MrAutomation

I see you already put a question on the Schneider SCADAForum. Here's another thread from the same forum that answers your question. http://telemetry.schneider-electric.com/id3/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=33&threadid=1619&highlight_key=y&keyword1=counter%20digital%20input The short answer is no. The best you could do is use it for rising edge detection (so you could use if for something like a start button, where the count increments every time the button is pressed). You can use any of the Expansion I/O modules, which are connected using a (provided) ribbon cable. If you want to conserve panel space, the 5414 Compact Digital Input Module would be a good choice.

It would be extra work, but you could export the routines as L5X exports and import them into a new project using the correct controller. From there you would have to do some validation to make sure everything is working correctly afterwards.

http://www.hardysolutions.com/tenants/hardy/documents/HI1769-WS_User_T.pdf   Here's the manual for this unit. I've never used the module before, but it has a "Wavesaver" function that filters out noise. What is the current setting (see page  4-11 in the manual)? Try turning it all the way to 0.25 Hz and see if this helps. You will likely see a slower response time in measurement changes.

Contact your ABB vendor with the details of your project, I'm sure they will be happy to assist you with your specifications.

Also, what module are you using to measure the load cells? You must be using a custom module such as this one? 

How long are your cables? Is there any other cables nearby? Are you using shielded twisted pair for these cables? Is the shielding terminated correctly (isolated at the device side and grounded at the PLC side. If there is a junction box, the shield has to be connected through at the junction box but not grounded). Using a millivolt output over any measurable length is highly susceptible to noise. Take a voltmeter and measure the DC voltage between any 2 arbitrary points and you'll most likely find there is measurable ambient noise in the millivolts. If your cabling is good as per above and you are still have noise issues, you should consider either a digital load cell, or install a transmitter that converts the millivolt signal to a much more reliable 4-20 mA signal as close as possible to the load cell.

You should be able to restore your .mer file in FT View Studio and look at the tag being used. Here's a youtube video showing the procedure:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj2Mwe5eebo

Go with a VM. It's incredibly useful, in more ways than one. First, build a clean Windows (7 most likely) VM, then save a backup of it. Next use that clean VM and install all your required AB/Rockwell software. Save a backup of it in that clean, fresh state. Next, do the same with whatever other type of machine you may be working on (Siemens, whatever). Keep a separate backup of each VM setup you build.   I keep a bunch of "purpose built" VMs for whatever I may be working on, so each Windows setup is not loaded down and bloated with millions of installs. Also, whenever one of the Windows environments starts to slow down and feel sluggish (as Windows in prone to do), or if Rockwell starts spitting up some weird errors (as it is prone to do), I just throw out the VM and go back to the backup I saved of the clean setup. Total time to refresh your development environment, 5 minutes. The last benefit of keeping everything on VMs is the portability. I can buy a brand new laptop and be ready for site in 15 minutes (total number of steps required: Install VMWare Workstation, then copy my VM backups onto the new computer) It's definitely worth the additional complication factor. Learn VMs and use em!

I'm not 100% sure, but I think that when you made you MER runtime you had PV6 as the target build. You can select what device and firmware you will be building the MER file for. Take a closer look when you are in the save dialog for the MER and be sure that you are building for the latest firmware for your PV7.

Hi sorry, I never did notice this! Yes the picture must have disappeared when some updates were done on the servers. I've updated the post to include the picture again.

So here's the problem I'm facing. I've recently started working for a company that has two facilities. They have lots of old equipment/PLCs, plus some new stuff. We undertook a project to upgrade the network infrastructure, and replace all the old programming terminals (Some had Windows 2000!) with a new standardized programming terminal, all sharing a common image. We've installed these new computers, and they were working great. Recently, we switched all the licensing to a Hyper-V based server, using FactoryTalk Activation Manager. Right off the hop, there was issues with one of the sites (let's call it site B). Site A is working fine. When you open FactoryTalk Activation manager, it populates the activations from the server in about 1s. The wait times for opening software are pretty normal (For RSLogix 5000, "normal" isn't exactly rapid, but like I said, that's normal). For Site B, the activations take forever to refresh in Activation Manager when opened on a programming terminal. The software takes even longer to open (we're talking about 2-3 minutes). Network wise, Site B is further along than Site A. We've implemented a Stratix layer 3 switch at the top of the network and use area specific VLANs to reduce multicast noise across the network (much of the multicast noise comes from vendor equipment, not PLCs, so I can't control it). This works fine. I can remote in and use TeamViewer/VNC with acceptable performance across the network, so it's not being bogged down to unacceptable levels. However, connection to the activation server is unacceptable. I'm not sure of the culprit (yet). We are continuing network improvements, removing some older 10/100 links and installing Gigabit equipment between the Hyper-V server and the above mentioned Stratix, hopefully that might help. However, that same 10/100 link is the one I use to remote in and use Teamviewer currently, so I can't see how much improvement it will give us for activations (which really should take almost no network traffic). To get activations, I'm just adding the IP address of the Activation Server into FTActivation Manager on the programming terminals. Any ideas, people? Thanks

Well I discovered the problem (it's been on the back burner for a while, we've just gotten along by leaving the programs open all the time). As a part of the network upgrade, we disconnected the programming terminals from the internet (as it should be). This, apparently, was the culprit. There's a "feature" in RSLogix that "needs" the internet (I guess?). I don't actually know why, but I finally connected with the right person at Rockwell who sent me this scan: Once I made the changes in the settings the problem went away! Obscure Internet Explorer settings is the first place I check when I'm troubleshooting RSLogix problems, don't you know?

FactoryTalk attaches the license to the hard drive 99% of the time. It can be specified to attach the license to the MAC address of the computer though. This is very unlikely to be the case, though, so you should be able to fire up your backup drive with no issues.   Also, you can use something like VMWare converter to converter your physical computer to a VM. This allows you to have a quick VM backup you can run on any computer in an emergency and it should also work with no issues.

Also, instead of using  {[Program]VAR1} = 0, just use a NOT instead.

If you have an RSLogix 5000 license you can run any version, all the way up to the latest (V29?). You are correct about Studio 5000 automatically opening up RSLogix 5000 on older versions. Also, I would recommend skipping right past V21, as it has known issues and going straight to V24 or higher. I haven't had much opportunity to use the higher versions so I can't speak for them myself.

From the manual on P_ValveSO (link): P_D4SD or P_ValveMP is what you are looking for.

Can you put up a couple pictures?

It's a bit late, and I don't know if you fixed it, but it looks like it's sending a high value of 32500 instead of 32767 for full scale. What type of transmitters are these? Try changing the Raw (Integer) Max to 32500 and test. If you can't change the raw max because other values are linked to it, change the scaled Max to 2016.

Here's a tool I wrote in batch file using the netsh instructions above. I wrote it to scan your computer and find all the available network adapters. It works on Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8.1. It should work on Windows 10 as well. I've tried the software tools, but I never found anything as quick, simple or effective as the batch file I wrote. (Maybe I'm just biased because I wrote it ) Give it a try! There's a readme with a few instructions. UPDATE (8/25): I revised the file a bit. For my personal use, I found that a subnet mask of 255.0.0.0 always worked for my needs, so it would always use that automatically. However that's not the case for everyone, so now it asks the user for a subnet mask. IP ADDRESS.zip

I'm assuming you are using FT View Studio ME. I don't have version 8.0 running at the moment, but on my version 7.0, you need to hit the checkbox in the Goto button options called "Use Variable Display". Then, in the connections tab, put your parameter # in the DisplayName box. That should work for you. Best of luck!

Arduino might be perfect for this project, but what about Raspberry Pi? It's a full blown Linux (or Windows 10, when it comes out) computer, will built in IO for the lights. It should handle the task quite easily. Just connect a speaker and some lights and a serial display. Best of luck!

I depends on what you mean by repeatable. From my experience, a task set up to scan every 5 mS will usually scan between 4-6 mS, and a task set up to scan every 20 mS will scan every 18-22 mS. That is close, but you're right, not exactly repeatable. It's always been acceptable for my needs (and I've had some high speed prox/encoder applications). There will always be some sort of error as the processor has to deal with overhead such as IO and other stuff, as well as all the tasks. I don't argue that your special application required what you describe (I'm sure it did!), but saying that "one cannot force the Logix platform to scan any task at a repeatable schedule" is misleading. For most applications, the repeatability of scheduled tasks is perfectly acceptable.

This product here is exactly what you're looking for. You design the HMI using HTML5. It's also 100% free for small projects. I've never used it, and wouldn't recommend it for any sort of implementation that needs to be worked on by maintenance personnel, as it would be too complex. It supports OPC, so you can use RSLinx, Kepserver, etc to communicate with the PLC. It also natively supports Modbus and BACnet to communicate directly with PLCs/Devices. http://www.controlsystemworks.com/

Is the "Old Grey Box" that you mention still connected to the network when you test with the new card? If it is, I would guess that it has the same node address as your 1756-DH485 card. Try changing the node address on your DH485 card to something like 10. If you can, disconnect the old interface and see if your problems go away. If that isn't the problem, let us know.

Why use RSLinx Classic? Just use the built in RSLinx Enterprise