Unitronics Vision 290

Hi all!
We have a Lantech stretch wrap machine with a Unitronics Vision 290 HMI. This is my first experience with Unitronics.

The touchscreen is starting to show some problems after three years in service. There are horizontal lines obscuring some of the display, but it still works just fine. I wanted to ensure that we had a spare on hand if the thing completely dies soon.

The device has a Lantech brand label on the front, and I was not sure if we have the software or cables or files to load a new one, so I called Lantech. They sold us a replacement unit, already loaded with their program and it was relatively cheap ($1150-ish), so I did not bother to try to find a lower cost replacement directly from Unitronics.

Sunday, I had a chance to install the new unit and found that it did not include the ethernet card which is how it connects to a Micrologix1500 through a Prosoft card.

So, I swapped the ethernet card from the old one to the new unit and tried it out, but never got communication established.

I did not have time to mess with it very long, and ended up putting the old one back in.

I was wondering if there are settings that need to happen in the new unit in order to get the ethernet card working, set IP addresses, etc.

When I had it powered up, the HMI screens looked the same, it just would not allow me to access certain areas which appear to be PLC controlled screen changes. The data light on the prosoft module never showed any activity either, but the link light was lit.

Also, what are the file types for this HMI? I found some files related to this machine, so I just might be able to locate software and figure out what is going on with the comms.

Thanks,
Paul

You should be able to download the software from Unitronics.com. Click the Support link. It looks like you need the VisiLogic.

I haven't used the Vision models, but the M90/91 models contain all elements in a single project. The logic and HMI screens are all in the same software.

If you can find a comm cable, you may be able to upload from both controllers and compare them.

Last, the sample projects and help for the M90/91 are excellent. I hope that those for VisiLogic are of similar quality.

hi,
the work with visilogic is straightforward, the cable is very simple serial (just with RJ connectors).
You can download from the internet the visilogic, and if its not with password, made an upload from the working PLC, so you will have all the hardware configuration.

Visilogic is just one archive, and the PLC and HMI are inside.

I don't remember, and don't know exactly how to work with the ethernet snap-in. I was looking for it, but I don't find it for the 290. I know that it has to be configured in the HW configuration, but doesn't need more than that to be used.

OkiePC said:

Hi all!
We have a Lantech stretch wrap machine with a Unitronics Vision 290 HMI. This is my first experience with Unitronics.

Click to expand...

Welcome!

OkiePC said:

Sunday, I had a chance to install the new unit and found that it did not include the ethernet card which is how it connects to a Micrologix1500 through a Prosoft card.

Click to expand...

This would be a clue. If they were supposed to ship you an identical unit, and it didn't include the card, then they didn't ship you an identical unit. If the card is missing, then other things probably are as well.

The ethernet setup is entirely part of the PLC's program, in a function block early on in the main routine of the program. If the unit is identical, and the program is identical, it's going to work if it did before.

What likely happened is they shipped you the wrong unit, with the wrong PLC app installed, and putting the e-net module (plug & play, by the way, no jumpers or other gobbledy-gook) won't matter because it's almost certainly not configured in the program.

Download Visilogic - free is good. Buy, borrow or build a cable - pinout is at the site. Plug into com port 1 of the ORIGINGAL WORKING UNIT and go to the Connection menu and choose Communication and OS.

In the pop-up, choose the bottom button, "Get OPLC Information". This will test your comm setup - most likely they stuck with the defaults, otherwise you'll need to play around a bit. It will also tell you the OS version, which you may need later.

Best-case scenario: The program is in the PLC and Upload has not been shut off, you can upload the program and turn right around and put it in the new PLC. La-dee-da.

Worst-case: Upload is disabled, Unitronics' equivalent of an OEM lock. Gotta call up Lantech and bytch 'em out. In fact, that migh be your simplest route.

Try those first. When you connect, make sure to upload the data table data as well, so you can download that into the new controller.

Get back if you have more questions

Thanks!

TM

Thanks for the replies.

I have downloaded and installed the free software, Visilogic v7.0.1 but having trouble getting it to run. I emailed Unitronics support and they are working with me to get that resolved.

Thanks for confirming my educated guess that the OPLC program is probably different. I did not see any mention of anything special that needed to be done to add the ethernet card, so most likely, there is some difference in the file loaded in the unit from Lantech.

The 290 looks like a very neat little machine and I hope that I get to play around and learn a bit rather than lean on Lantech. I could probably ship the unit back and hold their feet to the fire, but that would not teach me anything and cost somebody some unnecessary shipping charges.

Since the original unit is functioning fine and probably will continue to work for quite some time, I am not in a big hurry to get the new one ready.

Once we get my software working I expect to have little trouble getting the original program(s) installed in the new one.

I have a file in our backups with a .vlp extension. I am assuming this is the logic for the vision 290. Is that correct? I guess I won't know if the data table data is in there until I get visilogic working so that I can actually open the file, but I would expect that it is all there.

In any case, the original unit has a serial cable strapped to it with nothing connected to the DB9 end, so I already have a cable (yeah!). And, I will upload the logic and data from it once I get visilogic working. I followed all the tips and meet the sys requirements on my desktop. I think, next, I will try to install it on a laptop and see what happens.

