justwhy2003

So SC05 is used for older A Series units (ive used the dongled part only of my cable for this in the past). The FX-20P-CADP is an addition to the SC05 and the 2 together make the SC09..? Im going to order an FX3G-232BD and try to connect with a modem cable.

Thanks for the info. So I have 2 options: 1 - Use my existing programming cable with an adapter added between it and the modem. I dont have an SC-09 cable. I use an older cable including dongle (FX 20P-CADP). I presume this type of encryption isnt really used any more esp since USB cables for programming are becomming more popular. Im hoping I can use this cable in place of the SC-09 you describe... 2 - Use a straight modem cable. I think I even have a few of these lying around but I will need to purchase a FX3G-232BD. You then go on to speak about using 2 cables... Is one at the receiving PC side? On my PC side I shouldnt have any additional cables as the information is fed straight to a software via TCP port directing and presented as a virtual COM port.

Interesting! I know that the PLC was originally installed approx 10 years ago and If I asked a few questions I could probably get in touch with who ever programmed it at that time. I am going back to site today and am hoping to interface a Red Lion modular controller with the PLC via an A1SJ71UC24-R2 RS232 serial link to pull some parameters out for logging purposes. Knowing what the program contained would be handy to know what registers to target for extracting analogue input information. I will also look into extracting the program using GX Dev IEC to see if this makes a difference. Thanks for the feed back, ill let you know how I get on. Justin

I know what youre saying crossbow but there are also sections of yellow in the instruction list. The PLC hasnt been in run for a long time, have a funny feeling they switched it off because it wasnt doing what it was supposed to. Best option now maybe to clear the memory and start from scratch. Thanks Justin

I have just extracted a program from an A1SJCPU-S3 and it has large sections that are yellow. Some of these sections only have contacts that go nowhere i.e. only connected to the left rung with no coils or instructions attached. When I look at the instruction list there are still sections that say 'Instruction code abnormal' When I uploaded the program there were 2 messages, 1 that 'An error was detected in the parameter data. The data is automatically corrected as a default setting' and 2 that an 'end' instruction was not found and would be added. Does this sound like the program is corrupted? Im hoping that it is a software program only with the possibility of reprogramming from scratch.

Thanks lads, made some of those changes last week and the alarm history now works more like the customer wanted. Justin

Hi I have configured an alarm history page for a number of pumps on a GT1685M-STBD HMI. This does the job and displays when pumps run, trip etc so the operator can check the last run time etc. My problem is that the same events cumulate on the display, and the display can only display 27 events (rows). This means that is a pump trips and a 2nd pump starts and stops 27 times by the time the operator checks the history, the trip event will have been pushed off the display. I dont have the HMI beside me to play around with the available options but can the alarm history be configured that only the last time any event occurs is displayed. I think Citect alarm history shows the event and start time, then when it stops occurring it is dulled out with the start and stop time displayed. when it occurs again, it is displayed only once but with the start time. As a second option, does the additon of a CF card allow the displayed rows to be increased to allow the operator to scroll back as far as nedds be to check when the alarm occured..? Justin

Hi Im trying to use GX simulator to test a program that Im hoping to bring to a Q02U PLC on site next week. My laptop died a few days ago and I have just had a complete re-install. Im using Gx Developer 8.89T and have installed GX Simulator 7 from the GX Developer CD. I can see the simulator program in my programs in my laptop control panel and the 'Start Ladder Logic Test' is available in Gx Dev where it wasnt before. When I select this however, the simulator seems to try and start and the following error is diaplsyed. 'The specified module does not exist. Check the connection destination specification and execute again <ES:01801007>' Do I need to install additional compoents perhaps from the CD or change a path to where the simulator is directed..? Justin

Thanks, that works. What about changing the PLC type. Should I be able to just switch back to Q02U or will there have been some parameters missing when changing to Q02H? Is my best bet just to re write the rungs I was tetsting into my original Q02U program?

