Powered By Dodge V8

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  1. Hello, Not often one to ask for help, but here's a real kicker. RSLinx Classic Gateway (aka Professional) OPC Server version 2.57 (latest I believe), running on Windows Server 2003 R2 Service Pack 2 32-bit (also had this on Windows XP Service Pack 3 32-bit and it behaved the same way). Server has 4 GB memory DDR 1066 memory / 4 Intel Xeon 2.53 GHz cores / and SAS 15k RPM hard drives in Raid Mirror. We do a lot of OPC read / write work over DA-2, and for everything except ControlLogix CPU's, this is not an issue. The first half of the problem occurred when a ControlLogix CPU was powered down... RSLinx slowed down to a crawl, would not create new groups (reads) or perform writes while it was eating up CPU apparently trying to make sense of the orphaned ControlLogix CPU. The second half of the problem occurs with the latest generation Logix CPU we have. RSLinx OPC Server seems to choke every so often with an error along the lines of "failed to read @ispresent from controller at..." or "timed out reading @ispresent from controller at..." When this happens, we get a general slow down (its a massive performance hit but because of the size of the server it doesn't actually crash it). With any other PLC (MicroLogix, SLC, PLC-5), if we are trying to create an OPC Group to read from (or even perform a write to) a PLC that is powered down, unplugged, or otherwise just not connected at the moment, then RSLinx will behave properly -- for example: -- in the case of a write, it will attempt to perform the write, but return the quality of the write as "bad" or "failed" (I forget the exact attribute terminology). -- in the case of building a group for a read, it will build the group, return data for any PLC's in that group which are UP / Online (quality attribute of data is labeled as 'Good') and return either zero's or "Error" or "Undefined" (or something like that) for any PLC's in that group which are DOWN / Offline (quality attribute of data is labeled 'Bad' or 'Failed' or whatever). With a ControlLogix 5000 series (and specifically this newest one with firmware version 19), RSLinx is choking. It can't have anything to do with the controllers - because (now think about this kids) if it had something to do with the PLC itself, then the problem would go away when the PLC was removed from the network / powered down, and RSLinx would go back to behaving normally. Any help would be appreciated, this is currently crippling my infrastructure, as we've began to deploy more and more hardware that relies upon this server lately, and this bottleneck is becoming a game-stopper.
  2. Transitioning to Logix5000

    Ya... "find all" is worthless in RS5000. In 500, it shows you everywhere a tag is used, in 5000 you have to use 'cross reference' to see that.
  3. Protection for Electrical Heater

    If you are using single phase power (which a single element heater is... there are multi-element arrays of heaters that accept 3 phase power at their pigtails, but let's assume you're not using that)... so if you're using single phase power, and one of the legs is neutralized (bonded to ground at the supply transformer), then THAT leg and only that leg can be connected to the heater at all times. If you are using 3 phase power, and just pulling 2 legs off of a 3 phase 480 line, and then feeding that 2 legs into a heater, and neither of those legs are bonded to ground, then it may not be a code violation (it may or may not, I'm not sure off the top of my head), but it's bad practice for sure. Anyway... thermal (or electro-magnetic variety) overloads have inverse time characteristics, but so do plain old circuit breakers. Basically, it's a trip curve - a relation of instantaneous current draw versus time that let's you predict at what current and what time that current is held for that a breaker / fuse / overload / or any other device will trip out. Straight thermal overloads will require that they cool off before they can be reset - they physically won't stay held in until they cool off after a trip. They're older technology and generally cheaper. Electro-magnetic overload units are direct replacements for thermal overloads (and we still call them "overloads" or "thermals" or "heaters", because they're doing the same job), but can be reset immediately after a trip, and generally cost two to three times as much. For a 3 horse motor running on an appropriately sized IEC din rail starter, a thermal overload might run you 15 to 25 dollars, whereas a electro-magnetic one might be 50 to 100 dollars, which will vary widely based on manufacturer and ratings, but that's a general ballpark. The thermals also have a limited lifespan - you can only crap them out so many times (a lot of times, but still it's limited) before they're shot. Electro-magnetic ones have lifespans of 50 to 100 times that -- basically, they'll only go bad if they're defective (usually). To specifically answer your question... heaters are purely resistive devices - not inductive. So your overload factor can be dang near zero. Most overloads, right out of the box, will trip at 125 percent of their dial setting. So will this protect your solid state relay? Yes. At least if you size the SSR's correctly. If you're going to run 10 amps typical draw on a single heater, then you should use an SSR with a nominal current carrying capability of no less than 125% of 10 amps (which would be 12 and a half amps). When the heater starts to go bad, it'll increase amperage draw, and the overload will trip... the SSR will still be in its nominal operating range. If you see a dead short, the breaker will trip. Everything must be sized appropariately, this goes without saying. Here's one example XFMR --> C breaker (5 to 10X nameplate trip) @ 150% typical heater draw --> contactor+overload @ 125% typical heater draw --> SSR @ 125% typical heater draw --> heater XFMR --> 15 amp breaker --> 10 amp contactor with 10 amp overload setting (will cut out at sustained 12.5 amp) --> SSR @ 12.5 amp or better --> 10 amp heater ... use 14 awg THHN, MTW, or THWN conductors. You're never going to (at least not without a lot of wasted time and money) protect a 10 amp SSR from the failure of a 10 amp heater, but you can protect an over-rated one from it.
  4. Output card for motor starters

