Removed "Do Not Remove Battery" in an AB Micrologix 1500..Doh!

Everyone,

Hi, my name is Eric and I am an Engineer with a golf company in California. I know absolutely zero about the Micrologix 1500 component in my machine that is currently not working. We tried to turn on the recently moved machine and are unable to have the software boot up. We can get to the settings page of the software to change options such as nodes, CRC error prompts, etc, but are unable to understand what (if anything) needs to be changed.

What you need to know about the problem we have:

1) We recently moved the equipment containing the micrologix 1500 and it has been unpluged for well over 3+ weeks. Also, no temporary battery was installed by the now out-of-business engineering design company that built the machine and software.

2) My coworker saw that the 1500 showed a low battery light signal on the 1500.

3) He/We removed the only battery that we saw installed. (the one that in the Allen Bradley 1764 Manual on page B-2 says "DO NOT REMOVE THE PERMANENT BATTERY!). They definitely do not want you to remove that! This was done before finding the manual.

4)The negative terminal was left in the board and the positive terminal was removed with the battery (we think completely from the board, but it is hard to tell within the battery compartment space).

My questions are these:

a) Is there a way to remove the board from the plastic housing of the Micrologix 1500? If so, then we might be able to solder a new permanent battery into place, install the plastic housing back on the board, install the newly purchased temporary battery, and then turn on the machine to see if the software is not corrupted or missing.

b) Even with the 2 new batteries, is there still a possibility of the software being lost forever? Is the software even stored on this 1500 device? Is what is stored (maybe)on this device transferrable to a new MicroLogix 1500 device?

c) What are our options if we cannot perform the actions in questions above? The vendor is no longer in business and the manual has zero info about the software or code installed on micrologix 1500.

Any and all help is MUCH APPRECIATED! Again, my coworkers and I are complete noobs at this and are hoping we have not just ended the life of a very important piece of equipment for us.

Regards,

Eric in California

hello Eric i am new to PLC's but have a Micrologix 1500 in front of me. have you pulled the processor from the base? i just did and it dosn't look that hard to disassemble for putting back the battery. sorry i can only help with question A

Unfortunately you could have totally lost the memory from the processor.
The exchange of PLC batteries are normally carried out with the power On
AND a copy of the program - incase.
the options to you are
1. find a similar machine and copy its program
2. hire a programmer to reprogram from scratch.
you may find someone on this site will be near you.
- just incase write a flowchart of machine opperation and find any electrical drawings you have

Scour your company junk drawers, management offices, shared directories, look EVERYWHERE for a copy of that program. You are looking for a file with the RSS extension.

If you don't find the software, then, yes, you will want to hire someone familiar with the equipment to write a new program for it.

Paul

The vendor is no longer in business and the manual has zero info about the software or code installed on micrologix 1500.

Click to expand...

a straw at which to grasp:

is there a chance that the vendor produced other identical machines? ... and if so, is there a chance that you could track down one of those? ...

reason for asking:

there's a SLIM CHANCE that the program could be extracted (uploaded) from another identical machine and then inserted (downloaded) into yours ...

you're still probably going to need another MicroLogix 1500 - but that's not your biggest problem right now ... your biggest problem is coming up with a copy (electronic or printed) of the original program ...

is there any hope of tracking down any of the "tech support" or programmers for the out-of-business vendor ... if so, there's a pretty good chance that they'd still have a copy of the program stashed away ...

There are two ways to store the program in a MicroLogix 1500 controller.

The first is the RAM memory, which hold all the operating values of the program. When you power down, the program itself and all the data is preserved by that removable battery, so the absence of the battery (or the Low Battery LED) means that the main copy of the program is gone.

The second is a nonvolatile EEPROM plug that nests into the MicroLogix controller, but that is optional. Remove the cover and look for a module labeled "1764-MM1" or "1764-MM1RTC". There's a sketch of where it plugs in on page 2-21 of the User Manual.

If both the memory module and the battery are gone, then the controller is truly back to its unprogrammed state, and you will have to find a copy or have a new control program written.

As you saw on page B-2 of the user manual, the main battery is meant to be non-removable; if it fails, the procedure is to add a "replacement battery", or which there is a cradle and a plug.

Since your battery has been removed entirely, you can still return this MicroLogix controller to service by installing a replacement battery assembly (1747-BA) into the cradle.

Since your battery has been removed entirely, you can still return this MicroLogix controller to service by installing a replacement battery assembly (1747-BA) into the cradle.

Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure that when Ken said "return this controller to service" he meant that the controller (hardware) could be used again – but I don't think you can assume that the original program (software) will be made available to you by adding in the battery that he mentioned ...

analogy: you might be able to patch the tire - but you're still going to have to pump it up again ...

specifically, you might not need to buy another MicroLogix controller – but unless the "memory module" that Ken mentioned had already been installed (and had already been properly programmed) then I've got a hunch that you're still in trouble – unless you can come up with a copy of the original program – or can find someone to write a new one from scratch ...

Thanks everyone for all of your advice and information! I will take this whole list of responses to my other engineers and hopefully we can come up with a solution of some sort. I already have a new temporary battery on order. We will try all of great solutions each of you have suggested. Thanks again so much! If there are more ideas out there, I am all ears! Also, are any of you in the region of Southern California, preferably Orange or San Diego County that I might be able to call to bring in for helping us to reprogram this machine if necessary?

Regards,

Eric

Regards,

did you solve the problem??

Yes, we were able to track down the original equipment and software designers through a random "linked in" contact through one of our engineers. Turns out one of our engineers had "linked" to him through Linked In website over 4 years ago and forgot the reason why or who the equipment designer was. 21st century technology is great! The gentlemen are coming to our site to repair the equipment after the 1st of the year. Thanks again everyone for your suggestions and help. I will keep this forum in my favorites folder for future help and assistance!

when they get there, make sure that they read this recent post from Goody ...

http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?p=516652&postcount=1

glad you found a solution ...