Beijer/Mitsubishi E200 flash error

I was flashing the firmware on my E200 and the progress bar was almost at the end when it froze. The HMI display was stuck on "sysload" at the time. The PC software did not respond, and I felt there was little else to do but cycle power and hope for a miracle. As you might expect, there are 2 black lines on the display when it powers up. Is there a magic keystroke that will allow me to try and reflash, or is this E200 finished?

All below are 'power up' key presses

Backspace + F1 = System Load
Backspace + F5 = Secret Menu
Backspace + List = Diagnostic Page
Forward Arrow + Back Arrow = Self Test

The first one will probably get you out of the problem. You may run in to trouble with very old E range HMIs as they had a smaller eeprom, usually though you just get an error message and it refuses the upgrade.

Bryan

Thanks for the info, Bryan.

A functional E200 will respond to those 4 commands, but my faulty unit will not; the display is unchanged. I have not tried to load the firmware after starting with Backspace and F1 pressed, but my expectations are low.

I have been using these things for years and have managed to screw them up in a thousand different ways. Backspace and F1 has always got me back to the green flashing light that says it is in firmware upgrade mode. If you do get it going then always go into the secret menu and clear the eeprom and clock before the firmware mod.

I had some nightmares with E300s, the upgrade froze at the end of the download and nothing would work, I used BS and F1, downloaded the original firmware and then successfully upgraded back to the new one. So don't give up yet.

Bryan

Thanks again, Bryan. Well, I tried BS+F1 and BS+F5, but the unit simply does not respond- the display remains dim with 2 black lines, and the lights are out. My HMI Tools software is 1.10, but I suspect that won't matter. After pressing BS+F1 on start, attempting to reload did not work, either. Any other suggestions?

When you use BS + F1 at power up do you get the green flashing light to say that it has gone in to System Load mode? Also give the Self Test a go, that is the Forward and Back arrows, press and hold at power up, hold for a good 5 seconds, not just briefly.

Bryan

No, nothing happens at all. There is no response to any keypad inputs; the display remains dim with 2 black lines. I recently bought 3 of these units from 3 different sources- one had been installed and the other 2 show no indications of installation and have identical protective film on the display and keypad. The first E200 has been flashed twice and runs perfectly. The other two failed to flash at exactly the point and both are totally unresponsive.

Have you talked to Mitsubishi in Vernon Hills, IL ?? They maybe able to help

As BTalbot says I think you will have to try Mitsi.

http://www.meau.com/eprise/main/sites/public/About_Us/-Home

If you get nowhere with them then take the top off and see if the clock chip is soldered directly to the pcb or if it is in a socket. If it is socketed then it is easy to plug a new one in, if it is soldered it is more of a problem. The clock chip is the one that says Dallas and Real Time. You are talking $5-$10 to give it a try, Google 'dallas +ds1687' to find a supplier.

Regards

Bryan

I spoke with someone at Mitsubishi last week. Essentially, he said the unit was finished, and offered no suggestions, such as the keystrokes mentioned by BryanG. Compared to Mitsubishi, I have gotten a lot more information and assistance on this message board. Product support is what I do for a living, and while Mitsubishi's sales folks have been helpful, I am not impressed by their support efforts. Maybe I simply didn't speak with the right person.

Both of my faulty units have sockets. If I can locate a functional unit with the same configuration, would there be a risk in trying a chip swap? My feeling is no, but I'd rather not tell my boss I have killed yet another E200. I also have a damaged unit that has served as an organ donor- parts from it have rescued two customers so far. Maybe I'll try to desolder its DS1687 and give that a go.

I can't see that swapping the chip should risk damaging it but obviously take anti-static precautions. If Mitsi won't help then you can always try the people who actually made the HMI.
http://www.beijerelectronics.com/we...AllDocuments/E0CFEF7185821A71C1257288003A4001
Their support people have always been helpful for me. And if you want to punish Mitsi for not helping then you can look a buying the Beijer version in future.

edit: Just be aware that Beijer didn't have drivers to work with Mitsi PLCs for the old HMIs.

Bryan

At some point you will have to try the Exter range that has replaced the Ex00s. There are a couple of downsides: They don't handle printing so smoothly. They have changed the pin out for the RS232 port. You can't guarantee sunlight readability. But there are a lot of upsides: You don't have to take your laptop to them to reprogram - just plug in a USB memory stick. You can copy recipes to the USB stick and move them to other machines. They have an inbuilt ethernet port. They have standard conversion frames to go from Ex00 to Exter. You can plug in a standard USB querty keyboard if you get frustrated by the multipress system. You have a decent amount of data to Log in to and you can retrieve the log by ethernet or USB stick. The program stored on the HMI is the compiled version which makes it harder for people to nick your work. And last that comes to mind at the moment, the upgrade is easy as the software will convert the old program to the new version.

Bryan

I'm not saying you should give up on the E200, but the transistion to the E1022 is pretty painless. Also I have sent you a PM

OK, I'll probably get my grounding strap and give it a try.

The E1022 seemed OK for my application until one little snag, which is actually huge. I monitor a machine parameter by incrementing an on/off switch on the Mitsubishi A1S PLC. The E1022 display the counts 1---2---3---4-----5-6---7, etc., in irregular patterns. This is OK for total counts, but not when the HMI serves as a timer for the operator. In contrast, the E200 displayed the counts as steady as a metronome, marching right along with the PLC lights. Stripping down the software to the practical limit did not resolve the problem, so I'm trying to retrofit with the E200 until a better solution is found. I certainly appreciate all the help that has been offered here.

You can probably fix that with 'Setup / IO Poll Groups' put most values into to Group 1 and increase the time to say 800ms, put the important value in to Group 2 by itself and set the update time to say 100ms or less. 'View / Name List' lets you set which Poll Group an item belongs to.

Bryan