Joe E.
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Posts posted by Joe E.
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That looks like more than I have time to tackle at this point. A lot of our old TCP HMIs are on machines that are on the way out over the next few (5 or so) years. Some of the others, though, will hopefully be running for quite a bit longer than that. I just threw this out there to see if anyone had a good alternative that I haven't heard of. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to come up with even a high-level "plan" for migrating away from the old stuff. New machines we build in-house are Logix5000 with Ethernet/IP, so HMIs are easy to find. -
I agree with migration away from DH+. Unfortunately, it's near the bottom of the list of "things to update". We need to replace all of the PLC2s and SLC 100/150s before I even consider the PLC5s and SLC 500s. -
OK, what would you use to replace an HMI on DH+? We have a bunch of machines running PLC-5/SLC500 DH+ networks with either PV, PV+, or TCP/Proface HMIs. I would LOVE to replace them as they die with Red Lion or Automation Direct, but neither supports DH+ as far as I have been able to find. We have found only EZ-Touch and Uticor. I've used EZ-Touch before (MUCH prefer Red Lion / AD). A colleague is in the midst of trying to use a Uticor (pending approval of the end user) and it seems OK. Any other suggestions? We don't want to tie up the PLC's serial port with an HMI if we can avoid it. -
I'm with you on the Logix 5k stuff. I grew up on Logix 500 which seems much more useful for troubleshooting. It has in-line x-ref if you want it (each XIC/XIO instruction has a hyperlink under it to the coil, the coil has a list of hyperlinks to everywhere it's used as an input). The Custom Data Monitor (CDM) is very similar to the Siemens VAT. You can enter whichever addresses you want to monitor/modify and change their display formats individually. Logix 5 is very similar to Logix 500, but Logix 5000 is a completely different animal. I understand that the L5k processors are significantly different from previous families, but it still seems like the software could have been made more similar and more useful. BTW, I feel the same comparing PanelBuilder 32 to RSView Studio. -
We don't have any 5/80s, but here's one from a 5/60. SJ BONDLINE.zip -
I'm by no means a motion expert, but I would expect a scaling problem to be more repeatable. I can see a badly measured feed roll causing a consistent error, but not necessarily a random one. It probably seems silly, but are you sure the boards aren't slipping as they're being fed? -
You do not need VMWare Workstation to create VMs from scratch. Player will let you create a VM with a blank "hard drive" and install OS on it from scratch, as long as you have the install media. As mentioned, the stand-alone Converter software will make a VM image of a running installation. Just be aware that Windows activation won't necessarily carry over and there may be some hardware drivers that need to be changed/updated (I encountered both problems) but neither is particularly difficult. -
What he said ;) If you have a lot of unused COM ports listed under device manager, just delete them and reboot. Windows should automatically find any devices that need them and re-enumerate the ports. -
What kind of converter are you using? I'm using a Keyspan model on XP. I have used it under 7 also, but I don't remember having this problem. You should still be able to go to device manager and find the port that the adapter is connected to. Under the settings for that port, you would redirect the adapter to a different port and reboot if it's already "in use". Mine seems to "remember" its setting (COM1 right now) and grab that port first, leaving other devices to get other ports. Once the adapter is installed and running on a particular port, it tends to default to that one until it is changed. Remember, if the port you're changing to is "in use", you'll probably need to reboot before the change sticks. Does device manager tell you which device is using the COM port number you want to use? It seems odd to me that you would have that many COM ports configured. Another option is to delete all of the COM ports and reboot your computer. Windows will find the COM ports that are actually present and reinstall the driver automatically. Incidentally, this is a handy way to get rid of the Allen Bradley PIC module driver. -
This appears to have worked. Is there any way to make the PIC driver unavailable to RSLinx? I would like to keep the guys from accidentally setting it up. -
It was set up to take exclusive control, but the driver has been deleted from RSLinx. It is not used anywhere else. We just added it to try to connect to a PLC, then deleted it. I tried adding it back in without having it take exclusive control, but it wouldn't initialize (fatal error). When I restarted RSLinx, the driver wasn't there. Right now, RSLinx does not show the driver in its list, but Windows Device Manager shows it having control of the COM port. Nothing is physically plugged into the COM port. -
We configured the PIC driver on our maintenance computer and it has taken over the COM port. Even after deleting the PIC driver from RSLinx and rebooting, the COM port in Device Manager still shows it. How do we get rid of it? It won't let us use the COM port for anything else. Computer is running XP SP3 -
I'm not familiar with Omron stuff, but in general you would put 2 timers on the float switch input in the code. One starts timing when the flow switch closes, the other when it opens. You can use either NC or NO contacts on the switch. I have attached a jpg showing what the code may look like. The timer presets would have to be set appropriately. If the switch flickers, nothing happens, because T4:0 has to finish timing out before starting the pump while T4:1 has to time out to stop the pump. This is a basic switch debounce routine. -
