1747-UIC Indication

I am new to this forum, so please bear with me. I am currently trying to connect my toughbook to an SLC 5/01 usind RSLINX 2.57 and a 1747-uic with a straight through cat 5 cable. I hooked everything up, configured the UIC driver in linx and proceded to connect to the processor with no problem. This was on the bench. I then disconnected everything, and took the rack and laptop to the jobsite. I installed the rack in the box, powered it up, connected the laptop again and got nothing. Linx could not find the processor. When I plug in the UIC, the OK light comes on, I start the driver and the USB light comes on and when I scan the network the USB light goes off, the 485 light blinks and then goes out and the USB light comes back on and stays on. I have read some of the other threads about the UIC converters failing. I am not sure how to prove this. Any help would be appreciated

First of all a cat 5 cable is the wrong cable. It should be a 1747-C13 see pdf below.

Your SLC5/01 has 24vdc on one of it's pin, the 1747-C13 does not connect to that pin.

Hopefully you did not damage the UIC.

Mickey,
Thanks for the fast reply. I read through several other threads regarding weather or not a straight through cable would work. I also saw that the c13 pinout does not use pins 3 and 6. I guess with the 5/01, it does not work. I am currently ordering a new UIC and c13 cable. Thanks again.

Gdsodrnk

With a normal Cat5 cable you will ruin your UIC unless you modify it.

For this reason I've modified maybe as many as 10 UIC's for my company during the past year so that we can use normal Cat5 cables.

For one, you save money by not breaking them on accident. A even better reason is that you can now use a 10m cat5 cable you always have in your car anyways.

Also, if your UIC is broken I can tell you how to fix it for about 2$ if your a bit handy with a soldering tool.

Nevyn,
Thanks for the info. I am interested in the fixfor the UIC and the modification of the cat 5 cable.

Gdsodrnk

If you used a normal Ethernet cable and that's the reason your UIC is broken now, you can open the UIC, split the two circuit boards from each other. Now you should see two small integrated circuits in the middle of the lower part (largest circuit board). One of these is most likely marked with 485 among a lot of other codes.

You can get a spare part for this at Farnell, just a couple of $. Cut of all the legs on that component, then use your soldering tool to remove the feet, before you solder on a spare part. There you go, saved yourself some money.

Now you can either modify a normal cat5 cable, or modify the UIC so that it doesn't break again. I find it quite concerning that Rockwell produces something like this. It took me something like 30 seconds after opening my first UIC to find a major design flaw which I'm absolutely certain they made on purpose so they could sell a lot of extra UIC's.

You can remove one of the pins from the Ethernet port, or you can cut the pair which leads power to the wrong place in the cable. This pair is normally orange/orange-white or green/green-white. Depends on how the cable is made.

I prefer to remove the pin in the port itself so that any cable can be used.

Continued problems with UIC

I bought the new UIC and c13 cable, and am having the same problems. The USB light stays on when scanning the network.Then it will go out and the 485 light will blink. Still no luck finding processor.

What driver are you using in RSLinx?

What operating system does your computer have?

What com port did the UIC take. ( this to be matched in RSLinx.)

Node addresses must be different. Processor defaults to node 1 but could be anything
from 0-31. Make sure RSLinx is different.

Mickey,
I am running Windows 7 pro 32 bit. I used the UIC driver in linx 2.54. I have tried several usb ports, and have changed them in linx. The starnge thing is windows identifies the UIC differently with different USB ports. One port calls it a "USB DH 485 serial port" and assigns it com 3 and another USB calls it just a "USB serial port" with com 7. I dont know if this is an issue with the drivers, but I downloaded the latest from AB, uninstalled and reinstalled. I have also tried this on an older xp machine with the DF 1 driver and had the same problem.

Gdsodrnk

Gdsodrnk said:

Mickey,
I am running Windows 7 pro 32 bit. I used the UIC driver in linx 2.54. I have tried several usb ports, and have changed them in linx. The starnge thing is windows identifies the UIC differently with different USB ports. One port calls it a "USB DH 485 serial port" and assigns it com 3 and another USB calls it just a "USB serial port" with com 7. I dont know if this is an issue with the drivers, but I downloaded the latest from AB, uninstalled and reinstalled. I have also tried this on an older xp machine with the DF 1 driver and had the same problem.

Gdsodrnk

Click to expand...

I run it in windows XP 32bit. However I experience the same as you when I plug it into the computer. I've now mentally assigned one USB port for the UIC so that its always com 3
//edit: I use the UIC driver btw.

I trust you put the switch in 485 position, and not in 232.

Don't believe I've touched any 501's but should be the same as the 503 unless I'm mistaken? Could it be that the port has been changed for the use of a Operator Panel or something else?

Do you have other 501/503 to test on?

Do you have the SLC5/01 offline file to check the comm port's configuration?

Baud rate and node number.