Fed Up With Allen Bradley and Rockwell

Is it just me or is anyone else completely fed up with all this nonsense???

I paid good money recently for RSLogix500, RSLogix5000 and FactoryTalk ME for a project I needed to do. I am not new to this game either. I have been programming various PLCs since 1979.

I have now spent more time installing, activating, reinstalling, debugging and troubleshooting the Rockwell software than I have spend on the actual programming. As a systems integrator, my time is worth money. I get paid on a per-project basis so the more time I waste on this, the less money I make.

I was able to get 500 and 5000 going after spending hours and hours. Now I installed FactoryTalk ME and it won't run. Everytime I start it, it says "Microsoft has encountered a problem and needs to close this application". I re-installed it but the same problem. NOW, the 5000 won't run either. The splash screen comes up and that's as far as it goes. I have re-installed that as well, but no change.

I can't believe that more people don't speak up about this poor product quality. Would you put up with a car that was riddled with bugs and just shut down from time to time? Would you fly in an airplane that worked this poorly?

If that isn't bad enough, they want to charge me MONEY just so they will answer the phone to help fix the problems that they created. I don't get it.

Anyway, that is my rant for today. I have to cancel my site visit today for this project and I will spend the entire day trying to fix this.

I agree with you 100 % high cost. poor product. If they were half as concerned with the product operating, as they are with making sure you can't use it on more than one computer, they'd have an excellent product.

I don't think what you have said is a rant at all, as that implies there is something wrong with you, and it is their company and product that is screwed up

Exclusively Rockwell here, RSLogix 500, RSLogix 5, RSLogix 5000, FTView Studio (ME and SE), RSView32 Works, RSLinx, Linx Enterprise, RSNetworx for all, 0 troubles with the high quality, consistent software.

I have 3 5000 programs open now, 1 PLC 5 program, and ViewStudio. (along with Autocad, email, and browser). No problems at all.

I'll pay through the nose for quality. With cheap or free stuff, you generally get what you pay for.
\

I encountered similar issues a few months ago. Try checking out the AB knowledgebase

http://www.rockwellautomation.com/knowledgebase/


This one looks like it might help you out. Good Luck

Answer ID 54070
Date Created 07/29/2008 09:10 AM
Last Updated 02/13/2009 11:25 AM
Access Level Everyone

We use a variety of different hardware/software types. The Rockwell guys seem to be way ahead of everyone else in the programming software arena. I have not seen any better packages out there. I can usually program an AB in half the time as other systems due to experience partially, but in a large part due to their software. I am not as fond of the SCADA stuff, but it works and is about as solid as others on the market. I will add to never never run a registry cleaner on your system with the 5000 products. It will break them.

Russell

I completely agree. It is frustrating purchasing expensive
software, and then having it crash on you repeatedly. I
have a problem at home getting photoshop to run on Vista, and it ran perfectly under XP!?

Usually the problem can be repaired quickly/easily, BUT you
have to spend time and energy figuring out what the problem is first.

I'm sure the software testers try to make sure the stuff works
before it is released, but there is a wide variety of conditions out there that the programs have to run under. I am sure its not easy trying to write robust bug free code that runs on consumer grade operating systems and computers.

But I have noticed in my own experience with various PLC manufacturers software that I seem to have slightly more issues with that company (A-B) than others. Everything is working fine for the moment, though! (knock, knock)

Agreed, the licensing system is a joke. However the software has always worked great for me with only occasional issues.

My primary issue is they don't keep the software functional in coordination with windows update. I actually have to format my machine and go back to XP Service Pack 2, because Factory Talk Batch won't work with Service Pack 3. SP 3 has been out for a while now...

I thought everything was rosy in the Rockwell camp and I was weird for preferring Siemens

You can find better products than AB/Rockwell, but you cannot possibly pay more...

I can't believe that more people don't speak up about this poor product quality.

Click to expand...

First of all, I don't use Rockwell's HMI products and I haven't used RSL5000 enough to fully form an opinion, so I can't speak for those. But as far as I'm concerned, RSLogix500 is a superb product. Sure it has its problems, but compared to the software from other PLC manufacturers, I find that RSL500 has a clean interface, is extremely stable under XP, and is designed in such a way to make the programming process efficient. Installation has always gone smoothly and I have never spent "hours and hours" trying to make it work. I agree that the licensing process can be a headache, but once I figured out how to back up my licenses, I can fix pretty much any licensing problem without having to contact Rockwell. In fact, my comfort level with RSLogix is one of the main reasons I spec their hardware for most of my projects.

Anyway, that's the reason that I'm not speaking up.

Last weekend I was trying to mix some thinset for a tile flloor I'm putting in and needed a big 1/2" drill motor because my 3/8" Black and Decker drill simply didn't have the torque. This was a project for home so I really didn't want to pay 200 bucks for a drill that I might not ever need again. So I went to Harbor Freight and bought one for really cheap. I knew better, but I went anyways. When I got home I chucked up the mixer and promptly discovered that this cheap 1/2" drill motor didn't deliver any more torque than my 3/8" drill, despite being twice the size.

What does that have to do with this thread? I think you can figure it out.

Lets see:

size x 2;
1/2 > 3/8 = $200.00 - Harbor Freight price


Result:

RSLogix 5000 has insufficient torque to mix tile floor thinset?


Right answer?

1) We have had similar experience with Rockwell. If you think you have problems try a multiple seat license! The saving grace is that our local distributor, Revere (formerly Holt) is top notch.

2) In my experience many other vendors are worse - and particularly Siemens. There software isn't as quirky, but it is a lot more difficult to use.

3) The fundamental problem is twofold: rush to market and feature bloat. The fundamental cause is they have a bunch of bit-weenies writing the program that have never actually been out of the office and had to write and test and de-bug a program on the plant floor.

Never had the problems described by the OP. The licensing thing took some getting used to, but now I find it a snap and easy to backup as well.

Personally, I have stopped installing software on my "host" PC. Instead I run everything in VMWare virtual machines. I can then have separate VMs for different operating systems or hardware/software.

I keep a "clean" WinXP vm that just has Windows and Office on it. I have one that is SP2 and one that is SP3. I then clone it and install a particular "suite" of software like RA stuff.

If I need Siemens, I clone the "clean" vm again and install that suite of software.

Everything is separated this way. You can also take snapshots of a vm and move back and forth through a timeline of older and newer snapshots.

OG

CowDung said:

You can find better products than AB/Rockwell, but you cannot possibly pay more...

Click to expand...

You must not have used Wonderware.