I'm with Colonel26 on this one.
When we are talking about custom designs for a specific customer, I am all for that the source code should be handed over. In such cases, I even give training course for the end-customer how to understand our programming framework. Then the local tech has a realistic chance of troubleshooting without causing further problems.
On the other hand, when we are talking about standardized OEM machines, the local tech should not have to look into the code to troubleshoot.
I think that you CAN actually setup alarms for every conceivable hardware error. Higher level errors, i.e. that the sequence waits for certain conditions should also be reported. For standard machines, the programmers may have spent years on gathering every possible error situation.
Are you saying that on a very complex machine, a 3rd party programmer should be able to jump right in and troubleshoot the code ? That makes no sense to me.
For hardware faults I agree and for the actuators it's the very minimum you expect. Sensors should also have all faults, eventhough it can become extremely annoying for the operators to have too many faults and alarms. In heavily standardized plants like Peugeot in France, you can have up to 10-12 faults and alarms for a single sensor if you follow the guidelines. The untrained operators have no chance to understand what is actually going on with so many messages.
But even the maintenance technicians who have been trained to this standard, which has become mandatory for all OEMs, which is controlled and scrutinized by the people who wrote this same standard, often use their PC to open the program and troubleshoot it even if they have their thousands of Prog Alarm.
What I say is that the largest the machine or production line is, the more chance the maintenance people will have to sometime look at the code to troubleshoot it faster.
The S7-1500 has the same setting also. You can choose how they will boot. In RUN mode or in the same mode they were before being turned off and if they encounter and error and go to STOP mode they will restart in stop mode.That is a blatant design error. Never heard that the S7-1200 has such a setting, but I am at a loss why anyone would want to chose such a setting. Can the S7-1200 change mode via its webserver ? In that case it could be the solution.
The only difference between the S7-1200 and the S7-1500 is that the S7-1500 can be changed to RUN by its embededed screen. I am even wondering if this is not the standard setting that the designer has forgotten to change for the S7-1200 because it make little sense to change this setting this way.
Schneider's M240 by default start in stop mode if you don't change the setting, but at least they have a switch to put them in RUN mode.
Last edited: