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General question. The location I live in is very hot, and it does not help that the control panel boxes are out in to open and being hit with direct sun for over 10 hours a day and the fact they are stainless steel. So my question is what type of thermal management to you like the best. I bought a Hoffmen vortec cooler to try out on a project and it work's for have the day and then heats up and failed to cool the Panel, thus caused remote i/o problems. I bought this unit because it said it had 900 BTU's of cooling and compaired to a A/C unit with the 800 BTU's of cooling, the cost was more than half for the vortec cooler Than the A/C Unit. Thanks for the help.

I have used emailing once in the control logix platform, so I am not super familiar with all the trick I can use with it. While we are talking about SMS text is it possible to send one from the control logix processor through a e-comm card to a phone, sorry if I am getting off topic of bob's org post.

Thanks guys, by the way it is a Control Logix platform, I had one of the guy's at work that night get on line with the Comm card's web page, of the PLC and the missed packets were going up. I have not had time to further look at the problem, but as soon as I can I look into a possible wiring, or grounding problem. Paul thanks for th einfo on "wire shark" I will try this too, did not know there was app for such things.

Ok I have tried to get this problem fixed by my self for long enuff, and AB is no help. I have a app with four Power Flex DC Drives and am having a problem with a DPI Port Five Comm Fault. The port is the port I have the ethernet adapter in. I have now set the connection time to 300 MS and still have the fault happen a couple of times a day. The drives are not more than 10 feet from the switch and the plc, the wire is shielded and grounded at one end. Other projects I have done have used Power flex drives with the same setup and the connection has been set down to 10 ms not problems. Can some one give me any thoughts and help on this, could it be a issue with the drive, I have already had firmware problems with these drives.

Hopefully, by your reply I am giving you the info you need. By your response I feel you are talking about the internal config file of the modbus card. There are two config files you will need for the card one is the WATTCP file and the Other is the MNET config file, these files are provided by Prosoft for the card. The WATTCP file tells the card what it's ip, sunet and gatway addresses are. Change then to you network settings, the card needs it's own ip, and does not share the plc's ip. The MNET file contains all the data needed for Comm's with the devices on the network. The section you will need to edit is under [MNET Client 0 Commands]. It should look similar to this: Enab DB Poll Reg Swap Node IP Address Serv Slave Func Address Addr Delay Count Code Port Addr Code In Dev START 1 0 10 25 0 10.9.*.* 502 1 3 62256 Here is a list of the data you will change for a basic setup Enab = Start Command DB Addr = Address the card will place/read data in the PLC, this register is created by the Prosoft PLC Program give to you i.e (Mnet1.ReadData & Mnet1.WriteData) Reg Count = How many registers to read or write to Node IP = The device you want to access IP address Serv Port = The port to use of the device, I do belive the default for Modbus is 502 Slave Addr = The Modbus device address Func Code = the type of Command needed 1 = Read Coil 2 = Read Input Status 3 = Read Holding Registers and so on, these all can be found in the card's manual on page 26 Address In dev = This is the address for the register in the device, a lot of the devices I have seen use Hex numbering for the registers so you will have to convert the Hex to Dec for the Modbus register, i.e 0FFF to 4095. The rest of the options can be found in the manual, but I have not used them very much. These two file have to be transfered to the card through the cfg port on the frount of the card, I use Hyper Terminal to download and upload the config files. The settings and how to do this are in the manual, page 39. I will bring this last bit up just in case you need some help with the PLC Program. Prosoft also gives you a PLC program for the Compact Logix PLC, this comes on a disk with the card or can be downloaded from Prosoft Prosoft Modbus. This has all the LAD you will need to have data read and write from the Modbus card to the plc, it also as I said above makes the registers for the data to be placed in, i.e. Mnet1.ReadData, and Mnet1.WriteData. If this the first time useing the Card, I would tell you to open the Prosoft PLC Program and use it as you base, then add all harware you need and update firmware as needed keeping in mind not changing the original software only adding to it.

Thanks ken I will Check this tomorrow when at work. Thanks again for the help

I agree paul, and have see it first hand when a pneumatic valve failing to do its job and fail half way between pressure to device and pressure exhaust. The air got stuck in the line and the brake stayed open, i.e. off, when a e-stop was pressed. Thank G*d the e-stop was pressed for a different area and no one was around it, but it could have gone bad. After that it was suggested to put a safety valve for all the brakes to kill air just for a e-stop. As paul has said there is always what if's floating out there.

I am not an expert but my understanding is the same as Paul's, you have to provide safety rated control throughout the circuit. Better safe than sorry, for this reason I have been looking to only use safe off options, that paul has mentioned on drives and softstarts and also killing the input power to the motor, or drive, we have now used then a few time and I am very impressed with them.

When you say Tables are you referring to the tables in the modbus config file, were you tell the card what node and address in the node you want to read and write data.

Thanks Paul, I will check those out, and yas as I have found out the Vortec Coolers are garbage.

