SLC 5/04 RIO Thermocouple

I have a SLC 5/04 series B processor (which does not support BTW or BTR). I have a thermocouple card in a remote rack I am trying to install. Installed already in the rack is 6 Analog output cards that are/have been working. I have copied the instructions for the output cards to do block transfers and changed all the addressing to the appropriate address I need to use. Instead of doing a copy from integer file to the M0 file i changed that one to copy M1 file to an integer file...example is M1:25.1110 to N14:10 for 8 words. I know I am communicating with the NT4 because I can turn on and off different channels and see the results on the status lights of the NT4. The problem is i can not get any data from the card. If I put a number in the N14:10-17 the numbers do get over written by a 0 which tells me it is reading it somehow. Any idea's or thoughts please.

Welcome to the Forum.

The only way to troubleshoot this would be to see the program and troubleshoot your "old style" block transfer logic.

Just "changing from M0 to M1" isn't necessarily enough to make your block transfer logic appropriate for the 1746-NT4 module. You need to select an unused buffer number, and the data size might not be the same as your Output modules, and you need to put the proper command bytes into the BTR request to select the proper Rack, Group, and Slot number.

These are all things that are configured in a dialog box with checkboxes and entry fields when you have the BTR and BTW instructions in the operating system. The old style is functionally identical, but getting the control words correct takes a lot more manual labor.

You are correct on the M0 M1 files. They are an unused M file (1100). The first 9 (100-1000) are already being used in the processor for analog cards in RIO racks. From what i can tell the write is being executed because i can change the configuration for the NT4 card and disable a certain channel and see it turn off on the front. However I believe I do not have a Read written or not written correctly. I would be more than happy to share this program if anyone would like to clear my ignorance up.

You'll be hours ahead of the game if you can come up with newer OS or OS upgrade kit to get those beloved BTR/BTW instructions. If this is the lasts analog mod. you have to do on this machine, then doing it old school one more time might not be so bad.

You definitely would need to zip and post the rss file to get much help. I haven't even seen the old style BTR/BTW logic in action for about 7 years.

OkiePC said:

You'll be hours ahead of the game if you can come up with newer OS or OS upgrade kit to get those beloved BTR/BTW instructions. If this is the lasts analog mod. you have to do on this machine, then doing it old school one more time might not be so bad.

Click to expand...

I agree with Paul, the Firmware Upgrade Kit from AB is pretty reasonable, and you can Upgrade multiple Processors. The last one I purchased was less than $300 CAD.

Stu.....

Side note,

If it is Blue hose RIO then it needs an upgrade path planned. RIO is at end of life on ALL platforms.

Carefully consider what you invest in as it relates to RIO hardware. It really needs to be going away.

I know many who do not like or want this to happen, but it is time.

RSL

I agree with what everyone is saying. I would love to upgrade but i am running out of time. This particular add on goes to a tube and shell heat exchanger to heat up water going to a warmer. The push from my boss is that one of the two 10,000 BTU heaters going to the warmer is on its last leg and may go out any day which would down the line. When first looked at the project i knew it was RIO but i ASSUMED the BTR and BTW's were already written. Wrong assumption when i hooked everything up and went to program and realized i was over my head ATM. Since this past Saturday i have learned a lot about this old school programming but apparently still missing something. The file is attached. The code dealing the NT4 is in ladder 4 rungs 61-68 (i know there is no documentation was going to do that after i got it running). The dip switch settings for the ASB module are 11110101. That should be settings for rack 2 group 4. That should put the NT4 in slot 20 with octal addressing of 24. The scanner card is in slot 25 (yes an extended 13 slot rack connected to a 13 slot main. Not sure if i am missing any more information about it, if so just ask will do the best i can.

For your BTR have you set bit7 in the status word to a value of 1, if you don't it will do a BTW not a BTR.

If you are using the 1747-SN manual dated 2005 then it does not tell you how to set up the 3 data files that you need to make the block transfers to work you need to get the 1996 manual this tells what you need see below in blue (straight from the 1996 manual)

M0:e.100 – Contains BTR/BTW control flags that control block
transfers. Control flags are explained on the following page.
M0:e.101 – Used to configure BTR/BTW length information (0 to
64). Length is the number of BTR/BTW words read from or written
to the end device. If length = 0, then the RIO device will inform the
SLC processor as to how much data to transfer. The M0/M1 BT
buffers cannot overflow because they each reserve 64 words of data
area.
M0:e.102 – Contains the logical address of the BTR/BTW operation
in logical rack, group, and slot number format. The logical rack,
group, and slot are combined into one word, which you enter in
decimal form.

Problem is fixed. Thought it was going to be something simple and it was. Ken Roach hit it on the head. The copy statement was not set up correctly. The 7 bit in the copy word was not set to tell it was a BTR so it was always working as a BTW. Thanks for all the help and advice on this. Much appreciated.