Posted 20 Jan 2021 Hi fellow PLC veterans, I am new in the PLC world so please forgive me if my questions read dumb to you.. I am just wondering if there are any newer PLC machines that can: 1. keep the program even after its battery is completely flat or faulty (Is this even possible?) 2. allow users to copy and save the program somewhere so one can install the program again without the need/presence of the machine supplier What tools/software may be required? Thank you for reading and look forward to your response :) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 20 Jan 2021 The newer families of AB CompactLogix (5370-series and newer) and ControlLogix (1756-L7x and newer) have super capacitors and non-volatile memory to retain programs instead of batteries. You need Studio 5000 to program them. If you're at v24 or newer, symbols and comments can be stored in the PLC (memory space permitting) so you can walk up to the machine cold and upload everything you need from the machine. The Siemens S7-300 PLCs that I used to work with also don't use a battery. They have a special (and EXPENSIVE) SD card that you can swap in when replacing the CPU as long as the CPU is the same model. You do NOT, however, get symbols and comments when you upload without a project file. Those are programmed with Step 7 for Simatic Manager (older) or Step 7 for TIA Portal (newer). Only some (maybe most, but definitely not all) S7-300s can be programmed in Portal. I haven't done much with other brands yet, so I can't speak to other options. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 20 Jan 2021 Most modern PLCs have flash memory so the program is not retained by a battery. Omron NJ and NX Series do this. As for the program copy, nope. You will need the vendor's software to access the program in the PLC. It's not something you can just copy and paste. But you can buy the software, you do not need to involve the machine builder unless they password protected their programs. The software will be different for every PLC vendor. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites