PLC Programming Changes Detection

Is there anyway to find out if a PLC (AB SLC500, PLC5, and CLX5000) program has been changed online? I need to periodically check if someone has modify the online code automatically via some sort of SCADA software package. I looked into the checksum but not sure if it's available on the PLC5's and not quite sure how to read this data from an offline file. Maybe there's a package that does this sort of test already available?

RSMACC which is now FTAssetCenter.

Thanks, Oakley. I guess there's so many flavors of this package and the RSMACC change Management is what I need. Only thing I don't like is that it need it's own pc with Windows server, SQL Server, etc.

Be aware the if there are multiple instances of RSMACC, then the Security Aware bit does NOT distinguish between different instances of the product. It relies on that the person configuring the software does not configure a controller in both applications.

Change Notification

RSLogix5 has an object model you can manipulate with Visual Basic. I wrote a VB application to create backups and check for PLC5 changes. It made keeping tabs on 70 PLC5's much easier. It would download the programs for our daily backup and e-mail a report. The report would include which programs had changed since last backup, which processors were offline, etc. I don't think this is available with RSLogix 500 or 5000.

This also helped with the lazy tech issue - I set it up to run every 12 hours, so it was easy to narrow down program modifications to certain people. We had techs who would bypass bad photoeyes instead of replacing them.

I'm not sure what Rockwell offers now, but at the time, my time to develop the software was about 1/10th of Rockwell's equivalent. And no... I'm not cheap

Regards,

Justin

AB added a command to the SLC platform back in early 2006 (series C; FRN-10) called "RPC", or Read Program Checksum. When executed it stores the checksum in an N register.

Here's a link to an article on the subject:

http://www.automationmedia.com/NewsDetail.asp?ID=%2015

This also helped with the lazy tech issue - I set it up to run every 12 hours, so it was easy to narrow down program modifications to certain people. We had techs who would bypass bad photoeyes instead of replacing them.

Makes me glad I'm the only one with access to the PLC's in this plant

There is AutoSave, as well, which is a Change Management software from MDT Software. It does the periodic checking of programs, with email notification and compare reports that show pictures of changes. - Matt