MicroLogix 1400

I have a question, the company I work for hired a programmer to develop software for our MicroLogix 1400 device, the programmer made the software and it is on our device, he is no longer with us and we need to view and change the program, is there a way to get the information off that device easily?

The programmer is deceased so there is no way to get the old program from him unfortnately

You need RSLogix 500 software to upload the program from the controller.

This will give you the actual code, and allow you to view all the instructions and data tables, but it will not give you the comments and labels that describe the code; those are stored in the project file (called a *.RSS file).

RSLogix software is not inexpensive, and making a mistake could erase the program on the controller, so the most effective thing you can do is ask a local control systems integrator to upload the program for you.

If the original programmer configured the controller with a password or enabled the "OEM Lock" feature, you will not be able to upload the program from the controller.

Thank you, that is what we were afraid of having to buy a program for a few thousand and then not be able to do much outside of just seeing the actual code.

You can get the IP address from the LCD readout screen on the front of the PLC, and then go online with RS 500. You won't screw anything up doing a simple upload, just don't attempt to download to controller. If there's a password use ********
It's the Rockwell backdoor password, and works every time. Once you have the ladder, you can start by inserting comments from the I/O based off of panel schematics, and then figure it out from there. That's the way most integrators who get placed in this situation, have to do it.

Good luck!

For some reason, the forum won't allow me to post the password.

[email protected]

I'm new to this, and Mickey posted somewhere, but I can't find it, that he didn't think the old backdoor password would work with ML PLC's and he may be correct. The last time I ran into this, was a few years ago, on a slick 5/05. When I get back to the office, I'm going to try it on an 1100 I have.

Pete

Mickey is correct. It doesn't work anymore! I'm going to call my buddy at Rockwell and see if there's a new one. Like I said, I rarely run into this anymore. Most programmers aren't that anal, and most customers would never put up with it.

Pete

I was told by our A-B guy that they did away with the backdoor password a while ago.

I had a 5/04 that I had to get into and monitor. The person who knew the password had passed away. Fortunately it was 4 digits of the serial number.

Pete, I can see that you (or your username) are new, so you haven't run into this issue before.

The Forum software has a blacklist of words, most of which are vulgar or obscene, but several of which are the Forum owner's choice. Those include the A-B default passwords, as well as the names of a couple of vendors thoughtlessly spammed the Forum once upon a time.

In general, the Forum discourages the disclosure of information that vendors prefer to keep proprietary. That includes discussions of how to circumvent passwords and security features.

There are certainly other forums where industrial security is a primary topic, and where they would scoff at the gentlemen's agreement we use. Those are just a few keystrokes away.