My First Day

How's everybody doing,
First day was interesting, I will be working on a variety of pallet loading machines.
Question: The system uses control logix version 15 with an
AB 1794-AENT adapter. I have access to the wireless network of the facility, and the employer said they will get the control logix ver.15 for me (I already have a laptop)what else if anything will I need to access the ladder logic programs of the machines I will be working on.

G

1794-AENT is an adapter module for a flex I/O rack. There is no control logix processer associated with a flex I/O rack. There could be one or more Control Logix or Compact Logix PLC racks with 1756-ENBT type modules on the same network communicating to this Flex I/O rack.

In addition to RSLogix5000 and RSLinx (Lite version comes with RSLogix products), you need to make sure that your wireless access point is on the same physical network or at least bridged to the PLC network and that all of the PLCs you need to access are also on the network. I've seen many facilities with a separate production and plant network and you can't get to one from the other or if you can, you need the proper security.

Also, it would be REALLY beneficial to get a map of the plant's PLC communication network. If there isn't one, get busy making one. You'll need to identify the various network types (TCP/IP, ControlNet, DeviceNet, Remote I/O, Profibus, DH+, DH485) and the associated node addresses for each device on these networks. That will go a long way towards connecting to various devices/PLCs.

If you have anything other than ControlLogix PLCs you need to get copies of the most updated offline programs. The comments and descriptions are not stored in the processer but on a PC's harddrive, so to make heads/tales of any program, you'll need that to see the documentation. The plant should have a central repository for these and some method of checkout/checkin so that you know that you always have the latest docs. Nothing worse than Bubba making some changes, documenting it, but he is the only one that has the updated docs. Next time YOU go online with an older offline program, you won't see any of the new docs.

If you have to configure/diagnose DeviceNet or ControlNet networks you'll need additional software (RSNetworx). If you have Profibus, then you likely have an SST card somewhere and should have the config software for that.

There was a 1756-ANET ethernet module. If you have one of these, start practicing up on your pursuasion skills and get a 1756-ENBT module.


RobertMee has a good reference list of where to start. You would also want to make a listing of any drives that are connected to the PLC network(s) and how they are connected.

Additionally, beware that ControlLogix is version specific between the hardware and the software (RSLogix5000). If you have a ControlLogix controller at version 13, then you will need RSLogix5000 V13 to read and write to the controller (provided that you don't flash upgrade the controller firmware to V15). Note that the latest release of RSLogix5000 is V16.

If you aren't familiar with ControlLogix, then it would be a good idea to looking into a training class. There is a huge difference between the PLC5 (or SLC) platforms and the ControlLogix platform.

Oakley said:

Additionally, beware that ControlLogix is version specific between the hardware and the software (RSLogix5000). If you have a ControlLogix controller at version 13, then you will need RSLogix5000 V13 to read and write to the controller (provided that you don't flash upgrade the controller firmware to V15). Note that the latest release of RSLogix5000 is V16.

Click to expand...

The saving grace for CLX however is that you can load ALL versions of RSLogix5000 concurrently. The Setup disc gives you the option of installing individual or all versions. Go ahead and install them all, that way, you can open various revisions without updating the firmware.

You don't have this luxury with RSlogix5 or 500 so try to get everyone updated to some later version (as late as the most recent program).