I am having a problem with the message instuction. I have two messages that need to be set off and on to keep a fast update of data from one plc to another one. The problem is triggering the two messages so the are constantly reading data and writing data. I have used them in the slc's with no problem, but for some reason in the control logix I cann't get it to work. I looked in the common procedure manual for Control logix on the messaging instruction and set up the logix how they have it for multi message management and it still does not work. The bits for the message active become true on bolth MSG's but not data transfer. On one mSG the dn bit is set and on the other one the dn bit and the enable bit are set, as the togle ctive bits become true and then go false. If someone could explain a better way of doing this I would be greatful.

Thanks to everyone for the help, and sorry for not posting sooner as you all know when you take time off and get back the work load double's. Bob the produced and consumed tags worked great, problem solved. PC tags make life so much better when trying to share data between to PLC, thanks again guys.

I have used prosoft in the past and it works well, it was not that same module, but most of the modbus card they sell are very similar in set us from what I have read. I was lucky that I had ethernet on site and could get the network up and running very quickly. The config is not that bad, when you get the card from prosoft they will give you a PAC program for your compact logix PAC. Insert the code, or what I did was use the file and then program all the logix I needed into the PAC. The code they give you will set up comms to the prosoft card, they you will use the card config file they give you and tell the card what Modbus address for the device you want to get data from and the register you need to get. Your fig 2 should work, My project was set up with a L35E and a 1769-Mnet, the comms whet from the L35E to the 1769-MNET via the back plane out the ethernet port to a switch and then to the 17 GM 745, and 650 multilins. I have to go to work now but if you would like I can read the manual and see if I can give you anymore info.

Is this a three phase pump, if so have you metered the motor with an meter and a megger, this will tell you alot about the windings of the motor. Is the motor tripping the breaker or is the plc tripping it due to overcurrent via a shunt or 0 volt coil, or it the plc using this scale for display.

If I am Correct the KVA rating for the transformer is total load all three phases. Volts x Amps x 1.73 ---------------------------- = 3 Phase KVA 1000

Thanks bob for the help, I will try this next week when at work, but for now me and my NERD brain are going fishing fo rthe week. Thanks again.

Yes Bob that is correct, always a big help you are. Mr. b_carlton I also tried the method of using the .DN in each of the MAG rungs to insure that the two were not trying to send or read data at the same time, much like the BTW and BTR instructions in the SLC PLC's, and still no luck. I was also thinking that if there was a way to read the Data from plc 2 at the start of the scan and send the data to plc2 at the end of the scan this would work to, but I can't think of a way to do this.

I was just wondering if anyone has used the new powerflex 755 drives, and if they have used the safe of module. If so any problems or issues with the drives.

I have not heard one way or another, but I am looking at them for a new project I will be working on, I mainly ask because I installed four new Powerflex DC drives and had some issues with the fermware and other problem as I tried to get them up and running. So I wanted to see if anyone has installed on yet.

these hook up the the copper connection of the plc's and creates a wireless bridge to the existing wireless network, you do not need a card for the plc's just a interface from plc to wireless network, try downloading the manual for the RAD-80211-XD and take a look. If I am missing something let me know, from your question I take it you are looking for hardware options.

I have used phoenix contact wireless products with no problem, but there are many other options out there. Link below http://www.phoenixcontact.com/automation/32119_30375.htm

If you start Rslogix 5000 and have your Rslinx set up to see the plc, go to communications, in Rslogix, who active you should be able to see the plc in the correct driver. Then highlight the plc and click upload. That should give you the plc program minus the rung comments and tag comments.

Paul that was a great answer, thanks for explaining it to me. I did not even think about setting the I/o of rack one for listen only. I am going to be using a phoenix contact managed switch, and all non local I/O will be on a devicenet network, including safety i/o. I have done this on another project and it seemed to work well by seperating the hmi, plc and drive trafic from the non local i/o traffic. Thank to all that have helped, this forum has some of the best people on it. Thanks again, LCCLLC

I am going to be starting a project with two L61, one will be the main plc the other will be a partner plc to watch the main plc. I will have to send status data from one to the other also i/o data from one to the other for redundant monitoring of the I/O. I think it is better to send one lump sum of data rather than sending milti messages with part of the data, to increase the speed of the communications. Am I correct or not, I would also like to know, if there is a chart or something that will explain the effect of sending large sums of data through a MSG instruction. I will be using Ethernet for the data MSG. I will also have four drive on the network, so there could be alot of traffic on the network.

I guess I should not use the term redundant PLC's with this question, I should of said the partner PLC is being used as a watchdog to the Main PLC. The main PLC is going to be a 1756-L61S and the partner PLC will be a 1756-L61. This project needs to be very safety minded, and the partner plc will also be doing most of the faults and diagnostics on the system. Ether way the posts pretty much answer my question. I do hope Paul sees this post, thanks Bob and Ken for the posts.