    When did control power conductors become required to be color coded per NEC ? (unless this is something new, I strongly disagree - I'm not saying it's a bad idea, but there's no requirement that I'm aware of as of 2008 NEC).
  5. just a bump here, and an update. about 2 months after it cropped up, it transitioned back to me - such is life. implementing a plan based on your thoughts as well as some other internet-dwelling psychopaths, i do believe it may be resolved. -- micrologix and slc controllers are tied in via AB-ETH driver -- devices (slc / plc-5 / other) that are accessed via a controllogix chassis bridge (just a ENBT/EN2T card and a DHRIO card in a common chassis) are accessed via the AB-ETH/IP driver -- controllogix processors are accessed via the AB-ETH/IP driver @ispresent not found no longer presents itself. rather, when the controllogix in question, or any other one for that matter, goes offline - rslinx responds with the (appropriate) error "communication lost to device [whatever device]". when the device is restored, communicate resumes shortly thereafter. we'll see how this plays out - but i'm unofficially declaring "tsang tsung - flawless victory" on this one.
  6. Protection for Electrical Heater

    1= without doing any research into the tech, i dont see why not - simply size appropriately. 2 = no 3 = yes 4 = class D breaker or time delay breaker where instantaneous trip is 10 to 15 times nameplate size. break the secondary as well, same breaker type / fuse type. 5 = honestly, i wouldn't bother with any of it. i'd use a 3 phase SSR for the heaters (for fast switching) and then strap contactors with thermal overload decks to them, with the control power for the SSR and the contactor going through the normally closed contacts of the thermal overload deck. no need for burnout detection, as overamperage will show on the overload deck. i also assume you will fuse / break each of these accordingly.
  7. uLogix 1500

    Whoever invented this particular model of death should be subjected to various unlimited forms of torture. Micrologix 1500 supports such great features as: -- cannot do online editing. -- no builtin ethernet interface -- ability to use 1761-NET-ENI for ethernet (wow - 4 whole concurrent connections, how snazzy!) -- embedded I/O (I hate embedded I/O - when I build a small system with an 1100 or 1400, I never use the on-brick I/O, makes emergency I/O card swaps easy). -- CompactLogix add-on I/O modules (really? why? The modules available for the 1100 / 1400 / 1200 are easier to configure, just as good) -- crappier instruction support than any other Micrologix processor. (I don't understand why 1100 / 1200 / 1400 have instruction support more resembling SLC-504 late firmware / SLC-505 than the 1500, which seems as bad as early firmware 503's).
  8. For the moment this issue has been taken out of my hands - there is a belief among some that it is a hardware issue - which is mind boggling when you consider that it occurs when the device in question is --OFFLINE--. Will provide some feedback if/when this ever gets resolved.
  9. Reliance AutoMate to ControlLogix conversion

