1784-PCMK A Upgrade

Our company has a 1784-PCMK series A card which allows a laptop user to connect to a slc 5/04 processor. And i was wondering if Allen bradley provides an upgrade kit for my card. Basically i am hoping i can upgrade the card to a series B as oppose to purchasing a series B card. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

personally I've never heard of an "upgrade" kit ... but why do you want a series B? ... if the A is working ok, I don't see any advantage to moving up a notch ...

also ... be aware that the series A cables and the series B cables will NOT interchange ... they are physically different in size and an A cable will NOT fit into a B card ...

I'm not sure what your motives are for changing, but check out this link:

http://search2.rockwellautomation.com/texis/search?dropXSL=&pr=ExternalDefault&prox=page&rorder=500&rprox=750&rdfreq=0&rwfreq=0&rlead=250&sufs=1&query=1784-PCMK++series+a&submit=+%BB+

This is what I got when I searched A-B's website using "1784-PCMK series A" as a search parameter.

There are over 300 related articles that give everything from known computer compatibility issues to cables. Click on the link and research away! (Also try using "1784-PCMK series B" as a search parameter.)

If you need to use the series "B", I don't believe there is a way to "upgrade" from an "A" short of replacement. Check this out:

http://domino.automation.rockwell.com/applications/kb/RAKB.nsf/0/DDA5CD0E508FE6C585256AFB0056AAE9

This technote describes a known issue with a series A card and recommends upgrading to a series B card, so I concluded that there is no such "upgrade kit"...

Thanks for the reply Ron.

It seems as though the series B card supports up to 230 K baud rate and the series A card limits you to only 56K.

The PLC also has PanelViews communicating through DH+ at 230 K baud rate. So i would have prefer to connect to the processor at 230K rather than having to change the baud rate to 56K to go online with the processor.

However,I wasnt aware that the two cables are not interchangeable. Therefore i may have to purchase the series B card. Thanks again for your help.

Somehow i thought there would be a way to flash my current card. Anyway i understand now that its not possible. Thanks for all your help.

The plug-and-play driver has been stable for about seven years. I have never had a problem with my own PCs.

The main difference between the Series A/B cards is the cables (Series A was sturdy but relied on friction) and support for 230.4 kb/s comms.

As previously noted you're going to need a Series B cable, too.

You can trade in your old card for a 15% discount on a new one:

http://www.ab.com/stepforward/commupgrade.html#pccard

ok ... the higher baud rate issue makes sense ... if you buy the card from a distributor, ask for the 1784-PCMC kit ... it comes with a cable and a Mini-DIN adapter - (a little bit) cheaper than buying the two parts separately ...

To clarify my post...

I was citing an old archived technote which mentioned the solution to a series A problem was an upgrade to a series B card.

It is unimportant what the issue was. The solution just tells me that there is no way to upgrade short of replacing the series A card with a series B. (Plus the cables as Ron noted.)

I'll be sure to mention my 15% coupon to my Allen Bradley distributor when purchasing the series B card. Another problem solved!!!