Nesikep

MrPLC Member
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About Nesikep

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    Newbie
  • Birthday 08/05/78

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  • Gender Male
  • Location BC, Canada
  • Country Canada
  • Interests Electronics, mechanics, and farming... I try to put them all together
  1. Powerflex 40 to 1747-UIC

    OK, that could be workable, I think I still have a working RS Linx Pro around.. Been years since I installed it, and have never had in on a Win7 x64 machine, so maybe I have to dig out my old XP laptop from years ago to do this work. AB and Autodesk, two companies that make life a MISERY when upgrading computers or their own software.
  2. Powerflex 40 to 1747-UIC

    OK, looking at prices for a 1203, nothing under $200.. someone mentioned generic ones? What should I search for?
  3. Powerflex 40 to 1747-UIC

    Well, driveexplorer is no longer supported by AB., trying to download the connected workbench, I'll see if it'll do what I want it to. I'm looking to control it through VB, partly as a programming excercise, and because I kinda doubt there are cheaper ways of doing it. If it works through a COM port, I ought to be able to do it, I will have to create the packets according to the protocol indeed for it to be understood, but I dont' think that's rocket science as long as there's documentation. The long and the short of it is I have one drive doing a lot of things, sometimes it's doing step logic, and with a bunch of different parameters, other times it will run a PID loop, all depending on what it's connected to. I'd like to be able to create a file of the parameters, have a good interface with sliders that I can easily change, etc..
  4. Powerflex 40 to 1747-UIC

    From what I gathered in the literature, you *should* be able to request the data at a specific address on the Powerflex 40, and it should send back what is at that address, this would be for monitoring, To control, you would write to the address. The problem I have with a discrete IO board is I wouldn't be able to control ramp times, etc, and it would be a lot more limited. As it stands, this one powerflex is used on a LOT of different equipment, from stirring machines, to lathes, mills, and grinders, so going through all the parameters on the blasted keypad takes forever, if I could control it via a VB.net application it would be very easy to switch it all. What is the name/model of a good general purpose converter like you are speaking of? So from what you're saying the 1747 UIC is useless to communicate with the PF40, right?
  5. Hello, I'm looking to connect and control a powerflex 40 drive from a PC, I have the drive, I have a 1747-UIC (A, rev C, frn 1.3) which has an RJ45 port, like the drive. From what I am reading, I should be able to make a connector cable using only pins 4 and 5... it sounds like a piece of telephone cable would be perfect for the job, I have the crimper and ends. Do I need a termination resistor? One or both ends? Part 2 is going to be harder. From what I'm reading, it should be perfectly possible to 'talk' to the drive and get information back from it via any serial communication device, which means I shouldn't need RS linx. I'm looking to control it through a program I'll yet have to write in VB.net, but I'm not good enough at it to be able to do the low level communication.. Anyone know of a driver or library that can act as a go-between? I've been out of the PLC game for quite some time now... I'm going to have to do some relearning Thanks
  6. Bringing this thread back from the grave.... I've got a 1748PIC as well, as well as a Powerflex40 invertor drive,.. Now I believe AB has a "Special" cable that will do this (I think it's RS485, RJ45 both ends), but I'd much rather hack an old ethernet cable and rewire it. What I'm looking at trying to do (without losing an arm and a leg) is control the Powerflex from the computer... I can write a VB program to control the desired speeds, and will have to make a backend to transfer the data back to the unit... would be nice to be able to see the stats from the Powerflex on the computer too.. The hardest part will be to communicate with the device Does anyone have the pinouts for such a cable? I hated AB at my old job.. they made me carry a whole toolbox full of cables so I could access a half dozen different types of devices from the miniDIN-DB9 for the PLC's, and then db9-db9 for the panelviews, and again a crossover RJ45 for the bigger PLC's.... Oh, and depending on the PLC, a USB serial port didn't have the power to communicate.. Grrrr