plc direct password

tlclark46

Member
Join Date
Dec 2006
Location
Boulder Colorado
Posts
1
I have a PLC Direct DL05 on a heat sealer. Due to the fact that the sealer did not work and the manufacturer (Therm-O-Seal) did not stand behind it we have rebuilt it so it does work. I need to reprogram some of it and the vendor will not give up the password. Does anybody have any experience with accessing this. It would save a lot of time to edit the existing code rather than reprogram the machine.
 
The only way that the password can be removed is to send the PLC back to automationdirect.com. We will clear the password and memory and return it to you in factory default condition.

Please note that the memory will be completely erased by this procedure. Please call Technical support at (800) 633-0405 or (770) 844-4200 to arrange to have the password removed.
 
Tell the bozos at Therm-O-Junk that it will be cheaper to give you the password than talking to your lawyer.
 
Norml said:
Tell the bozos at Therm-O-Junk that it will be cheaper to give you the password than talking to your lawyer.

Thats the approach I would recommend. While I am generally adverse to litigous business methods, this is a machine which you spent thousands of dollars on and chances are its sub par performance is costing you thousands of dollars. Most manufacturers will stand behind their products, however not all. If the machine builder cannot stand behind his product then he cannot compete and IMO has no business in the marketplace. But that is his problem, do not let him hamper your ability to compete.

In most states, the law is on your side if you can demonstrate that the machine is not capable of doing what the manufacturer claims it is supposed to do. A couple of years ago I was involved in just such a case. The machine manufacturer argued that we had modifed the machine. We proved that the machine as delivered could not have performed according to the specifications the manufacturer published and argued that our modifications were necessary to limit our losses while the case was litigated. We prevailed and obtained a full refund + damages and fees. That company is now defunct, as it should be. We don't need those types.
 
1. I belive there's a respected member of this forum whom works for Therm-O-seal. Judging from that idividuals conduct on this and other forms, leads me to belive that there's another side to the story here.

2. The password in the AD plcs are limited to 8 digits & (0-9). 10^8 = 10,000,000. With some dedicated work it might take a week or so to stumble on it..

3. Ok so figuring that you have made "unauthorized" changes to the machine, you might be better off starting the program from scratch anyway. A) even if you do break into the code, there will be no documentation. B) as you stated the machine didnt work properly, so who's to say the existing program is anything usefull to work with. The DL05 is a small plc, by the time you figure it all out, you might have better spent your time working on your own code.

Just my thoughts.

Mike
 
What you should do is highly dependant on your situation with the OEM. If you modify the code your warranty is VOID, doesn't matter if your modifications have anything to do with what happens, if you change the code it is void.

Call the company and ask for the password, tell them that you aren't interested in stealing their proprietary technolgy and making your own sealers, just simply want to make some changes to the way that YOUR machine operates. It will hurt your pride but it may be benefical to ask them to make the changes for you. Swallow it, the company you work for wants a working machine and if that is the best way to deliver it to them then so be it.

I spent some time looking at the products from the company you are dealing with, from a controls standpoint it doesn't look like rocket science (despite their marketing claims). If they wan't to be silly, reverse engineer what they did and do it yourself and never spend any money with them again!

I don't have a problem holding machine suppliers accountable for their claims, just be reasonable.

I once had a very good machine supplier for me go bankrupt. They bit off a 10M dollar job and quoted performance spec's for about 300 products. They achieved 100% performance for 95% of the products. They could only achieve 90% performance for the other 5% of product. The customer witheld their 10% hold back because the contract spec's were not met. The machine company wen't broke because of it. Assanine, who wins?
 
Last edited:
elevmike said:
2. The password in the AD plcs are limited to 8 digits & (0-9). 10^8 = 10,000,000. With some dedicated work it might take a week or so to stumble on it..

Actually if you are using a pure brute force method, and were able to try once each second it would take over 3 years to try all of the combinations.

To try it at a reasonable rate, it works out to a bit over 16 years.
 
Actually if you are using a pure brute force method, and were able to try once each second it would take over 3 years to try all of the combinations.


No way...

24 hours x 60min x 60sec x 365 days = 31,536,000 Seconds in a year. There's only 10 million possabilities??. Max two years at a reasonable trial rate. (which is still rather unreasonable...)
 
Lets don't forget an "A" can also be used as the first digit to allow data access while locked.
 
Wait - 8 digits means 100 million possibilities 0 - 99,999,999. let's get this right!



AAHHHhhh... How embarassing!!!!

Now that I'm going to spend the holidays in the hospital getting my foot removed from my mouth...
 
Just a thought, if the 05 did say PLC Direct on it instead of AutomationDirect then it was sold around 1999, quite old for a new machine.
 

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