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What message do you get when you try to upload? The download problem you describe DOES sound like the wrong firmware revision was selected when writing the panelview program, either that or the wrong model of terminal was chosen, etc. If you could get it to upload you could take a look at the terminal setup parameters and compare them to what you put in your program. Oh, and I seem to be saying this a lot lately but, if you have a Flash ATA PCMCIA card on hand, you could avoid upload/download problems alltogether by using the card to do the file transfers.

Maybe the best way to answer would be in the form of a chart.. the first column would list all the networks and each following column would list subjective criteria, like what you've asked. I don't have such a chart, I wonder if anyone does. As far as speed, I think Ethernet/IP is at the top of the pack. anything riding on RS232 or RS485 would be near the bottom. noise immunity, I don't know. There's more than one way to hook up ethernet, and I think the connection method would have a lot to do with that. Redundant Controlnet would probably be near the top as far as noise immunity. Determinism would be another important criteria. Max cable length is important too. But then there's all the other non-AB protocols that I've never dealt with.. Who knows how they stack up.

wow.. that's kinda like asking the meaning of life :) Some comm standards are very old, some are very new. Some are designed for heavy bandwidth, some for simple point-to-point comms. Some are proprietary to a particular manufacturer, some are "open" to anyone who wants to develop for it. Some are particularly favored by certain industries. Some are favored by certain parts of the world. The reason for them being favored may be practical, traditional, political, or a combination of all three. Some make sense for smaller jobs, some for larger ones. Some are cheaper to implement, some are more costly. So in other words, there's no easy answer to such a broad question. If you could narrow your question in scope, (in other words.. "For Allen-Bradley.. In Canada.. In North American Auto Plants.. For Facility Automation.." etc.) then someone may be able to take a stab at it!

Have any of you used the Bussman OSCAR software? It is supposed to step you through the procedure of SCCR rating your panel. My boss went to a seminar last week and he thinks we should buy it

I should also mention that it must be a "Flash ATA" type card, not a Databook card. The card will say "ATA" on it somewhere. These are the "Thumb drives" of yesteryear.. they appear to the host PC (or panelview) as a disk drive. As far as the firmware.. I think the problem is that it does NOT ship with the online-downloadable PB32 on the RSI site. It DOES come on the distribution CDs however. Seems like there should be somewhere on the RSI site where you could find it..

Although this doesn't really answer your question, I just thought I'd add that you should consider using a flash memory card for U/L and D/L. It can save a lot of time, especially with larger .PVA file sizes and on busy networks. I'm guessing this would sidestep the problem you're having, too.

Just another shot-in-the-dark but maybe this would be a good time to (attempt to) flash-upgrade the firmware. This requires the 1747-OS401 upgrade module that plugs into the backup memory module. If you don't already have one, your friendly local A-B distributor should have one to give to you or at least let you use for this test. Another random thought.. I wonder what would happen if you saved a program to a backup memory module on the WORKING SLC, and then plugged it into the flakey one? Would it recognise the program I wonder? Of course, this would only be useful if they're the same model and firmware rev.

Yup.. different connector is the most notable difference. (They did make some enhancements, including 230Kbps for DH+, RIO scanner capability (I wonder how many control systems are based on a notebook computer), and compatibility with the CardBus standard for PC cards)

So the Siemens cable DOES WORK when plugged into a Pico? Good to know. Wish the opposite was also true!

It's gotta be some sort of conspiracy that all the PLC manufacturers have something that looks just like a Pico controller, and yet the cables and software are incompatible!

haha.. you want to know how I broke the pins off? by trying to plug it into a siemens logo :) It sure looks like the same thing, but it won't easily plug right in. From what I recall, the port is recessed a little further back on the LOGO, so you can't quite get the A-B cable to plug in. I tried taking the little plastic "pin supporter" out to see if it would then make a connection, but the pins are very weak without it. Good luck!