Many thanks,
Paul

Hi Okie,

.vlp files are Visilogic project files, and if you have a backup, you are doubly-blessed.

First, copy your backup to a safe location to prevent accidental overwrites. Next, open the project, and if it's from an older version of Visilogic, a screen will pop up telling you so, and which version.

Now we get to some fun stuff. When you install Visilogic, you also get a program called "Version Swapper". You can follow the link in Swapper to the older versions and download whichever you need to avoid any OS compatability issues. And no, sadly, you can't have more than one version of Visilogic at a time.

It's a great little controller, their flagship before the new color series came out, and still powerful enough for pretty much anything.

Here's something you can try also, just for laughs. Hold your finger on the screen of the PLC, anywhere there isn't an object. After a few seconds, you'll be punted to "info mode". Password default is 1111.

Once you're in, scroll around and you'll find a section for TCP/IP. You can check your IP address and change it here. You'll likely find they don't match.

Good Luck!

TM

Okay, Visilogic installed and runs fine on my laptop, and when I opened a copy of the OEM .vlp file, it says it is from version 4.60. I went ahead and converted it just so I could look around at the offline file. I was surprised to see so much logic in the unit. I am now wondering why they also used the MicroLogix1500, and why it also has so much code. I don't yet understand much of what I was looking over, so hopefully when I "go online" I will begin to get a feel for how it all works.

I am downloading that older version now, and have read up on the version swapper stuff.

TimothyMoulder said:

Plug into com port 1 of the ORIGINGAL WORKING UNIT and go to the Connection menu and choose Communication and OS.

In the pop-up, choose the bottom button, "Get OPLC Information". This will test your comm setup - most likely they stuck with the defaults, otherwise you'll need to play around a bit. It will also tell you the OS version, which you may need later.

Best-case scenario: The program is in the PLC and Upload has not been shut off, you can upload the program and turn right around and put it in the new PLC. La-dee-da.

Click to expand...

So, can I safely connect and upload from the running machine without stopping the process? If I have to stop it, I can buy about 2 minutes of downtime, so it should still be okay, I just want to know before I get all set up.

I plan to try this tomorrow morning.

Thanks for all your help!
Paul

OkiePC said:

I was surprised to see so much logic

Click to expand...

We have a Lantech wrapper and the program takes about 250 rungs in a SLC 500. They have a lot of logic installed for a wide variety of options that we do not use. A part of me would love top go in and delete more than half the program, but I don't have that kind of time.

Yep, I've never had to stop it to do an upload. Should do fine.

And yeh, I don't understand that either. The 290 was alway geared to take on the Micro 1500 in stand-alone apps, it should have been fully capable of doing the job itself.

Would have saved them a boatload of money too. Eh, go figure. I find it mildly amusing that they put the 290 in place of an AB touchscreen - you could buy an entire Unitronics 290 system, including ethernet module and IO to match the 1500 base, for the cost of the AB panel alone.

TM

Okay, I uploaded from the running machine and am now downloading to the new one in the office. After it gets done, I will go swap it with the one that is running after moving the ethernet card and see what happens...

EDIT: Uh-oh...
"Download not completed."
"Hardware Busy"
"Program is terminating"

Hmmm...

EDIT: Well, I thought I bricked it...then I tried touching the screen while cycling power, and was able to find a boostrap menu. Next download attempt, I was informed that there was no OS in the unit...

I think that is where I origninally went wrong. This unit most likely had a newer OS.

What to do?

EDIT Again: Alrighty, after some Help File perusing, I downloaded an OS, and I am now trying to download the project again.

I am glad I did not try to do this on the machine...I thought about it for a minute, but then found a 24v power supply in the office and decided to try it here...Whew...

Paul

Well, after all that, I still had to go in and manually set the IP address.

I installed the new unit and it would not communicate, so I went to the TCP/IP config screen and found all zeroes.

So, I took the old one in the offcie and plugged it in, and could not get to the IP config screen. (Since the enet card was no longer installed?) So I had to swap that little card again, read the values from the TCP/IP config screen, then swap it yet again and punch in the IP address to the new OPLC.

Now all is good, and I am glad I learned how to upload/download, plus all that extra effort on my part preserved the machine set up values so that we did not have to make any adjustments, except to the jog speeds. For some reason, they went to zero, but no biggie.

Thanks for all you help!
Paul

Not so fast...

Okay, one last little detail...
When I power cycle the machine, the Vision290 IP Address goes back to all zeroes and I have to manually re-enter it.

Is that stored in the PLC? In the ethernet card? Any ideas how to resolve this problem?

Paul

Okay, after wrangling with the software, which is very foreign to me, I found the blocks that initialize the IP address based on MI values which are blank in my offline file.

I also found that Lantech has buried a configuration screen that will allow a person to set the TCP/IP values and store them.

I had to call Lantech to figure out how to access this screen, due to my limited understanding of the logic that was involved, but everything is Okie Dokie now.

The machine remembers its network address after a power cycle now.

Paul

Yep, soon as you said "back to all zeroes" I thought, "They're using a vector of MI for the address, and there's no power up value".

Happy to hear you're running again!

TM