Motorola MOSCAD ACE3600 Data Retention

I'm a newbie with the Motorola ACE3600 and have an issue with data retention. These RTUs have a battery backup but if the AC is down long enough for the battery to discharge fully, as far as I can see...all data is lost. The CPU lithium battery maintains the program code, but none of the data. Is there a way to retain some data in these units? Perhaps I am missing something simple. The manual does mention optional SRAM for the CPU, but I'm not sure I really need it. It seems odd to me that not a scrap of data is retained on these. Thanks!

I have not been on the forums in a while and just found this post. Are you still having problems or did you get an answer to your questions?

Hi Webhead...There is NO data retention in the ACE CPU unless you program the writes and reads in "c". Unfortunately, I must report that despite numerous attempts to get information from many sources within Motorola, they were not very willing to assist me any further than directing me to the manual on "c" programming. What I was looking for was the bit of code required to write and read back a single value....then I would take it from there to build what I needed. I found Motorola's direct tech support to be very poor...even to the point of ignoring my e-mail requests. Also, I was often directed to personnel with no knowledge on this subject..and they would never follow through to direct my question to someone that had the knowledge. I was forced to complete my project without this "retention" functionality. Hopefully others aren't having the same level of tech support. It's like they are "too big for their britches" and ignoring one little guy doesn't matter at all. Hmmmm...are they related to GM?

Yeah there support can be a bit...... unsuportive at times. The only way we have found to do retentive values, if I understood your original question correctly, is to use the PARM value type for setpoints etc.

But even then if the operator changes the value and you want to keep that new value your basicaly screwed. We noticed this being a serious problem after downloading the processor.

So what we ended up doing with that is using the HMI, Wonderware in this case, and read the setpoints out of the MOSCAD with a script and upon completion of download of the unit, where everything goes back to default values, write the setpoints back into the processor.

They are quirky little PLC's but once you learn there command structure and the way things need to get done they are bulletproof.

Yes, you understood correctly. I actually did have to write some critical process values using a script in the far superior "Trihedral VTScada" software. Try it...you'll like it. I write the values using a cyclical timer, so they are never gone too long, should the ACE CPU reboot for any reason.

Well being that Trihedral is based in Canada you would feel that it is far more superior....LOL We use VTScada quite a bit here in Florida as well.

Nice talking with you Webhead!

MOSCAD ACE3600 Data Retention

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communication between ace3600 and maple systems oit4185

i am very new to ace3600 and maple systems Oit4185 i've been trying to establish communication using Modbus protocol (via RS-232) and i always get an error from the OIT4185 "can't connect to PLC, retry in Progress" and on the ace3600 i get error #827 "first y-coordinate out of range" and also error #825 "Data type Mismatch". I tried everything i can think of but no success. Please help!!!

afialey...do you have "third party protocol" selected in your serial port parameters, and the correct baud rate, etc for your Modbus connection? See the STS help for more info (search SI1 or SI2 depending on which one you are connected to). Oh...also, have you downloaded the modbus modbus_2m_plc1 file (or whatever one matches your set-up) to the RTU?

I did everything you talked about but no luck

Are you sure you are addressing correctly? There is a formula for converting the table, row, column to Modbus addressing. There is also an extra step (sometimes) if you are working with floating point numbers. Sometimes you have to add 1 to get the correct answer, too. Don't know how the maple systems addressing works.

i am not able to find the right addressing

i try all kind of table combinations but no luck
Motorola is not helping at all. All they're telling is they don't know.

Motorola is not helping at all. All they're telling is they don't know.

Click to expand...

For addressing in my connection to HMI software, I used the formula: Modbus address = table x 2048 + column x 256 + row x 1...plus another 1. I believe sometimes you don't need the extra 1. Then you have to decide what to put for a prefix. It's not always what you expect. Try a 4...that usually works.

Example: table 3, column 2, row 6 is (3 x 2048) + (2 x 256) + (6 x 1) + 1 ... result is 6663. Address is 46663.

Still no luck...try this Motorola contact [email protected]

Keep in touch!!