RSLogix 500 Emulator weirdness

I've used RSLogix5000Emulator but this is my first endeavor with 500. I can tell already I don't like the fact there's no online editor. Makes for troubleshooting and debugging tedious.

Anyway, similar to my 5000 setups, I wrote an extensive simulator routine to mimic all the real world I/O and processes. To enable this to work, I disabled the I/O modules in the status register (similar to Inhibit on CLX). Everything seems to work except for a couple of things:

Saving Data Tables. Even though there is no online editor and so you can't do an upload of the program, I found that you can force an upload of the Data tables. Try to make an online edit, cancel the rung and then save. It will upload the data tables. Is there a better way to do this?s

About every other time (and this is the weirdness), I do a download, then Run, a **** load of Inputs are Forced off. Forcing is not enabled so I simply have to remove all forces. There is nothing in my offline program that is forced on, yet almost every download results in Inputs being forced off again. What gives? Is this a result of having the modules disabled?

It's been a while, but are you sure that you can't edit online?
Did you perhaps just pick a processor that doesn't have online edit capabilities?

MicroLogix (except the 1100) can not be edited online, nor can SLC 5/01 or SLC 5/02 CPU's.

rdrast said:

It's been a while, but are you sure that you can't edit online?
Did you perhaps just pick a processor that doesn't have online edit capabilities?

MicroLogix (except the 1100) can not be edited online, nor can SLC 5/01 or SLC 5/02 CPU's.

Click to expand...

Nope it's a SLC 505...

From the Emulate Help:

When you are using RSLogix 5, RSLogix 500, WINtelligent LOGIC 5, PLC-500 A.I. Series, or PLC-5 A.I. Series online with RSLogix Emulate, the software owns the edit resource for the project. This means that you cannot edit the ladder logic that is in the software's memory. To change the project, you must edit the project offline and reload the project into RSLogix Emulate. You can change data table values while online.

Ouch... well, that's crippled software then.

rdrast said:

Ouch... well, that's crippled software then.

Click to expand...

It's a pain in the butt to say the least. At LEAST I can save the data tables, go offline, make the change, download/run and go back on line and be close to the same state I was when I started, due to the data being retained.

UPDATE: Be wary of making online saves. It will corrupt the channel configuration and the only way to recover is to export the library files and re-import into a new project. Rockwell is aware of the issue, but a patch or version upgrade isn't due until end of year (2008).

See technote 48247