Online Program Upload from PLC

Hi friends, I need help regarding uploading the program from PLC if PLC is in RUN mode. Is it possible to upload the program from SLC 5/03 when it is in RUN mode.

Yes, it is possible. It helps if you have a computer with the proper communications port and cable and software. It is even better if this computer has been set up previously to communicate with the PLC and has been known to communicate successfully with the same settings.

Trying to access a running program with a "new" computer (never before been used on this system) might be a little risky if the running operation causes a large cost if it is shut down accidently. You could be the one that causes it to shut down while trying to upload the program. All it takes is one little mistake to cause the PLC to switch to Program mode and stop the process.

Make sure that you know how to DOWNLOAD the program FROM the PLC and UPLOAD the program TO your computer. Doing the opposite (downloading from your computer and uploading to the PLC) could cause a huge loss of time and money for many operating plants.

Thanks for reply Lancie......
Ya you are right.... The Plant is running and i have new laptop with Software RSlogix installed first time on this laptop. I have to upload the program from SLC 5/03 for changing some operation. Plant should not be shutdown in any case while uploading program from PLC to my laptop. I want to help that, what should be the precautions , i will have to take while doing this. Is there any other alternate way to check my laptop that, whether it is 100 % compatible for uploading the program from PLC. Please help me for this problem.

I would look to see if you have a spare 5/03 5/04 5/05 Micrologix to practice with first.

Lancie1 said:

Make sure that you know how to DOWNLOAD the program FROM the PLC and UPLOAD the program TO your computer. Doing the opposite (downloading from your computer and uploading to the PLC) could cause a huge loss of time and money for many operating plants.

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during my first year i was asked to go upload a plc program from a running machine but i was an electric tech so i had to use someone else laptop with the software installed in french...instead of ''upload'' and ''download'' buttons that i was used to see, it was saying: ''Chargé depuis l'AP'' et ''Chargé dans l'AP''...guess what! i downloaded an empty project to the machine!!!!

i earned a job to make it work again myself, for free!!! hopefully it was just a local pumping station program.

but 15 years latter i still remember of every details about that!!!

...guess what! i downloaded an empty project to the machine!!!!

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Yes, it can be easy to get confused and do that even with the same language. It has happened to so many of us, that I thought a word of warning might save Shahid some grief.

I would look to see if you have a spare 5/03 5/04 5/05 Micrologix to practice with first.

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That is the best thing to do, and could save Shahid much embarrassment and many hours of re-programming under pressure!

Hi

If you turn the key to the left its as safe as you can get as you can not download
To the plc no matter what you do

Donnchadh

Lancie1 said:

Make sure that you know how to DOWNLOAD the program FROM the PLC and UPLOAD the program TO your computer. Doing the opposite (downloading from your computer and uploading to the PLC) could cause a huge loss of time and money for many operating plants.

Click to expand...

Lancie1 said:

Yes, it can be easy to get confused .....

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To be honest, I think your first quote could cause confusion, because for each "transfer" you have used both Download and Upload. Confusing because you only get one choice when transferring a program between your PC and the Target Device.

The terms DOWNLOAD and UPLOAD are, and always will be, open to discussion as to what they actually mean. People will quote "the internet", and downloading music, software, pron, etc., and UPLOADING, pictures and stuff to cloud servers and the like, seems to the the "in" terminology for that scenario. In this context, Download and Upload have a sense of DIRECTION embedded in their meaning, but only because "the internet" has taken on a sense of grandeur... a "higher being". In this context, Download is to "Fetch", and Upload is to "Send"

Others will state that the terms "DOWNLOAD" and "UPLOAD" are relative to where the operator is sitting. But that doesn't work either, because there is no implied DIRECTION to either of the xxxLOAD actions.

I could DOWNLOAD FROM, or I could DOWNLOAD TO. Similarly I could UPLOAD FROM, or UPLOAD TO.

Either case works for me, because I know the direction from the use of FROM/TO, and it is that, and that alone, that can tell me which way the data is going, relative to where I'm sitting at my PC.

Sadly, I don't think this ambiguity will ever be resolved, each "manufacturer" has his view, and the prevalence of "current usage", will mean that you absolutely need to know what DOWNLOAD and UPLOAD actually mean for each system you work on.

In the Allen-Bradley world, however...

DOWNLOAD = FROM Programming Software TO Target Device
UPLOAD = FROM Target Device TO Programming Software

In the A-B world, therefore, DOWNLOAD is SEND, UPLOAD is FETCH, which is not the case for other brands, nor is it the same as "the internet".

I'd like to say "I hope this clears up any confusion", but I can almost guarantee future postings where someone has done the wrong thing, because there is no standard involved.

For every data transfer between two computers or servers, there a download and an upload, even if the software does not specifically mention both.

Watch this it may help

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIu1AGUR4N8

This is also if you are using a CP3 cable bottom port (DB9), if you are using a DH485 (UIC) on the RJ45 port it will be another way

Here for the UIC http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWgu1jdAPkE

Lancie1 said:

For every data transfer between two computers or servers, there a download and an upload, even if the software does not specifically mention both.

Click to expand...

That is precisely the problem, Lamcie1.

Without any "direction" stated, DOWNLOAD can mean SEND (as in the case of Allen-Bradley file transfers), or RECEIVE (as in the case of FTP server transfers).

In both of those scenarios I am sitting at my PC, and the absurdity is that DOWNLOAD can be GET/FETCH/RECEIVE/READ, or it can be PUT/SEND/WRITE. But so can UPLOAD !!

There is no absolute sense of a direction attributed to the words DOWNLOAD and UPLOAD, and that is why they have been misused, causing the confusion in debate.

Breaking the words into their component parts does not help the situation either. They both contain the verb LOAD, which Wiktionary (with a few exceptions) defines as "to put something into".

And the other parts of the words, UP and DOWN, carry absolutely no meaning in today's terminology.

It has been suggested by others that UP means to give something to a greater entity, as in sending your snapshot to an internet-based server, while DOWN means the opposite. I contend that UP and DOWN cannot be used in this sense, because you have absolutely no knowledge of the relative size or power of the remote machine. My humble x86 dual-core PC could host files that could be requested by a corporate mainframe, which dissolves the argument about UP/DOWN having anything to do with size or power.

Wiktionary gives definitions for UPLOAD and DOWNLOAD which go a long way to making the direction implicit, but they are not perfect by any means, as they (particularly the definition of UPLOAD) caveat the sense of relative size/power of the remote device, which I have stated is usually an unknown quantity.

And let's be totally honest about this, should the relative power, or authority of the two devices in question determine whether we UPLOAD or DOWNLOAD ? No, of course not.

Computing is all about the science of logic and reasoning, and for me the two words DOWNLOAD and UPLOAD, when used by themselves only, do nothing to inform which direction the data transfer is taking place.

And when your software only gives you the choices to "Download", or "Upload", you cannot say for certain what that means in your particular context. Adding the words "To" and "From" to the "Download" and "Upload" options in the file transfer menus could clear up any ambiguities across the board, without anyone having to change their stance on what they mean by Download and Upload.