Ken Roach
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Posts posted by Ken Roach
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It's a classic problem with drives and DeviceNet that your identity object changes with each voltage range and drive model and interface, so there are hundreds of EDS files per manufacturer (OK, so Cutler-Hammer only has two. Then again, the only sell one drive.) I was surprised to find those EDS files on the ODVA site. There are more there than on Yaskawa.Com ! But there still aren't any for the GPD515 and the Si-N1 version 2.02. I guess we just got the very newest hardware in the mill ! Once we got through to a support guy in New Berlin, WI, it only took a few minutes for him to locate and send the correct files. I think I know what's up with your 1794-ADN... I'll look it over and post here. -
I wonder what's going on with your DeviceNet scanner... the Scanlist is stored in nonvolatile flash memory, so there's no way you should have to reload it on power cycle. What is the error message flashing on the 1747-SDN when you have a problem with it ? Maybe you could post the *.DNT file from your system and I'd be happy to have a look at it. I use the 1747-SDN every day, but not too often with FLEX I/O. -
Hey cpmiller, which kind of Yaskawa drives do you use and which interface ? I commissioned my first GPD515 with the SI-N1 interface last week and it was a big pain in the butt to get the EDS files; the factory finally had to send them to me because they aren't on the website. There is an older DeviceNet interface called I think the CM043, and it has a big colorful user manual. the Si-N1 manual is still in Jenglish, and also is not published on the website. I'm hoping for some hints on how to make the drive handle PLC Idle mode more gracefully... right now it just keeps running at the last commanded speed. If I actually fault the DNet connection, I have to re-establish the DeviceNet connection and send a Stop command before I can reset the drive. -
You can inhibit an SLC I/O module and then remove it when the power is off without faulting the processor.. but not without powering down the controller. You will fault the controller, and may damage the module or the chassis backplane chip. The SLC is very protective of it's backplane consistency; it does a full check of module ID's and module health every single program scan. Modules must match their configuration precisely or the controller won't run. The SLC considers missing I/O to be an "out of control" situation. The FLEX I/O family can be removed hot, and can be used as expansion I/O for SLC's. As mentioned previously the ControlLogix system is really the family that was designed for Removal/Insertion Under Power. -
That's what I like about the VPN method that lets me keep my logic software local to my PC, not at the customer site; the traffic is just PLC data, not video and keystrokes. It doesn't require a dedicated PC and Logix license at the customer site, either. -
A separate post to keep the reading light: I think the preferred method for this sort of Internet access to automation networks is to use a VPN Appliance. You can use software VPN from vendors like CheckPoint and Microsoft, but as our Guest pointed out, it's often best to not depend on the IT weenies. At least once a month I have to go to our in-house IT administrator because one or more of my accounts has been disabled, lost, or shut down during maintenance. Hardware VPN can be cheap or it can be expensive; the SOHO3 device I mentioned above runs about $3000 with licensing and support. A home router/VPN applicance from Linksys can be as cheap as $70. It does take some study to be sure you can always get into your VPN from outside while still keeping out hackers and intruders. I think it's worth it because VPN can dramatically reduce your travel costs and reliance on on-site personnell, and it tends to comfort the IT weenies to the point where they will not demand absolute control over your automation networking. -
Here's how one of my customers has done this: 1. Home/Office PC with dialup or broadband Internet access. This is the PC with RSLogix and RSLinx on it. 2. Netopia DSL Router. This connects to the client's DSL Internet service and provides three dedicated Internet IP addresses, and provides routing services for the internal network. 3. SonicWall SOHO3 VPN Appliance. Provides NAT translation for internal PC's to access the Internet, and provides an encrypted IP tunnel to the Home/Office PC in Step 1, using a software VPN Client program at that home PC. Once we overcame a configuration glitch in his A-B controller (no Default Gateway address configured) this worked like a dream. His client was helpful because they let him dedicate one of their external IP addresses to factory automation use, and in return he implemented a secure system by using a VPN appliance. -
