A Little bit of a rant about Modicon....

Well this weekend i changed over and old Micro PLC to A Momentum PLC..What a bunch of ****..

First it feels and is built cheap..I broke a plastic piece just trying to assemble it..
Next comes the wonderful documentation..1 page telling you to "see publication xxxxxxxx for more info.." The wiring diagrams arnt worth spit..
the last point would be the biggest..

IF you program with IEC compliant software the terminal 1 is output/input 1 HOWEVER if you use 984 language (The plant only uses modsoft) Terminal 1 is now out/in put 16 and terminal 16 is now output/input 1..

This has to be the most ridiculous thing i have ever heard of..So what happens when the plant does upgrade there software?? Do we now have to go back and re wire these damn things??
Of course the documentation doesn't tell you this..Unless you happen to have publication xxxxxx on hand..

I used to like the modicon stuff..now i am not so sure..

Anyone else run into this?

D

Yes, same experiences with that model. "But the customer is always right...even when he's wrong."

darrenj said:

Well this weekend i changed over and old Micro PLC to A Momentum PLC..What a bunch of ****..

......I used to like the modicon stuff..now i am not so sure..

Anyone else run into this?

D

Click to expand...

Can't agree more!

I've installed only one of them unit and it was more than enough. Since I always double as an advisor to my clients I've always manage to switch them to a more "User-friendly" component. They quickly realise that when time comes for there in-house techs to fiddle with these devices the cost of upgrading to a somewhat better PLC becomes ridiculous.

El CHEAPO.

LOL thanks guys..at least im not the only one..The silly thing is they only made me upgrade the Compact is becouse at head office they use concept (which dosnt support the compact)..So they upgraded for no reson..becouse the plant electritan wont upgrade his software from modsoft..(to many horor stories about proworx and concept)

As was said..

The customer is always right even if they are wrong..

D

also quick side note..
Just got back from a call in..

The VFD that is hooked up to the analog out wasnt working..

It seems it requires an isolated current output..
(It is a 1336 drive)

(Be dammned if i can remember the modicon anaolog outpur card number)

Anyway i tried every which way but loose and it worked when i put the positve on terminal 1.(As per drawing for current delivering)..when connected the negitive..drive ran good speed that was required..up and down..but that pesky smoke coming from the driver board bothered me??

From this i have figured out it needs an isolated analog output..Do they even make this for the momentum?

Damn i think i bit of more than i can chew on this one..( also having problems with the divisor..The old compact was 4048..the quantum is?? (I think its 32,750???)

D

What a waste of time, the new Compact processors are supported by Concept. All you had to do was swap processors.

I agree about the Momentum - see my review: http://www.plcs.net/reviews/review.cgi?review=momentum

As far as the analog output, I ended up using a signal conditioner/isolator in my valve control application. In the long run that is the easiest way out.

I use Momentums for many water wells and booster stations. I have to say that I like them. Pretty much everyone else thinks that they feel cheap and I have had to struggle through the unique differences such as 1 being 16 and 16 being 1. The RTD unit has some real good ones to figure out too. Since I have used so many of the Momentums I have gotten used to them and still like them. They have been reliable and versatile for me. For smaller applications they do everything a Quantum will do for less than half the cost. The documentation is very crappy and almost never explains any of these problems is a sensible way if at all. Luckily my distributor is very knowledgable and has gotten me past the curves that Modicon has thrown in. The Momentums do not support Unity software (I use Concept 2.5) and My company is planning on moving to Unity soon. I will either have to maintain the two programming packages or upgrade the Momentums to their replacement that is supposed to be coming out next year. It never ends.


Steve

Darren,
If you continue to use 984 Ladder language, I would suggest that you check out FasTrak SoftWorks, PLC WorkShop for Modicon - 32 Bit. Our software is a 32 bit Windows application that supports all of the Modicon PLCs back to and including the 584. It is an excellent upgrade from modsoft.

Feel free to contact me with any questions.
Jim
www.fast-soft.com
[email protected]

Well here is an update..

The plant lost power today for a short period of time..After which one of the systems i replaced would not come back on line..There maintinace tech tried to re start the processor and got error code 4000 (Traffic cop error)They then called me..I went down and luckaly had a demo version of prowork32 on my lap top.I plugged in and tried to start and got the same error..I then did an auto configure reloaded the program and away she went..I then went to modsoft and stopped the processor from there and tried to start again..no go..After talking to tech support we figured that it might have somthing to do with my version of modsoft (Version 2.61)..He emailed version 2.62. I then re did the traffic cop in 2.62 and away she goes..no issues..There seems to be a bug with version 2.61 that allocates 8 4x registers for an anolog input where it should only alocate 2..

We also had problems with the scaling but got that sorted by changing our ADD to AD16.. All in all not a smooth transition..I am disapointed in myself as well as the hardware for not anticipating these problems. The time spent dosnt bother me, what bothers me is the reputation with the client. I have changed 4 complete systems with them from 800 series I/O to quantum (About 4-500 I/O each) with out a major glitch.. Now the 2 smallest sytems give me the hardest grief..Go Figure..

Modicon definatly lost some of my respect over the last weekend.

Tom.. Read your review and agree completely..As for the anaolg out..I get the isolator tommorow..It seems to be the only way to go..seeing as they dont have a isolated card..

I argued with the engineer on this project to let me pull out the Modicon and replace with control logix but what do i know i just a dumb old sparky!

Oh well another chapter of my life is done and i am all the more smarter for it now..I think..

Thanks for all the replies..

JimRoz..i think we will be chatting..check your PM

Darren