. It must be done in programming mode, which makes it a bit of a pain (have to find a time when plant is not running to keep it up-to-date). I understand some of the newest processors (probably not L32Es) are now smart enough to store the current program and values to (internal, I think) flash memory just before shutting down due to power loss. That would be a very sweet setup, as manually maintaining is a pain and, at least in our case, very difficult/impossible to keep fully up-to-date. Oh, one word of caution: AB has a tendency (genetic, I think) to dislike non-AB CF cards. Their first question when you call TechConnect regarding failed stores to CF: "Are you using AB CF?" We were actually using non-AB CF cards successfully, but they quit workin in ALL processors (where they had worked flawlessly before) when we upgraded AB firmware. So, you get what you pay for with AB CF, if you're paying off AB to let you use CF. Good luck,

Hello PLCDeveloper, I have not worked with Mitsubishi's (all AB), so this may not be relevant... but... here's what we do for the same reasons (want to have current backup available for recovery immediately--though super-rare that we've needed one): When we update the PLC we always save a copy of the program file to the server, appended with the current date--result is a folder of files that look something like this: BatchPLC_20080820a BatchPLC_20080822a BatchPLC_20080822b BatchPLC_20080831a BatchPLC_20080901a DryerPLC_20080801a DryerPLC_20080827a If you save the program anywhere other than the PLC when programming on Mitsubishi's, this would work well; just give everyone else Read-Only permissions (so they don't delete files or something) and save your work in a folder on the server where it is available for download back to the PLC if needed. When needed, anyone who knows how to download can easily pick out the latest date and download it. In our case we have multiple programmers and sometimes have beta versions in development (updates in progress not yet deployed to PLC), so we've appended additional info to files as needed, such as: DryerPLC_20080801a_Beta (Beta file, available for editing) DryerPLC_20080827a_Beta_OUT-WAnderson (Beta file, currently signed out by WAnderson) I hope this helps!

Hi JIM60406 We haven't yet put a panel outdoors, though we are planning to sometime (after a bunch of other things are done), so I'm interested to know how your project turns out. Indoors in cement/concrete plants in extremely dusty environments exposed to temperature extremes we have used AB PanelView and C-More touch panels. The C-Mores didn't look overly sturdy to us, but we decided to give them a try and they are holding up well so far (over a year). They also look better, and are easier to program and maintain than the PanelViews, in our opinion (though all of our PLCs are AB, we've used PanelBuilder for some time, and C-More was new to us). All of ours are Ethernet connected, which allows updating while live from anywhere in the world via VPN into the plant. I am not certain if any of C-More's offerings would be great outdoors, but would definitely look into them (www.automationdirect.com) after our initial experience with them. Good luck!

Citect animation is via frames (much like video with a string of pictures in a row, except generally much slower and more choppy). So if you create each view of what you want to animate and then string them together you can in theory animate anything. Citect does not however directly animate anything other than horizontal/vertical/rotation of an image. Anything more complex than that will have to be done via frames. I have not personally used AVIs in Citect, but if you want a smooth animation of something complex, that does sound like the most likely route. Hope this helps. Good luck!

Hello 'whitenight', You probably already found a solution to hide or minimize a window. In case it's helpful, here's how we control window display/size on startup (can be adapted for use at other times as well): 1 - Write a function similar to this: FUNCTION Startup() WinMode(0); !Hide main Citect window END Notes: a) In Cicode Editor you can right-click WinMode and chose Help to see other options if completely hiding the window is not what you want. b) You can use this functionality on non-Citect windows using WndFind and WndShow (instead of WinMode) 2 - Run Citect Explorer->Tools->Computer Setup Wizard... and go to the Startup Functions Setup screen. 3 - Select "Client" if running multi-process or "Client and Servers" if running single mixed process and click Modify. 4 - Enter "Startup()" (or whatever you named the function in Step 1), click OK, and finish the Computer Setup Wizard. Next time you run your project, the main Citect window should dissappear from screen. If you prefer to just minimize it, change the number in WinMode(#) to 2. Hope this helps! Walter