Take some advice from an old hand; buy the correct cable ! 1761-CBL-PM02 is only $50.00 USD. It's molded right-angle end fits flush with the controller top, and it has a snug notch in it that makes it very difficult to accidentally pull out of the MicroLogix 1200 controller housing. It works with all MicroLogix family controllers. If your time is worth less than $20.00 per hour, do the following: Get an old Appletalk cable from a computer surplus store. Cut it in half. Use pliers to flatten out the keying corners of the male plug. Wire it up according to the diagram in Rockwell Knowbase document G19095. Be always careful plugging this in; the keying corners won't protect you from plugging it in skewed or backwards and bending the pins. Be sure you didn't connect anything to Pin 1; it's +24 VDC and will fry your PC serial port. If you're already spending the money on an A-B controller, pony up the dough and buy an A-B cable. -
Implementing the "TAP Protocol" used by most alphanumeric pagers is pretty ambitious for a PLC... and impossible for the MicroLogix 1000, which does not support ASCII functions. I've tried it, and gave up on the project after a couple of weeks of dabbling. It was cheaper to buy an autodialer than to spend my time figuring out the protocol. The simplest way to accomplish this task is to use a modem that is preconfigured to send text messages, but to get it's data from the PLC. A-B sells modems like this: http://support.rockwellautomation.com/pagi...pmodem_main.asp If you already have an Ethernet network in place, or MMI software running on a PC, you might consider the e-mail capabilities of the 1761-NET-ENI or the Messenger feature in RSView32. -
I downloaded and read the E-Terminals DF1 driver Help file, and I saw two things that stand out. First, the default error-checking setting for a ControlLogix is "BCC" error checking, but the E-200 appears to only support CRC errror checking. Change that on the ControlLogix serial port configuration. Second, and most important, the E-200 appears to only support the older SLC and PLC type addressing, not ControlLogix tag names. You have to enter an equivalency table in RSLogix 5000 (under "Map PLC/SLC Addresses") that maps PLC-style data files to ControlLogix tag arrays. I'm willing to be incorrect about that; if you have a real user-manual that is more recent than their website then of course follow that. Post some more info about your Logix serial port settings and the addressing you're putting in the E-200 and maybe someone who is familiar with them can help further. -
I guess I didn't make myself clear above, so I'll be explicit: The minimum revision of RSLogix 500 that will run on Windows XP is version 5.20. Version 5.00, Version 4.50, Version 4.10, Version 4.00, Version 3.01, Version 2.57, Version 2.10, and Version 2.0 will not run under Windows XP. When you install a new copy of RSLogix, use the ordinary Windows "Remove Programs" utility in Control Panel to remove the previous version; every "upgrade" to RSLogix 500 is a full installation of the software. The upgrade cost is a fraction of the full cost of the software, but it is, on purpose, more than the yearly support fee that includes updates. -
The Net-ENI performs the special trick of turning EtherNet/IP encapsulated PCCC messages into DF1 PCCC messages. That bit of intellectual property allows you to use the Ethernet driver natively in RSLinx, and allows PLC-5E, SLC-5/05 and 1756-ENET modules to communicate to the Net-ENI. The e-mail and autobaud functions are also features you won't find in general-purpose Ethernet/serial interfaces. Virtually all of the Ethernet/serial interfaces on the market are implemented using a "COM port redirector" service on a PC to capture application calls to an enumerated serial port and redirect them to the IP address of the device, where they are repeated on the serial side. This redirection takes a little time, and often limits you to COM1 through COM4 only. If all you need is to go from PC software like RSLogix 500 to your MicroLogix, the less expensive interfaces can work for you if you're willing to put in the effort to set them up. I've successfully used the Lantronix CoBox, and I've heard of success with the Digi IA. I even had a customer implement a multiport unit using an OPC server from Kepware. -
