MrAutomation

Ignition SCADA offers a free OPC server that will communicate with ControlLogix PLCs. It's OPC-UA, not OPC-DA. Hopefully that will work for you. If that won't work, just get RSLinx Classic (OEM most likely - See details about different versions here). You don't need RSView/FactoryTalk view, just RSLinx and set it up as an OPC server. Or use Kepware or Makitron OPC servers. Hopefully this is helpful.

The cables and parts mentioned above are great. However, standard cat 6 cable run in conduit, or inside of Teck cable will work fine in most circumstances. Use shielded when you're running it in MCCs. Standard RJ45 connectors work as well, although there is one industrial RJ45 from Pheonix Contact I like to use. They are $15 each though, while standard RJ45s are $0.10-0.50 each, so it depends on customer requirements.

Fun. If I have a minute later I'll draw this all out on a sheet of paper and try to make sense of it. If i understand correctly,you have a redundancy enabled on the PLC cards, but one port is connected to the old 192.168 REP network, and another is connected to the new 10.17 spanning tree network? If that's the case, I can't imagine it really working, and on top of that, it's not necessary. Just have them both on, all the time. Different networks, VLANs and IPs. No need to have any fail over there. But I didn't have time to really read it, so I may have misunderstood. I'll try and revisit this later. Good luck!

You can also change the IP of the PLC directly in the panelview, in the config screen. No uploads or downloads required. I would recommend using the upload/download method anyways, as it's good to have backups copies.

Actually no. I only know how to download it with a serial number. Contact your local Rockwell distributor and they will get you a trial version no problem.

Just for curiosities sake, why do you need to build a driver? You can't use an existing software to do what you need?

No this looks like a problem on your end. It's common practice in PLCs to use individual bits of a DINT in groups, especially for alarms and such. The CIP protocol is correct in only transferring the whole DINT tag. It wouldn't make sense to send each of the bits of the DINT individually. That would create a whole bunch of extra network traffic. On a traditional HMI, it's possible to "dig down" to the individual bits of a DINT, but the HMI does the work of isolating the bit from the word. Since you're using a custom made driver, that's going to be your job to isolate the individual bits from the DINT. It should be pretty easily doable with a bit of math. I'm not a driver expert, but this is what I would say the problem is.

Just install RSLogix 5. You'll have a 7 day grace period, and from there you can convert it to PC5 format. That's the best solution. The conversions don't always go flawlessly either, so it would be good to be able to open the PLC 5 project anyways.

Omron timer relays are a good, reliable brand, and perfect for your application. You can get digital ones, or analog "dial" ones. Both work fine. For the relay that actually starts the motor, you'll need a small contactor. For these I usually see Eaton or Allen Bradley. Many brands or good. Go to your local distributor and ask them. Almost any brand you get will be good, really.

Just get V20 or later. There's no reason to stay on V17, since you're on trial anyways. It doesn't make any sense. If you purchase a license, it works for all versions.

Can you put up a picture of your logic? It should be pretty straight forward.

Not having done this process myself before, this is how I would do it: Import the entire PanelBuilder project into FT View Studio. Once the project is converted, you can use Import/Export to copy the screen you want from the old application to the new one.

Was the PLC working before? Did any changes happen to cause the fault or did it just suddenly happen. If it did just suddenly happen for no reason, it's possible the processor kicked the bucket. Can you go online with it and see what the fault is? If you can't go online, I would try replacing it with a spare. ... You have a spare, right?

This might help: http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?t=51835

I would suggest asking this at http://serverfault.com/. This looks like it's a purely network related question, and the guys over there are most likely better suited to answer your problem. Also, it's not entirely clear what your network infrastructure is exactly. Are you using Spanning Tree? REP? What's the physical and logical topologies? What exactly do you mean by redundancy change? Where is the break? How is it introduced? If you ask your question at ServerFault and provide the extra details above, you'll probably have better luck. Hope it all works out for you!

What exactly are you trying to accomplish? You're trying to get the CompactLogix to communicate with another device? What protocol/network are you using? Or maybe, it sounds like you may be using some sort of software/HMI to communicate with the PLC? If so, what is it?

http://www.manualslib.com/manual/695207/Motorola-Li4278.html?page=149#manual Here's a manual (page 149) for the serial settings that you need to connect to the device. Use the ASCII instructions in the Micrologix to communicate with it. That should get you started, if there's any more specific issues you come across, it'll be easier to answer those. Best of luck!

Awesome project! Looks like it was a lot of fun to do.

Maybe, but you'd have better luck having your question answered if you ask it.

No problem. Glad to know it worked out for you!

Use a timer relay. When you press the Pre-Start button, the timer relay should be energized temporarily by the button. The timer relay should then seal itself in (You may need a second relay for that). If it reaches it's limit, it's N.C. contact will open and kill power to the buttons, and the whole panel will reset. If the start button is pressed, an N.C. contact on that circuit will kill power to the timing relay, causing the seal-in circuit to drop out, and the panel will run as normal. This might require more than one relay, depending on the existing panel design you have.

What PLC are you using? Many PLCs have a Totaliser function to accumulate volume based on measured flow rate. This is basically the same application, but kWh is the measured "volume" and kW is the "rate".

After you've done the research mentioned above, and you're sure that the CompactLogix is able to handle the requirements of the program, it should go fairly straight forward. After you import the logic, all the IO tags should be in error, but that will just be a simple Find/Replace to make them match the CompactLogix hardware tags. No other complications.

Could you get a disk image of the PC involved? Then you could set it up in the lab and do some tests to be sure. Even if you just restore it to a virtual machine, you should hopefully be able to get it working. It would also allow you to do a full FAT before installing the CompactLogix on site.

Also, tell IT to leave your computer alone. If you need a separate computer for internet access instead, so be it. It's not worth going through constant crashes and dealing with IT problems just for the convenience of having emails on your PLC workstation.