connecting a A/B DL10 to a PLC5/25

We have an old PLC5/25 with 6 racks spread over 4 cabinets. At some time past they tried to connect a DL20 ans 3 DL10 displays to it. The connected the DLxx displays to the remote I/O terminals of the PLC5/25. this did not work for them.
What is the correct way to connect the 2706 DataLiner message displays to the PLC5/25? Do they need to be connected to the remote I/O or to the Peer Comm Interface?
What method is used to control how and when the DLxx units display a message?

Thanks for your help

Now you are really taxing us oldtimers....

As far as I can recall when I did DL20 and DL10 programming in the late eighties/early nineties... we drove them from an ASCII card and had a simple (!) routine for triggering a message number, but was it through a Block Transfer?

The DL20 was a master unit and the DL10 was an addressable slave, which were connected on RS232 or RS422 from the ASCII card.

The messages were held in the DL20 memory and could be 1 line, 2 lines, or 4 lines, and you specified which DL unit they were displayed on (individual or all). You could also add variable data to the message (cannot remember how though - but will have a PLC backup somewhere). The messages could be static, scrolling or flashing as well.

I seem to recall DL20 programming software that was connected via a serial port, that had to be done before you connect it to the PLC as it uses the same terminals on the DL20, but not the DL10 as they used different terminals to loop from the DL20. The DL10 were only given a number to identify them.

Manual for DL20:
http://literature.rockwellautomation.com/idc/groups/literature/documents/pm/2706-pm001_-de-p.pdf

The DL20 offline software is downloadable from Rockwell knowledgebase, but is too big to attach (so I am told!) - only 1.25MB

That is as much as I can recall at the moment.Hope it helps.

@JohnCalderwood,

The DL20 offline software is downloadable from Rockwell knowledgebase, but is too big to attach (so I am told!) - only 1.25MB

Click to expand...

When needed you can use WinRar to split files into small volumes and then zip them.

Edit:
@belnald
go to google and search "allen bradley dataliner manual" (without the quotes). I found a lot of manuals links that way.

[FYI:]
If you do not have a lot of messages and/or do not use a lot of the embellishments (blinking/chaining), you can program DL20 using an old laptop w/ RS232. look up terminal mode.

The .pdf linked by John should tell you what you need.
There is another doc which may prove useful. http://literature.rockwellautomation.com/idc/groups/literature/documents/um/2706-um010_-en-p.pdf

the information offered is helpful. I will read through the manuals as time allows. Thanks to all of you.