1747-ASB No Longer in Production??

Our Rockwell supplier told us the 1747-ASB is out of production as of January 11, 2013. This is a big deal for our company, both on retrofits and for support, since we have hundreds of these in the field.

Haven't heard any buzz about this, so maybe we're the only ones with a big user base still using SLCs. Our supplier's only recommendation was to use the 1747-AENTR. Not really an option for straight up replacements of damaged cards, and not trivial for retrofits (where we would have used a DHRIO) since we typically have a lot of remote extended racks.

Any of you guys affected by this?? Any simple solutions, other than hoarding all the ASB's we can find on ebay?

-- Dave

Wow, this module is one of the important ones.
Yes we are affected. We havent used a lot of them (maybe 20 in all tops), but any time a customer may call and want a spare. Must be around 12 years that we installed the last one of these from new.

Back then we and a few other companies I know used the 1747-ASB as a smart way to combine the more powerful PLC5 CPUs with less expensive and easier to access SLC500 i/o. I guess that there are a lot of plants affected out there.

I also have encountered an issue with the PKTX card and Windows 7. And the first response from RA support is that they didnt find it so critical to find a fix for that.
Just shows how both DH+ and RIO are really finally going obsolete.
I still believe that you will be able to get spares, but the prices will become increasingly more exorbitant.

This is a wake-up call to start considering the migration to something up-to-date.

Our distributor was telling us, that the SLC CPU's will also be difficult to get sometime this year. Recommended upgrade was to use a logix processor and the SLC rack as a remote.

One option for the ASB module may be to use a Red Lion Data Station. I would think that with some re-coding of the program, you should be able to duplicate the functionality... The only thing that may be questionable is losing the speed of direct back plane connectivity.

See link "Silver Series"

http://www.rockwellautomation.com/rockwellautomation/legacy/processors/1747allslc.page?

Sounds like a Seinfeld "The Sponge" episode.

Better buy all you can.

http://www.google.com/search?q="The..."The+Sponge"+episode&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Oops... I was thinking that was the basic module... ignore the RL recommendation above.

We had heard about this "Planned Obsolence" about a year ago. The AENTR is a doable thing but try to get the time/money to do a complete upgrade is almost out of the question.

We were also told that some of the PLC5 stuff was going away because the manufacturer of the edge connectors was quitting production of the parts.

Appears we shall all ahve plenty of work moving to Ethernet...

I know it is not so easy to do in a hurry, but IMHO the real fix is to remove all of the obsolete equipment and start all over. With careful planning and testing of programs etc. it can be done during the summer maintenance stop. Have done this a couple of times. From stop of production to startup again, two weeks.
And then you have a modern system that is up-to-date, easy to maintain etc. Cost is approximately the same as if you buy obsolete spare parts that just brings temporary relief.

Only in America will the number 1 plc seller shoot himself in the foot and think that he still has 2 good feet. there are others on the market just waiting to pounce on them and they still don't get it. we are now going to have to figure out how to get around this massive problem at our facility.

my suggestion was to also look at Omron, Mitsubshi, GE, maybe Automation direct as replacement. we are also looking ar replacing the remote i/o with processors and i think you get the picture. what a mess!

i say massive because with over 100 plc's and tons of slc remote i/o, it will be a big mess. management will want it done over the weekend and up and running on monday. literally no debug / proveout time.


my co-worker said just wait, a 3rd party will end up making one. let's hope so.

james

I think you should explain the seriousness of the matter with your management and try to win them over to plan a real transition rather than just a quick fix.
I would argue with that a full changeover to a new system will be more expensive right here and now, but will be less expensive in the long run, and you will have other advantages such as better diagnostics (=less downtime).

I defintely would not replace ASB's for CPU's. Lots of work and expense and not a real solution.

James Mcquade said:

Only in America will the number 1 plc seller shoot himself in the foot and think that he still has 2 good feet. there are others on the market just waiting to pounce on them and they still don't get it. we are now going to have to figure out how to get around this massive problem at our facility.

my suggestion was to also look at Omron, Mitsubshi, GE, maybe Automation direct as replacement. we are also looking ar replacing the remote i/o with processors and i think you get the picture. what a mess!

i say massive because with over 100 plc's and tons of slc remote i/o, it will be a big mess. management will want it done over the weekend and up and running on monday. literally no debug / proveout time.


my co-worker said just wait, a 3rd party will end up making one. let's hope so.

james

Click to expand...

I think Allen Bradley has a great record of supporting products for many, many years. They give you plenty of notice (Silver Series) before you can't get the parts any longer. Many manufacturers drop all support for older equipment as soon as something new is released.

No, I understand that no was was really bashing AB. There are a lot of things you could bash them for, but support for older products isn't one of them.

I guess AB is trying to move everyone to the Compact/ControlLogix platforms. While replacing processors with new ones and keeping the old I/O is easy and replacing I/O is hard and can get expensive. I guess the new ethernet SLC module AENT is the only option if you want to keep the existing 1747 I/O.

A really smart move by RA would be to halve the price of 1747-AENT, maybe in connection with a trade-in of a 1747-ASB or 1747-Lxxx CPU.
This would keep many existing customers in the fold and let them feel treated fairly by RA.

(and I am certain that even at half price, RA will not sell them at a loss).

The thing that gets us is that our ab rep was here 9 months ago and gave no indication this was going to happen. AB has in the past gave notice they were going to discontinue a product and support it for 5 to 7 years.

AB has stopped production of these modules on jan 13, 2013.
they only have what is on the shelf.

i have heard no previous mention of this.
Was there a notice or is this fixing to be the norm?

maybe bashing AB, but i have been a loyal customer of theirs since 1988 and have purchased several million dollars of their products, not to mention spending 13k on their tech support contract every year.

just venting i guess.

regards,
james

jkerekes said:

I guess AB is trying to move everyone to the Compact/ControlLogix platforms.

Click to expand...

We were told about six months ago that the reason for the discontinuation of the 1747-ASB had to do with no longer being able to produce or procure some of the 16 bit ICs used and that we can expect more of these silver notices for some of the other 1747 smart cards. We were told that the SLC CPUs and the normal I/O cards were not in imminent danger of running out of parts, and they really didn't say what cards were affected other than those announced.

I think that this is part of the reason that the 1747-AENTR appears to have been released relatively quickly, (judging from the sparse documentation) although you could argue that they should have come out with it years ago.

I agree that A/B does a great job of supporting products for a long long time. Our support contract still lists a copy of Wintelligent Linx being under support (although I am sure we'll drop that one and a few others to save some money this year).

We still have boatloads of 1336 Plus II drives and many of them may outlive me. We only have a few ASB modules and about 6 spares (no I can't sell them!). Hopefully, the early adopters will get those 1747-AENTR installations rocking along and flood the secondary market with used ASB modules for years to come.

Things vanish, it's the way of tech. I don't remember how long ago, but I'm thinking it was about 25 years ago when multi-million dollar medical imaging machines had to be redesigned (for millions of dollars) by Siemens when the 2708 series EPROMS vanished from the market.