You know.. If you have a lot of nodes on the network, and they're generating a lot of traffic, I'd have to think that the NET-ENI would be faster. 56K isn't a whole lot faster than 19.2K you know! 230K would help, and doesn't cost you anything. Just make sure everything you've got is 230K-capable. AFAIK, the ethernet PLC-5s always had a 15-pin AUI port. This means (as you pointed out) you have to use a transceiver to go to twisted pair (or coax). The A-B transceivers are expensive, and from what little I knw, these are pretty dumb devices so the value-add of the A-B part is questionable. Back when I was selling this stuff, I stumbled upon a transceiver by a company called Canary. They were inexpensive (by A-B standards) and were pretty rugged and industrial. Even came in a metal can :) They liked them so much at GM that I got them written into their specs. I'm not sure if they're still in business, but search around and see if you can get them.

It's not "just" a cable. there's a little PC board with some electronics on it at the Pico end. I've got one of these cables that I somehow managed to break the pins off of :( They're little surface-mount pc-board pins. I've been trying to think of some way to repair it!

I just finished wiring a small assembly machine for a shop, and they've taken me to task for how I've wired the pneumatic safety dump valve they've provided. The way I have it now, the light curtain, E-stop, and back door interlock switch all interrupt the output power when opened/interrupted, and the dump valve is wired to release all pressure when any of these safeties are violated. They tell me they don't want it that way, but rather to only open the dump valve if the auto cycle were interrupted. They want to leave the lines pressurized otherwise. I told them that's now how I'm accustomed to wiring machines, and that I thought it was a violation of OSHA rules to do it that way. They think I'm nuts. which one of us is right?

It seems to me that as I was learning about electronics as a kid, the color scheme you described was typical, or at least acceptable. In some industries, it probably still is. Don't even joke about hooking stuff up like that in an automotive plant though, or you can expect to be escorted to the door!

I'm not sure where it came from, but it is a pretty common wiring convention. Just look at sensor cables.. With a few rare exceptions (thanks, Bimba!), brown is the DC+ and blue is the DC com. I have seen two common wiring practices, using solid blue for both DC+ and common, and using brown for DC+ and blue for DC com. I've seen spools of white/blue trace wire before, but I never realized this was for UL compliance..

This seems like a really simple problem to resolve but I'm having trouble with it. I've got a PC that has XP on it. The video card failed in such a way that it's still usable, but annoying. (It stopped sending a red signal to the monitor, but green and blue still work) So I replaced the video card with one from my computer junk cabinet, and sure enough.. back to RGB again. BUT.. I can't get the stupid thing to boot into windows now! Not even into safe mode. It starts loading drivers, and then just crashes. In W9X, the computer would boot up using a generic VGA driver in this situation, and you'd be able to select the proper driver and reboot. In XP however, no luck. What do I need to do? (other than find an exact replacement for this obscure video card? :) I thought about just re-installing XP, but I would rather not lose all the installed apps and have to re-install everthing. Surely there must be a way to force it to boot up in "basic VGA" mode.

Apparently there's been a change to the "traditional" wiring color code.. We just submitted a proposal for an add-on panel to an existing job at a Ford plant, and they rejected it because we followed the old, non-UL508A compliant scheme. I guess you can't use brown for +DC and blue for DC common anymore, it's gotta be blue for +DC and white/blue trace for DC com. That's sure gonna play hell with their electricians, having half the job one way and half the other!

I would think that this would be so common a request that someone would have made a portable handheld meter with an ultrasonic prox, that would be able to display the level of the tank. (taking into account the cross-sectional area of the tank)

Don't expect any support from Mitsubishi if you buy that. The tip-off is the fact that he's emailing it to you! (BTW.. Tell me that isn't the best Mitsubishi has to offer.. they must at least have a windows-based package by now?!)

Just curious.. I've never seen one before. I looked at the bulletin number thinking it was a T-70, obviously it's nothing of the sort! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=120090159351

Ok, that makes a lot more sense. I was confusing this with a motor-driven welding power source.

I guess I'm still curious about the whole using-a-motor-for-welding concept. Is that still the state of the art for this type of weld? It seems to me that if we're talking inverters, we should be directly converting line voltage to welding current and leaving the mechanical stuff out of it! That's how all the spot, projection, and MIG welds are done in all the plants I've been to.

i think what beegee was saying is he needs to carry a lot of serial cables OTHER THAN RJ45 termination