    The last time I saw this come up in my experience, the head of engineering contracted it out to Rockwell directly. I guess when AB bought out Reliance, they built some Reliance-to-AB conversion software that's extremely effective, and they've supposedly kept it up to date over the years --- so now they're able to do Reliance to Controllogix "like a breeze". Pricetag is probably astro-freakin-nomical though.
  10. L35E Read/Write messaging

    For up to a modest amount (let's say 4 words -- that'd be 8 DINT's [16 bit integers]), I see great success running message enable times of as low as 10 milliseconds. This is on Compact/Control Logix platforms, SLC-505's, and MicroLogix platforms over ethernet. Anything over a serial connection, DataHighway Plus, or through a Net-ENI, I typically will not go any lower than 20 milliseconds.
  11. micrologix 1400 question

    It's a different application, but I did something sort of similar recently - and anytime you're going to jerk a drive like that (I'm changing speeds drastically with no delay), then the easiest way to avoid having to add an appreciable amount of logic is to simply set the accel and decel times on the drive appropriately. For example, if you're slamming a drive from 15 hertz to 80 hertz or anywhere in between - and doing so as much as 10 times per minute, then simply setting the accel time to "2 seconds" (provided it fits your application) can solve any "jerking" issues. It depends on VFD manufacturer, but the ones I used would employ a scaled 2 second delay across min freq / max freq. For example... VFD hard limit min freq = 0 Hz / VFD hard limit max freq = 120 Hz. Accel = 2 sec. Decel = 2 sec. Therefore... ( 2 seconds ) divided by ( 120 Hz - 0 Hz ) = delay of 17 milliseconds per 1 Hertz step. So when ramping from 0 to 80 Hz, it would take 1.33 seconds. / going from 40 hertz to 60 hertz would smooth out over 333 milliseconds. Etc, etc... It's a nice way to cheat, provided you standardize on VFD types (or at least buy VFD's with comparable feature sets / attributes, and be sure to document what your settings are... I make it a point to put large comment rung in a PLC program where the VFD is referenced and place any relevant / critical VFD parameters in there so that the next guy knows what he needs to do if the VFD blows up and he has to replace it).
  12. Contrologix remote rack over ethernet

    ENBT = 128 connections / 64 up and 64 down EN2T = 256 connections / 128 up and 128 down
  13. That is correct. Running VMWare or VirtualBox on Win7 is fine - both of those environments are solid virtual machines. However the 'built-in' Windows "XP Mode" or "Windows Virtual Machine" environment are beyond poor.
  14. EZ-Touch to C More Conversion

    ... I call them Sleazy Touch panels. "He's got the slow hand... and the Sleazy Touch".
  15. Windows 7 virtual environments are very poor in quality. You will have success using either VMWare Player (free but not very robust) or Sun (now Oracle) VirtualBox (free OpenSource). I prefer VirtualBox - http://www.virtualbox.org
  16. PLC5 multiple sockets

    PLC-5 has builtin DH+ 2-wire as well. If you don't have an "E" version processor, or you don't want the ethernet side car, then you can get Panelview Plus terminals with the DHRIO addon board. These will talk DH+ to the PLC-5 all day long, and you can have something like 77 (octal ... that's 63 actual [decimal] ) devices total per channel - most PLC-5's have at least 2 DH+ channels.
  17. Firmware Update

    good to know!
  18. Logix CPU Scan Method

    Ahh... thank you Yoda. :o) That is similar (in purpose, not necessarily in form) to the MSR method used by old Family 2 and Family 5 (PLC-5) processors. If you didn't want to use JSR instructions, you could open up controller properties and set up to 20-something ladders in order to run.
  19. Logix CPU Scan Method