Is this something you're doing manually? If you're using Word 2007 and later, it natively supports "Publish to PDF". If earlier, there are a number of PDF print drivers out there. At my previous employer, they had CutePDF. I've also used PDF995. The latter has a "sponsored" version that will show an ad page with each use unless you buy a license. -
Figured it out. When compiling the runtime file, it defaulted to version 4.0. When I select version 3.2, all works as intended. -
For my first project at my new employer, I have to translate an old HMI program (uses the old DOS PanelBuilder Development Software) to a PanelView Plus 1250. The display module is 2711P-RDT12C, with a 2711P-RN6 DH+/DH485/RIO comms module. The assembled unit is 2711P-T12C6A2. Our development software is RSView Studio release 4.00.00. I have a fair amount of experience in PanelBuilder 32 but have never used RSView before. It is a stand-alone panel used for monitoring, no machine operations. It will talk to a PLC 5/40B over DH+ (the existing HMI uses RIO). I have it set up on the bench with a PLC and it's talking and everything works except logging in. We would like to block regular operator access to the configuration mode. Using publication VIEWME-UM004C-EN-E, chapter 13, I set up user accounts. When logging in using one of those accounts, the panel returns "Login of user 'USER' failed. Insufficient access rights." In an existing panel, entry of a gibberish user name or password will each return a unique error message, different from this, so I it's not a typo type error. I have a screen that has the <Display Parameters> - <Security Code> set to "A". In the User accounts dialog, the DEFAULT user is set to NOT have access to any levels above *, while 'USER' has access to all levels. When the "GoToScreen" button is pressed for the protected screen, the new panel shows the protected screen, even though no user is logged in. The existing panel displays an error message (as I would expect it to). To make sure I had everything right, I opened the program for an existing PanelView 1500 and downloaded it into the new panel. The same thing occurs, where the protected screen is accessible without logging in, and the login dialog doesn't recognize the user. It all works properly in the PanelView 1500 that is operating in a machine, using the same source code. Is there a setting somewhere I'm missing? Is there a firmware version conflict? I have spent a fair amount of time trying to track this down but haven't had any success. The .apa file for the program in question is zipped and attached. Thanks in advance for any help. BondingLine.zip -
If you're familiar with VB.NET programming(I'm more of a VB6 guy myself, but I managed to make it work), you can use this control: http://sourceforge.net/projects/advancedhmi/ [i think that's the right package, the video below should clarify] ...in VB Express(free!): http://www.microsoft.com/express/download/ Here's a quick tutorial: He's using a SLC 5/04, but I used the same process with a MicroLogix 1200. This works WITHOUT RSLinx or RSLogix. In fact, if an RSLinx DF1 driver is using the comm port, this won't work. It is quite possible to use the VB program to poll the PLC at specified intervals and write the information to an Access DB. Unfortunately, the test project I created is saved on the computer at the plant, which is now closed. -
We ran SP3 on an IBM Thinkpads (Lenovo) with no issues with RSLogix 500. PCMCIA port worked just fine with PCMK card. DF1 comms worked flawlessly with Keyspan US19 adapter. The only trouble we had was with the PIC module (when the PCMK DH485 cable was unavailable) and connecting to older UltraMaster drives using RS232 (random BSOD). I tried to get another laptop to work with the PIC by rolling back SP3. It took most of the shift to get anything working at all and the PIC still didn't work. I re-updated with SP3. I'm not sure if the PIC problem was SP3 or XP itself. It worked fine on our Win98 machine. -
Unless, of course, you're worried about that upcoming landing... -
We've had good service and performance from Weidmuller terminal blocks. -
What Paul (OkiePC) said. How we do it: We keep each machine's program in its own subdirectory within the main "machines" directory. RSLogix defaults to the main "machines" directory, so when we try to go online, we have to select the appropriate subdirectory every time. I would suggest that you look at each .RSS file that goes with that machine offline and determine which has the correct documentation. Move all the other files to another directory. When you go online, it should list the remaining file, which you can select and click "Upload Use File." Once it's online, with the current logic and documentation, go to "File->Save As" and save the current ladder as a new filename. We generally use the name of the machine followed by the rev date as the filename. This helps us keep track of revisions and makes it fairly easy to roll back to a known good program if we make a mistake. There are some machines that we've made a LOT of changes to over the years, some minor, others not so much. We've found this to be a pretty good system for tracking these changes. One advantage we have is that, though we have several people who maintain the code and make changes, we're on different shifts so we all use the same laptop to go online and we don't have to worry too much about multiple versions. -
Cool! glad to help -
It may seem obvious, but are both transmitters calibrated properly? I also wouldn't think that 10-12 feet of elevation would cause much change in pressure in this case. -
If you wish to do the conversion in a cell formula, the Code() function should do it. In a macro, use Asc(). a quick and dirty: in cell A2, enter: =CODE(A1) with "3" in A1, A2 displays "51" In a macro: Range("A3") = Asc(Range("A1")) This is demonstrated, roughly, in the attached Excel file Char_to_ASCII.xls
Inverting bits in word
in Siemens
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