It seems now that I cannot make changes to my program unless i am in the Ladder Logic Test mode and Pressing F4 uploads the program to my emulated PLC. If I try to do this in normal write mode when the logic test has been stopped i get the following error: Unable to communicate with PLC. The following reasons may be responsible. Comms time out. Cable trouble. PLC power off or reset status USB trouble. Please restart. A communication error dialog is being displayed with other Melsoft products. Please close the error dialog <ES:01808502> I have tried shutting down GX Dev and reopening and also my laptop but this remains. How can I revert back to programming without the convert looking for a PLC?

Hmmm, changing to Q02H works, thanks. I had to agree to deleting quite a few devices and comments for the change to happen. I noticed they were all high address values but will this cause me hastle when reverting back to Q02U for uploading. Should I possibly test the control logic using a Q02H then add this logic to my original Q02U program for prgramming? Im running Windows XP pro Ver 2002 Justin

Hi Can someone please tell me what OPW is. What does it stand for and what does it relate to. Justin

Its mentioned in the Specification for a job we are working on at the moment. Its asks that the control system shoudl be compatible with the existing OPW software. This system is Citect. It then goes on to talk about presenting tags using OPC. I understand this bit but not so sure on OPW. I have used Citect in the past. Is this a term used for types of SCADA systems or a type of software. Just never came across it before.

Hi I was on a site yesterday that the company I work for installed the Civils. A seperate contractor installed a system to monitor and control a number of pumps, blowers, variables. The system hard ware has the name TAC Xenta on it. It seems to be a number of field point modules (digital and analogue) that are terminaled at a base module. This then has a 2 wire interface with a second module in the company's office (approx 150 mtrs away) and the plant operator can view graphics for the system on his PC. It was all working well until a few weeks ago when it stopped giving him access. The contractor that installed originally are uncontactable. I think that the problem is internal as the comms module in the office is connected to their server. Im going to search for the Xenta company but would be interested if anyone had any experience in this system already...?

Brilliant!! That works!! Thanks for the help :) Justin

Have my test system working pretty well. Failry confident that the 7400 fault is due to noise. Im not using shielded cables on my desk, I connected the antennas to the wireless gateways to improve the connectivity and the error occured quicker on the modbus card. So now I have digital signals transmited. I have been talking to my distributor and he is 100% that I should be able to access holding registers starting from address 40001, the only addressing I can see in the manual for holding registers is starting at 400001. Has anyone had any problems/experience with this in the past? am I missing something silly when addressing for holding registers? Justin

They are 2 seperate modbus connections. The system seems to be doing what it should. The changes at the PLC is being shown at the receiving gateway. I just dont want these errors/warnings to come back and bite while on site. The error lights stayed off on both units for at least 2 hours on my past attempt but for some reason just come on. Im not sure what has happened tha wasnt happening before. Just had a thought over lunch. I have configured the switch settings to enable online changes. Would the modbus card be expecting to receive information that at the present is not being sent? Update, tried disabling online change but the error 7400 still occurs. Justin

Hmmm, though I had everything working yesterday evening. Have now got 2 PLCs each with a Elpro gateway. Each gateway configured a s a master and the PLC as the slave. Information being extracted from each and sent to a 3 gateway that will probably be configured as a slave to facilitate an existing SCADA system. Could see changes at the receiving Gateway that were being madde at the sending PLCs. Today the units run for a while then a different error occurs on each. Station 1 Modbus card error 7411 (CRC/LRC error pg 345 in users manual) From what I can see, this is to do with the layout of the message sent between master/slave. Station 2 Modbus card error 7400 (framing error pg 344 in users manual) Says to check the stop bit and all transmission setting match, which they do. Also only use 1 master in the system and adjust the transmission timing to prevent simultaneous data transmission. I am only using 1 master per PLC so that shouldnt be a problem. right? I can increase the polling delay between messages on my master. Could it be fro both of these errors that there isnt enough time being allowed for the information to be sent fully to the master? Justin

For future reference, Online > Delete PLC Data and selected 'Intelligent function module'. Seemed to do the trick.