    This is a question of curiosity (and perhaps will answer a 'riddle' in my world)... In ControlLogix processors, 'programs' show up as folders in the Logix5000 tree. Then each 'program' (if clicked upon) expands to show multiple ladders contained within it. The first ladder is always executed, and subsequent ladders within a program must be called by JSR instructions within the first one. Now that the obvious is stated, chew on this... ----------------- In what order are 'programs' executed? Ladders are 'scheduled' by inserting JSR instructions into the primary ladder of a 'program' (just like SLC's and Micrologix do - but in any RS500 device there is only ONE program). Since there multiple programs inside a ControlLogix / RS5000 device, how are these scheduled? Is it random? Is it simply in order of their listing (highest one on the list in RS5000 is first, lowest one on the list is last?) Or - dare I say it - is the CPU multithreaded and they're actually all being executed simultaneously?
  20. RSLogix 500

    Sort of... a POSIX compliant text editor uses /r/n for end of line termination and carriage return and new line. Windows Notepad is not - it looks for ^M and some other junk to indicate carriage return and line feed. The result is that a lot of stuff written for non-Windows interpretation (the majority of the computer world, believe it or not - you don't think a ControlLogix processor runs a Windows Kernel !) will show up all screwed up in Notepad. POSIX compliant = Mac / Linux / Unix / BSD / HP-UX / Sun Solaris / and just about every other OS on the planet... except Windows. Luckily, for anyone wanting to write or edit or view cross platform code - there are many 3rd party text editors for Windows which are POSIX friendly... gEdit / VIM / Notepad++ / and a slew of others.
  21. CLX Software XP vs Win 7

    IT has no business dictating Machine Control and Engineering. That's my opinion. I live off the grid - it's the best decision I ever forced down their throat.
  22. You know - at first, I thought Factory Talk Studio Machine Edition was a bloated mess of a software package. Then I got used to it, and realized what it's actual intent is, and while I'm not necessarily happy about it - I've grown to accept it. 3/4 of the reason that it's such a "mess" is because it is supposed to be forward / backward compatiable with everything from Panelbuilder 1200 / 1400 up to Panelview Plus 6. The conversion utilities that it has for re-working the old programs into new hardware, and for saving new programs in a method that can be exported to backup for future posterity (rather than having to convert later, it's already backed up in a "ready to digest" form). ... well that and it uses Windows CE (or Mobile? or whatever?) as the runtime environment, and anythign relying upon Windows for it's runtime is bound to be f***** up. So ya. And to hell with the pirate kid - if he wants to pirate software he can do it like a man, long arduous hours on the internet scouring torrent sites / file sharing networks / and everything else just to get the program - then spend another 3 days looking for serials / cracks and infect every computer he has with 200 viruses in the process. ... moral of the story - we "pay" either way. Deal with it - or go Open Source. But stop being a child.
  23. RSLogix 500

    Just password lock the whole program. It's in the 'properties' dialogue on the upper left hand side. However, any engineer worth his salt is going to be able to break past that -- open the RSP file in a POSIX compliant text editor and sniff around a bit... the password is right there in plain text (and even if you select 'encrypt' when enabling the password, it is not difficult to cut and paste the encrypted password into any of various decrypters). I always through passwording or locking out software (especially configuration software or PLC programs) was the mark of a weak programmer. I'm not sure what you're desire / goal is with locking out, as it may very well be something of good intention (for example, a non-resettable hour meter or whatever), but most of these bums out there (OEM's included) lock their software out because their either ashamed of their sloppy code or they are insecure in their positions and have to create their own job security.
  24. Firmware Update

    Should any of your CPU's lock up or have an issue during the firmware upgrade (which is always a possibility), you are going to be in deep sh__ if the only person versed in recovering from such an error is on vacation. I highly advise you wait for his return prior to attempting this, especially plant wide. Also, version 19 is the latest version that is Windows XP friendly. The newer ones are Win 7 only I'm told. If you're going to take the time to do the upgrade, you should be upgrading to 19 at least, not 16 -- that's like "upgrading" your car to a cassette player.
  25. -- We're using the ETH driver for everything (the one where you explicitly declare the IP address and optionally the connection type, for example 10.1.1.99 or 10.1.1.99:EIP). The primary ETH driver has about 150 PLC's on it. The second ETH driver has the two DH+ Gateways on it. And the 3rd ETH driver just has out HMI's (panelview plus) to allow remote programming.