AutoMax - way to recover program from faulted CPU?

Hello,

I have a new customer that is in a pinch. They have an old AutoMax system with a 7010 (57c435) CPU that fails on power up with 1.3. on the LEDs. Per the manual this is a RAM Failure code (1.0. - 1.6.), and I cannot get the processor to connect with Executive v4.3a. I tried all the baud rates. I tried connecting to another processor (which worked), so I know my setup is good.

The kicker is they don't have the source or object code backed up anywhere. I suspect they are hosed, but wanted to see if any AutoMax gurus may still be lerking around with some tips or tricks I could try to retrieve the object code from the processor.

Thanks,
-Brad

You could try using Automax 3.9, but it may not work either, they may have lost the program, time for a upgrade maybe.

Alan

Was there something magic about v3.9? I don't know if I ever used it, I may have done one project with v3.* on Windows v3.1. We went from the DOS v2.3 (I think) to Win95 v4 pretty quick. Is there a source for the v3.9 Executive?

As I recall (and it has been quite a while), if you had the wrong version AutoMax installed for the PLC you where connecting to, it would tell you after it connected. I'm getting a comm timeout (no response) from the faulted 7010.

Thanks,
-Brad

I don't mean to throw out the obvious but maybe following will help.

Do you think they've looked thoroughly for an old Floppy? If the equipment was originally installed there then maybe the disk are still there somewhere.

If it is a Reliance installed system would it be possible to find a FS Engineer that may have a copy of the SW?

Did they ever have the executive on an old laptop that is sitting somewhere hidden? It would probably have a copy of the files on the HD.

Good thinking, but that was the first thing I asked them for. They did have some floppies, but they were labeled as AutoMax Executive (installer). None of the floppies were readable, they tried 4 different computers w/floppy drives. The OEM is OOB, no known contacts, no luck there. They do have a nice machine binder from the OEM with a hard-copy listing of the program, so we might be re-entering by hand. There are a few notes scribbled on that hard-copy, but I am concerned that it might not be all the changes that were applied to the logic since the binder was made. And talk about coming into commissioning "cold"....

BAJ said:

Hello,

I have a new customer that is in a pinch. They have an old AutoMax system with a 7010 (57c435) CPU that fails on power up with 1.3. on the LEDs. Per the manual this is a RAM Failure code (1.0. - 1.6.), and I cannot get the processor to connect with Executive v4.3a. I tried all the baud rates. I tried connecting to another processor (which worked), so I know my setup is good.

The kicker is they don't have the source or object code backed up anywhere. I suspect they are hosed, but wanted to see if any AutoMax gurus may still be lerking around with some tips or tricks I could try to retrieve the object code from the processor.

Thanks,
-Brad

Click to expand...

Brad:
While I totally empathize your position, we all know that today is not the day that your customer got into "a pinch"...THAT happened years ago, when he HAD access to the proper code, or his expert did....and all were too busy to take the line down to save the files. THAT was the day they got into a pinch. Its just taken this long for it to catch up to them. I see this at least once a week...

Who's the OEM?
Maybe somebody knows somebody that knows somebody
This is a small world

It is a small world... I ran into the best AutoMax programmer I know last night getting fish and chips at Ivars on Northlake.

Look for old Reliance business cards taped to the inside of the cabinet.

Thanks for the tips gents. I will have my customer get me the exact name of the OEM, but I thought they said it was Cameron-something. The AutoMax program listings indicate A. Hernandez as the engineer, if anyone happens to know him (or her?). The machine is a duplex winder/slitter, named 437917 which is likely either the OEM's project number or serial number. I wasn't going to broadcast my customer's name here, but could probably PM to someone if they have a lead.

In the meantime I'm going to see if I can get some OCR going with sheet-feed scanner on my fancy new MFP.

Thanks again for all the suggestions!

-Brad

Kens mocking me but I guarantee someone has that machines program

JRW, I was totally agreeing with you !

And I really did run into my old colleague, who has been working on Automax for 30+ years, at the fish-and-chip counter of Ivar's on Northlake.

My point was that most AutoMax systems that have been installed for a long time have had a factory guy into them for repairs or troubleshooting once or twice. And those guys almost never throw away backups.

He might not be from the local RA office, or might not even work for RA anymore, but it really is worth a shot.

JRW I understand were you coming from, but have seen enough to know that's not always true. I have one customer, an F500 company, with an IT group that forces their engineers to purge project files when their server storage space gets above some threshold - stupid, stupid, stupid! Nobody is given time to sift through their old files, so they just blast entire project folders for older systems.

Worse example, another customer is a division of the largest company in the world, and their corporate IT group won't allow them storage space on the servers to keep control system backups - WHAT??? IT can be so out-of-control with the power they wield. However I think this customer is being too timid on this point, I think they have more power than they realize, at least that's my experience elsewhere. Manufacturing makes all the $ for the company, IT spends it. Manufacturing wins. Period.

I guess my point here is that those responsible for controls equipment should guard their machine program backups and electrical schematics like their jobs depend on it, because if you don't it just might!

Sorry, I'm done venting.

FYI, sadly OCR was a bust, I just couldn't find a program that could cope with the spacing on the page (typical on AutoMax listings) without trying to make tables and columns out of everything, or that would recognize the characters somewhat close to correctly. One of the programs even started stuffing Russian (or something similar) characters in, despite having the language selection set for English. Fortunately I have recruited some help for doing all this typing.

Ken
That's funny, I thought you were being sarcastic

BAJ
Will they let you put new drives and Plc in?
Those components are obsolete anyway

I hope you can get through it and make some money

That was my first thought, but my schedule doesn't have room for re-writing the existing code let alone a 2+ month project. I get "are you done yet" messages every day as it is. They did ask me if I would provide an estimate for upgrading, which we can certainly do. Might be a lot easier to sell to management after this fiasco.

But once you get it going again, they will promptly forget about the pain that they went through and say they cannot afford to upgrade.

Alan