Not for Rockwell PLC's. There may be some configuration packages for other ControlNet users that I'm not aware of, but for ControlLogix and PLC-5C15 you need RSNetworx for ControlNet. You don't need configuration software at all if you're not using scheduled messaging; I've seen some systems where ControlNet was used exclusively for unscheduled data transfer and those just hooked up right out of the box. This morning I happen to be working with a beta copy of RSLogix 5000 version 12 and it has a great new feature; it can send the pending ControlNet connections for a 1756-CNB to RSNetworx offline and RSNetworx will calculate a schedule and let me know the bandwidth usage of my configuration. It used to be you didn't know for certain that a particular ControlNet configuration would work until you hooked it up and measured the ControlNet bandwidth usage. -
The only item I can think of that could possibly run differently would be logic that relies on scan counts for timing. The SLC-5/04 runs about 4x faster than the SLC-5/01. Otherwise, there are no instructions or features in the SLC-5/01 that are not in the SLC-5/04. It's a very low-risk change. -
Hmm. I have one of those UC232 devices, from ATEN Technologies and it doesn't work as well as I'd like. The drivers have given me a runaround in Windows 2000, in which Windows won't take the driver provided for the device and tries to substitute something called "OEM6.inf". When I have convinced it to accept the driver, I get the device by default set up for COM8, which many of my applications don't support. Once I figured out how to change that, I found that RSLinx DF1 Autoconfigure doesn't work with this device. But it's one of those "your mileage may vary" things; obviously i_canoe didn't have any problems. I have used the Belkin model that A-B recommends, and everything worked OK except Autoconfig. I got another cheap unit off EBay for fifteen bucks that had a ten-foot USB cable; it even worked with Autoconfig, as long as I had it connected when I booted the PC. I ended up giving that one away to a customer who bought a PC without a serial port. So, buy whichever USB/RS232 converter you want, and give it a try. Just don't try to run the 1747-PIC driver on it; I know from extensive experience that will never work. -
Old ISA-type cards like the 1784-KT don't support plug-and-play at all; only interfaces like PCI and PCMCIA do so. You'll have to go through the User Manual and the Win95 Control Panel to find and set memory and I/O addresses that are available for the KT to use. I have never had to use anything but the default settings with the 1784-KT, so try them first ! -
A module with an antenna on it sounds like a Data-Linc SRM-6000 mounted in the chassis. Those are terrific modems; they are 900 MHz "spread-spectrum" so it's difficult to interfere with them with just one broadcast frequency. They also have pretty good diagnostics, so you can program them to exclude the frequencies used by your 2-way radios, or frequencies that have a lot of junk on them from motion control or other electrically noisy processes. There's a lot to be said for proper antennas, too; I saw one of these installed at a steel mill where the master is outside the potline building and transmits *through* the corrugated steel walls to cranes running inside the building. That had a well-tuned antenna. I also saw one where the antenna was placed 1/4 wavelength away from a cinder-block wall. That effectively snuffed most of the transmission. -
Only the older MicroLogix 1000 controllers still have this limitation; a MicroLogix 1200 or 1500 happily uses a 32-bit "Long Integer" element. I dunno if the MicroLogix 1000 will ever be changed to use similar firmware to the 1200/1500. More likely there will be a fixed I/O "MicroLogix 5000" that will run the little Logix engine that A-B built for the CompactLogix controller. -
Allen-Bradley Company in the United States sells a component of their ProcessLogix DCS system called "Control Builder", which is a function block logic editor. "ABB" is a totally different company, based in Europe. Their initials stand for "Asea Brown Boveri", though the company includes many more units now. ProcessLogix is a fairly expensive control system that includes database engines, visualization software, and controller hardware. There is no demo version of just the function block editor available. If you are interested in learning about the ProcessLogix system, it's probably best to contact the Rockwell Automation office nearest your location. I work for the office in Seattle, Washington, but there are engineering and sales offices of the Company worldwide. -
