Introduction of myself

[DarloK 0]

so ... from my experiences from other forums i think it's only a social behavior to introduce myself. I'm a 29 years old machine software engeneer from germany. _(for admins if you think, this is not an appropriate way ... please simply kill this topic, or move it to the appropriate destination)_ I'm working most times with FX2N FX0N, 1S 1N, of course 'cause i'm from germany i have some projects with SIEMENS NC/PLC too. My company gives me the possibility to release some parts of my code for free. I've some experiences whith FX CPUs using MM+ and GX IEC Developer only. I think i can give some help to some of the users here, especially if they are using GX IEC Dev and use the Mitsu FX2N-xxPG Pulse-generators/servos/motors or use the serial communication ie. for communicating to a image processing system like keyence CV-2100. My newest project is a (for european customers) brandnew FX3U with ethernet and 3 x MRJ-3-B servos over SSC-NET. The Mitsu guys were here by me to introduce their new toys ... hehe that was nice ... everything looked great -abs-data for drives- no problem anymore ... trying to get about 6000 words of data from a PC to PLC (near cyclic)... easy over TCP/IP ... very cool!

[TimWilborne 108]

Looks like you will be bringing a lot to the forum. Welcome the MrPLC and I look forward to reading your post

[Thorny 0]

Hi Darlok, perhaps you may be able to help me, I am a "Technician" in support of Maintenance at a company in the UK, I have experience mainly in Modicon and AB but I am currently working with Mitsubushi as this is the chosen PLC for the company, my question is open to anyone to reply but as youve mentioned GX IEC which seems to be used mostly in Europe I guess you will have an answer. If I try to communicate with an A series FX1 or whatever with GX IEC without the program currently running from HDD, ie just a straight Serial connection, the only upload from PLC I can get is in List mode not ladder as in MM+ or GX Dev, can I convert this to ladder ? as I have taken over from the previous Tech who didn't feel the need to back up progs or just took them with him when he left! I realy need to back up all the PLC's here as there is not any archive material or Hard copies that I can find, I have been told that most of the Progs were written and downloaded using GX IEC and you need the original program running on HDD before you can connect and monitor, is this correct ? also if I connect using GX Developer (Not IEC) I get ladder but it looks as though most of the function blocks are broken down making a huge prog and difficult to follow, any help from anyone would be greatly appreciated. Thorny

[TimWilborne 108]

First why don't you start a new topic with your problem in the title. Many who have already read Darlok's introduction will not be reading your question I was in a similar situation a few years ago and with all of my Mitsubishis didn't need the PLC program to go online and backup. What you will be missing by not having the PLC program is all the descriptions. Do you have any hard copies of the programs or any files at all that may have the programs or some type of descriptor files on them? Now if the former tech put passwords on the PLC that could be another story.

[Colin Carpenter 10]

You've got a problem if you don't have the original files that the previous incumbent used to programme the PLCs with. Make very effort to try and track them down and save yourself a vast amount of work. Key thing is that regardless of the programming software, the PLC works in instruction mode and it has no idea what is connected to it's inputs or outputs. The only thing it needs to know is the instruction code and that's the only thing you will normally get out of it when uploading the programme. There is the ability to also store comments on certain PLCs, but in general, it tends not to be used as the comments take up memory space in the PLC and reduce the amount of memory left for instructions. There is a free utility which can be used to convert instruction code in IEC into graphical (ladder) format. It comes on the IEC Developer CD, or, can be downloaded from the Mitsubishi (German) website. It works pretty well, but still needs a lot of tidying and re-arranging afterwards. It also has the ability to change DOS MEDOC and GX Developer programmes into IEC graphical projects. However, without the comments, name lists etc of the original projects, the only thing you are going to get is a non commented, ADDRESS ONLY programme ..... because that's the only thing that the PLC knows and needs to know to be able to work. Be aware that even when working in graphical (ladder) mode in IEC, when you "build" the project, you are effectively creating an Instruction List programme which will be downloaded to the PLC. Nothing more, nothing less ...... Good luck ..... you're gonna need it.

[rainofwind 0]

glad to hear that!