Think Im making progress. I configured the switches so that the default Modbus addresses are used instead of assigning my own (BTW what is the advantage of assigning?) I then told my Elpro master 1 to extract information from a coil in the PLC 1. I could do this since the coil registers allocated to the Elpro (1-9999) overlap with the coil allocations in the PLC (008193-016384). This is then sent to Elpro master unit 2 and written to the same register in PLC 2 and used to switch an output. Which it does when switched in PLC 1. I believe this means 2 things, 1 that I have made communications between the PLCs, and 2 that the Modbus address in the PLC dont look like they will match up with the addresses available in the Elpro for register values. Has anyone ever come across this? Is it just a hardware mis-match? Further to this, although the comms seem to be working fine, I am still receiving an error on my modbus cards (730A) due to the fact that I have configured for default parameters but still seem to have user assignments available in the initial settings in Config MB. The Corrective action in the manual is to delete the QJ71MB91 parameters entered to the programmable controller CPU. I have tried deleted this in Config MB and even tried writing to the PLC after this and power cycling but the error remains and when I read from the PLC in Config MB, the initial settings are still shown as available. How can I make this delete stick? Justin

Seems as though the 1st PLC is now showing the same error. Another theory is that the modbus addresses available in the PLC are outside the range available to the Elpro. Holding registers are 400001 onwards and input registers are 300001 onwards in the PLC but the Elpro unit holding registers are 40001 - 49999 and input registers 30001 - 39999. Dost this seem likely?

Ok firstly, Im pretty sure I have made communications between 1 wireless module and the PLC. In the Config MB device assignment: I allocated D2000 to Input register headder address 0 (which should correspond to 300001) and the following 10 registers. I allocated D2010 to holding register address 0 (which should correspond to 400001) and the following 10 registers. These are pretty much the only settings I have made in the Config MB. My switch settings had been sent already and the unit power cycled with the following settings: switch1 switch2 switch3 switch4 switch5 0001 0545 0001 0544 0201 This has set up my channel 2 (485) as follows: 8 data bits no parity bit even parity 1 stop bit RTU mode Online update enabled (to allow holding registers to be written to?) Address 2 The wireless Elpro unit has been set up to read from registers 30001 and write to registers 40001 onwards. The screenshot below shows the read settings. I have then downloaded the same program to the 2nd PLC and the same configuration to the Modbus card via Config MB. I just saved the same program used under a different name and used that. Also configured wireless unit 2 for similar operation I am receiving the error 7383. But do not understand why the same configuration would not work for both PLCs. I have tried using the 2nd wireless gateway on the 1st PLC and vice versa but am still getting the error on PLC 2 leading me to think it is the configuration of PLC 2 that is causing the error. I was thinking that it might be because both Modbus cards have the same address but surely they are on 2 seperate systems with 2 seperate Modbus masters..? Cant think of what to try next. Can I clear the entire PLC and modbus card config to make sure that Im starting rom scratch..? Any help appreciated. Justin

Further to this, the address range in the PLC for modbus devices seems to be 000001 to at least 465536. This is out side of what I can access on the adress ranges available for polling in the Elpro unit (0 - 49999)..?

Ok Ive made communications, the RX/TX lights on my Elpro unit and the SD/RD on my QJ71MB91 card are flashing. In the Configurator MB software I used the Device assignment feature to allocate registers D4001 to address 40001 and the following 25 registers. In the Elpro unit I can only allocate 40001 - 49999 to output registers so I have configured the unit to read from 40001 and the following 10 registers. I keep getting the error code 7383 "The modbus assignment parameters have not been set for the modbus device specified in the received request message. The modbus device assignment parameter setting is in progress" I switched off and on the Elpro and also increased the polling time t 1000mS incase the Modbus card didnt have enough time to set up so Im pretty sure this is an addressing problem. Is there something obvious here that Im missing? perhaps the offset from the modbus holding register head device number...? Bit stuck