Actually, that bandwidth measurement was taken with no I/O connection to the Net-DNI, just with DF1 encapsulated traffic. I expect a reduction in traffic could be achieved by lowering the Scan Class of the tags on the PanelViews. Probably some evaluation should be done before endorsing this as a way to put three PanelViews onto DeviceNet. I have a PV550T and a PV300Micro with DF1 protocol, and two 1761-NET-DNI at the office, so I might be able to test more on this after the holiday rush (yes, there's a holiday rush in tech support). You could also add a 1761-NET-DNI to one of the serial ports of the MicroLogix 1500 controller, and not use the backplane DF1 tunnel. I really like DeviceNet PanelView terminals for their ability to listen in on I/O connections and send explicit messages directly to devices like drives. If you were to choose DeviceNet PanelViews, I would recommend configuring just a small amount of I/O memory as a COS connection for pushbuttons and indicators, and do the rest of the "analog" data elements as periodic Explicit Messages sent from ladder logic every 250 ms or so. -
It's still raining, but I've got my shopping done for the might and this application intrigued me. I have on my desk a PanelView 550 Touch-Only (Series B with the Blue-Mode screen) with RS-232 DF1 communications connected via a MicroLogix-type programming cable and a null-modem adapter to a 1761-NET-DNI module, assigned Node 12 on the DeviceNet. The controller is a 1764-LRP MicroLogix 1500 with two serial ports, equipped with a 1769-SDN Series B DeviceNet scanner module assigned Node 0 on the DeviceNet. The DeviceNet scanner module is not yet scanning any I/O. The PanelView test application is written to read five ordinary integers on one page, using the conventional "N10:x" addresses. It's working correctly, passing DF1 packets through the Net-DNI and the 1769-SDN to the MicroLogix 1500. I was also able to simultaneously get online with the MicroLogix both via a 1770-KFD (slow) and a 1784-PCD (much faster) once I realized the "who active go online" wasn't going to work and put in the target node of zero by hand. Nifty ! The small PV application I am using now takes up about 5% of the DNet bandwidth right now, but I expect it might be slowed down a little. The one thing I couldn't do was download to the DF1 PanelView over DeviceNet; I know I could if I had another Net-DNI but for now I just unplugged and used the DF1 port. -
When I looked back and saw that you are going to use the MicroLogix 1500 and 1769-SDN, I had a thought that I'd best test out before I go recommending it. The 1761-NET-DNI is a little auxilary box that can encapsulate RS-232 DF1 Full Duplex packets into DeviceNet explicit messages. Putting Net-DNI modules onto the DF1 Full Duplex serial ports of MicroLogix and other DF1 Full Duplex devices can create a "Super DH-485" over DeviceNet in which multipoint communications can be established between DF1 devices, but using the higher bandwidth of more efficient network access method of DeviceNet. One unique thing about the 1764-LRP controller (the two-serial-port MicroLogix 1500) is that it can also perform that "DF1 <-> DeviceNet" encapsulation trick across it's backplane with the 1769-SDN. This begs the question.... can I hook up a DF1 PanelView to a 1761-NET-DNI and have it communicate directly to the data files inside the MicroLogix 1500, without using DeviceNet slave data mapping ? I dunno. It's also 4 PM Saturday and raining hard so I'm leaving the office. I'll let you know when I get a chance to test this ! -
Yes, the FlexLogix can scan EtherNet/IP I/O adapters with the new 1788-ENBT daughtercard for EtherNet/IP. Like the ControlNet card for the FlexLogix, it has fewer resources than the big ControlLogix does. Don't use Flexlogix if you're just looking to cut cost out of a ControlLogix, use it if you need a smaller, less powerful controller with the same connectivity and instruction set as the ControlLogix. The current V11 release of Logix 5000 supports Flex, Point, and 1756 I/O chassis on EtherNet/IP. The Version 12 beta I've seen has profiles for individual 1734 modules, a bunch of drives, and more adapters for upcoming I/O and controller products. -
The SLC-5/05's architecture and Ethernet daughterboard only has the horsepower to run the PCCC command set over TCP/IP. That doesn't include the I/O connection set that is part of the EtherNet/IP protocol that ControlLogix and FlexLogix controllers can use to control I/O on Ethernet. A-B makes three I/O platforms with EtherNet/IP adapters; 1756, 1794, and 1734. If you have to use an SLC-500, it's Ethernet port won't do the trick for you. There are several Prosoft modules that do various Ethernet protocols, but I'm not conversant with those and I expect they are mostly for explicit messaging and not I/O.
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