RSLogix 500 Usage Question

When I am online with a Micrologix PLC, and I make a change, specifically inserting a rung or 2, when I click the 1st green checkmark, the “i” appears to the left of the instruction. When I click the 2nd checkmark, I get “Verify has completed, no error found” in the status line at screen bottom. But, the “i” doesn’t go away. When I click “go offline”, a popup box appears that says “Save changes to . .” When I click “Yes”, another popup appears that lets me add Revision notes and I click “OK”. Finally, a popup appears that says “The edits that are not accepted will be lost. Do you still want to continue?” I reluctantly click Yes because I don’t know how to accept the edits.

Can someone please tell me what buttons to push to not constantly lose my work? I can’t seem to remember to go offline before making edits.

narlin

I always click on the check mark(accept current rung edits) then test edits then assemble edits.

You forgot to "Assemble" your edits. See PDF ( from online help) below for how-to do online edits.

Its a three step process "Accept" "Test" "Assemble"

Edit: magicsmoke types faster then I do.

I right click on the rung.
Accept edits
Test Edits
Assemble edits

Just like the previous posters said, excpet I included a small picture to show you what the right click looked like while online.

Got it! Thank you. It was the Assemble Edits that i was missing. 3-steps. I suppose that better than 12-steps.

thank again
narlin

Narlin said:

Got it! ... 3-steps. I suppose that better than 12-steps...

Click to expand...

But not as good as a two step.
Glad you got it.

The letters to the left of the rungs convey MUCH MORE meaning than just whether you are inserting, editing, or deleting rungs.

But firstly, let's make one thing absolutely clear.

THERE IS NO "EDITING" TAKING PLACE IN THE PLC !

When you start a rung edit online, you will be given a fresh copy of the rung you are editing, marked with an "i". This is notation for the rung you are inserting. The original rung is marked with an "r". This is notation for the rung will be replaced by the "i" rung. See first picture (It doesn't matter that the pic shows ControlLogix - all A-B editing works the same way).

The "i" and "r" markers are in lower case, which means they still in your PC, not in the PLC. If you went offline and walked away, you would not have done anything at all to the PLC !!

Now make changes to your rung (you can only change the "i" rung), and until it is verified, it changes to an "e" marker, indicating this rung is being edited or entered. It has to be verified (it goes back to an "i" marker), before you can put your edits into the PLC.

To do that, you have to "Accept" edits, that is actually when the verified rung is put into the PLC.

What happens next depends on whether the PLC is in RUN mode or PROGRAM mode.

If PROGRAM mode, the new "i" rung goes in and replaces the "r" rung, and everything is done. "d" rungs just get deleted.

If RUN mode, the new "i" rung goes into the PLC just above the "r" rung it is replacing, BUT, the "i" and "r" markers change to UPPER-CASE "I" and "R". Capital letters indicate program changes that are in the PLC. See second picture.....

If you went offline now, and walked away, you have still not made the program changes you need to, because the PLC is still executing the old "R" rung(s). Notice how the power-bars are still green for "R" rungs, and black for "I" rungs.

What you have to do now, is TEST EDITS. This will switchover the rungs, so that your new "I" rung(s) become active, and the old "R" rungs are not executed. See third picture....

This gives you the opportunity to review your handiwork, and ensure that the edit does the job. If it doesn't, you can UNTEST EDITS, which puts it back as it was, and you can either have another stab at editing the "I" rung, or CANCEL EDITS and give up!

In TEST EDITS mode, when you are satisfied the new rung(s) work(s) as intended, you ASSEMBLE EDITS, to complete the job.

In summary....

i = a verified rung you are inserting, but not yet in the PLC
e = an unverified rung in the PC, you cannot accept this to send it to the PLC until verified
r = a rung you will be replacing by the i rung
d = a rung you have marked for deletion, not yet in the PLC

I = a rung you are inserting - this is in the PLC
R = a rung you are replacing - this is in the PLC
D = a rung you are deleting - this is in the PLC

Power-Bar is Green = rung is being scanned.
Power-Bar is Black = rung is not being scanned.

Accept Edits = Send the edited rung(s) to the PLC
Test Edits = Switch to test the edited rungs
Untest Edits = Restore the original rungs
Cancel Edits = Give Up (can only cancel from Untest Edits mode)
Assemble Edits = Finish the job (can only assemble from Test Edits mode

This is one of those times that I wish this forum had a "Like" button. Thanks daba!!

So I didn't muddy the waters (well, that's my excuse, and thanks Ron for pointing it out) - the lower-case "d" I mentioned in my post was only introduced in Logix5000 systems from V16 onwards.

In earlier versions, and SLC, and PLC5, the software sent the "deletion request" to the PLC immediately, so you only ever saw "D".

Obviously this could cause a contradiction between what you attempt to do, and what you actually want to do. You might for instance, decide not to "Accept Edits", pack up, go home, and revisit the editing another time. If you do that, you've left a rung in the PLC marked for deletion, and if anyone else (or you, later) comes along, does further edits and assembles them, that marked rung will get deleted, whether you wanted it gone or not.

Clearly, that's a gotcha, for sure.... watch out !

Edit : thanks, shawn

Another thing to be wary of when online editing....

Consider the scenario, the software author has given you a list of modifications to make to his program...

eg.

In program File XYZ...

Rung 23 : add a new one-shot immediately before the ADD instruction.

Rung 42 : remove the XIC, B3/95

Delete Rungs 57, 58, and 59

Assemble edits and check that the fault is cured.

So you edit rung 23, adding the one-shot...

Then you go to rung 42, and there is an XIC B3/95 to delete, so you edit the rung and delete it.

Then you go to rungs 57,58, and 59 and hit delete on them.

Good job done ! you accept, test, and assemble edits.

But was it a good job ?

When you did an online edit of rung 23, you actually make a new rung in the program (the "i" rung). Sadly (and badly), the following rungs have all got a new number, 1 higher !

Then you go to rung 42, but that was the old rung 41, but you don't realise and delete the instruction as advised, but in doing so, you introduce another rung, the "i" rung, so all the following rungs have all got a new number, 1 higher !

Confident you are following instructions to the letter, you hit delete on the rungs requested, guess what - 2 of these will be the wrong rungs !

It's always best to clarify the mods being made, watch out for those rung number changes !!

You didn't muddy the waters. That was a well done explanation.

You might for instance, decide not to "Accept Edits", pack up, go home, and revisit the editing another time. If you do that, you've left a rung in the PLC marked for deletion, and if anyone else (or you, later) comes along, does further edits and assembles them, that marked rung will get deleted, whether you wanted it gone or not.

Click to expand...

I drill our techs over and over and over that the first thing they look for when going online is to see if edits exist. And despite that twice we have had a rung go AWOL. Its way too easy to accidentally mark a rung for deletion.

TConnolly said:

I drill our techs over and over and over that the first thing they look for when going online is to see if edits exist.

Click to expand...

I hope you do the same for

Forces Exist
Forces Enabled

.....

Verify edits only checks for proper instruction placement/syntax. Accept edits actually transfers the edited or new rung to the controller.
You can skip verify and go right to Accept. (Although it won't transfer the rung if there are errors)

Not only have daba's instructional material been helpful - i would have lost about an hours worth of work otherwise! There have been a many other RSLogix usage tips that have been super. For example, one of my off hand comments about the lack of direct "assembly like" instruction input prompted someone to correct me and tell me to double click on the red edit rung area and start typing. That was cool. Now it is my preferred method of editing. I hate mice.

narlin

Thanks daba! Very helpful.