How to test a 1747-SN RIO Scanner or Mettler Jaquar

I have a SLC 5/05 with a 1747-SN RIO Scanner in slot 6 talking to a Mettler Toledo Jaquar/Jagxtreme scale with the AB RIO card.

This system was working fine for years. Shut it down for a couple weeks to do some machine upgrades and while it was down I activated another analog input channel in slot 3 and wrote a few lines of code.

Now the PLC and scale are not talking. Flashing red comm light on the PLC scanner and the status light on the scale card is dark. I rechecked my new code and don't see any conflicts, etc. The troubleshooting help for both says not communicating.

Is there a way to test the scanner and/or the scale card? I'm not sure where the problem lays.

your best bet is to post the program.

Have you verified the program in the Mettler Scale? I have seen them loose their setting afdter a power cycle

We had a guy that works with the Mettler scales come in and he looked at the Mettler program and claims everything looks good. He said Mettler is of little help, their only help is if you hire their service rep to come out. We did try a new card in the scale and no status light yet.

We are currently running in manual weigh mode so it's not like we are down. If we have to we'll bring in the Mettler guy but we wanted to rule out some obvious minor problem that I'm overlooking.

Still wondering, does anybody know if there is a way to test the scanner and/or scale card? e.g. if the Blue hose is unpluged will the scale status LED show anything? Ours is dark all the time. Now we are wondering if something in the scale backplane is bad not powering the card (the scale display is fine and scale works, just not talking to PLC).

Anybody know if the AB 1747-SN Scanner card comm light show green with cable unplugged?

Can you try the old program?
What about posting your program? So we can look and see what might be wrong?

Do you have a spare PLC 5 around there? I would use the 5 to do a scan for I/O on the RIO channel. It will report back what is out on the network.

Jeff,
Yep, already tried the old program, even the orginal version from five years ago, no change. No spare PLC to try either. I will upload the program later today. I appriciate the help. I've been tearing my hair out and I don't have much to spare.

I did a voltage check at the scanner pins, nothing attached, about 1.3 VAC. Not sure what it should be.

Attached is the program. I'll appriciate any help to get this resolved.

Check the bluehose & termination resistors for ANY damage & replace if something is suspicious.

I can't open the file at work. My moneys on the G-file config. We have the same scales. When the scale messes up, cycling the power is what usually fixes it for us. I doubt the power cycling is your problem. Ours is hooked up to a plc-5/80E via RIO. I have a 5/04 at home with RIO to 1794ASB's and know for a fact that just about anything can screw up the G-file. I've had a few blonde moments and thought sure I toasted something. So far the ASB's and the SN have been Todster proof and that's saying a lot. Simply downloading the program again doesn't fix it. I have to manually go into the file and reconfig the SN.
Maybe this is inappropriate but if it cheers ya up.....I'm Pooh by the way.

Jstolaruk,

The resistors, or in my case, lack of *ANY* resistors is very concerning. If it wasn't for the fact that this machine has run for years without any resistors on the Blue hose, at either end, I would have installed them already. But I fail to see why that would stop it from working all of a sudden.

The last two days I have been reading AB manuals on the scanner and noticed that not only no resistors were installed, but also they connected the shield drain wire to the center terminal and not to ground. According to what I read, on the type B scanner the drain wire should not be connected to the center term but should go direct to ground. Again, why would this mis-wiring show up now after years of operation?

I would install the resistors and wire correctly per the manual but we sent our scale in for testing. In any case, I will follow up with the cause of my problem when it is found.

Thanks for your help.

Todster.

You may be onto something here with the G-file config. I wondered if it was possible that loading an old program did not change it back to the way it was. I don't understand how that could be, but I'll just accept that it does. I would think the config file of each program loaded would change the PLC config.

I will look into it later today and report back after we get the scale back from testing.

Thanks for the help.

When I open the file you posted, it does not have the SN at all. I seen the config file get wiped by a short on an output module on a 1794-ASB. How or what it does to the config file on the 5/04 is beyond me, but it did for me.

look at the old program. Does it have any BTR or BTW?
I didn't see anything in the program this.

todster said:

When I open the file you posted, it does not have the SN at all. I seen the config file get wiped by a short on an output module on a 1794-ASB. How or what it does to the config file on the 5/04 is beyond me, but it did for me.

Click to expand...

The scanner is in the file he posted...slot 6...

I have never seen a config file get corrupted. I have seen systems that failed to account for re-configuring things at the adapter end.

As for the resistors...add them if you're sure they aren't already handled internally. Some devices provide dip switches for E.O.L. termination. It is pretty rare, but do check with the mfg on this.

I have seen DH+ and RIO work for years without problem then suddenly, one day, for whatever mysterious environmental reason, and bang...errors all over the place until we installed the resistors.

Paul The scanner is in slot 6 but I didn't see any Block Transfers or old school M0:6 / M1:6.

Can the SLC talk on RIO without these?