RSView for Windows 95

Hi there,

I have a project developed using FTVIew 8 & Logix V21.03. The customer is damanding the SCADA is to be hosted on a Win95 PC which of course is not possible with FTView 8. Can anyone remember the latest version of RSView /32 capable of running on Windows 95?

Have to downgrade PLC logic from V21 to V12. Ridiculous.

Windows 95 !? That is absolutely ridicolous.
Why do you have to accept this demand ?
I have experienced a few still running with XP or er even Win 2000, but they are usually grateful to be able to upgrade to a newer windows.

I made a few RSView32 v6.3 projects around 15 years ago, and it was running on Win 2000. I think v6.3 is compatible with Win 95.

JesperMP said:

Windows 95 !? That is absolutely ridicolous.
Why do you have to accept this demand ?
I have experienced a few still running with XP or er even Win 2000, but they are usually grateful to be able to upgrade to a newer windows.

I made a few RSView32 v6.3 projects around 15 years ago, and it was running on Win 2000. I think v6.3 is compatible with Win 95.

Click to expand...

Tjena Jesper.

I know it's crazy. It's for an Indian client. I'll have to see if I can dig out a copy of 6.3.

I bet their PCs are full of viruses.

I'm not so sure. Do they have the internet yet in India?

I would just say no to the job.
If they are too cheap to accept a modern OS, I'd just assume they will be too cheap to bother to quote, or be slow to pay, or argue everything.

Windows 95 is dead and buried. Do you really want to have to support something like that?

The customer is NOT always right.

Yep... I would have to walk from this one also

Or you could just hand them a PC with W95 on it, you will be back on a plane and half way home before it finishes booting up

MorphuisOGrady said:

I'm not so sure. Do they have the internet yet in India?

Click to expand...

Ha. Very funny. I'm sure you meant no harm, but what an ignorant comment.

The majority of tech support call centers for Microsoft and many other large businesses are all hosted in India. Yes, they have Internet there.

And as far as the original issue - I wouldn't work on systems that old or accept jobs demanding out of date non supported software. Unless it's a slam-dunk project or you're strapped for work, I'd tell them to find someone else. I don't want to be supporting legacy systems any more than we already are and have to.

Is this an early April fools joke?

Where even are you going to find a communications server that can exist on Windows on DOS (win95) and can talk to a Logix level PLC.

Please tell is what the customer's reason is for demanding that the SCADA be hosted on a computer running Windows 95.

My guess is that they have some specific piece of crucial software or hardware that will only run on Windows 95 and somebody has decided that the path to compatibility is to simply insist that everything else in the system be compatible with that OS.

Another possibility is that somebody copy-pasted some very old contract language without reviewing the details.

I'm just very curious if it's a reason I would even consider.

Can anyone remember the latest version of RSView /32 capable of running on Windows 95?

Click to expand...

RSView32 Version 6.30 runs fine on Windows 95 and other Windows versions up to Windows XP Service Pack 2. It will also run on Win XP Service Pack 3 with a few fixes to the Windows registry.

VMWare Player allows running these old programs, provided you still have the old Windows 95 bootable install disks.

If needs must?

I would hope for your sake it is an April fools joke!

But for the sake of clarity...

RSView32 version 6.40 is the last version that RA says is "Officially Qualified" to run under Windows 95.

Versions 6.50, 7.00, 7.10, 7.20, 7.30, 7.40 were not tested, before their release, under Windows 95 using their "Test Coverage Plan".

So whether those versions work under Windows 95 "ok" or not is undetermined.

If needed, only version 7.xx and up support FactoryTalk, but Windows 95 does not support FactoryTalk. So you would not be able to produce tag data or log tag data to FactoryTalk.

...(Something tells me they have never heard of FactoryTalk before anyway? ...Is it chat amongst the operators?)...

But more importantly...

Can the controller in question be flashed back to v12?
(Why version 12 specifically?)

While backflashing Logix controller firmware is supported, which revision you can go up or down to is controller model dependant. If you have written a program at v21, for a controller that supports v21 revision firmware, then it will not support a revision as low as v12. For instance, a ControlLogix L71 will only support revision 20 or later. L72 to L75 will support revision 19 or later. So, if your intended controller is currently at revision 21, it cannot be backflashed to revision 12.

If you don't have a controller yet...

Older controllers...
L1 controllers support revisions 4 - 13
L55 controllers support revisions 6 - 16
L6x controllers support revisions 10 - 20

For the L6x controllers, revision support varies vary from model to model.
E.g. An L63/A supports revisions 10 - 20, but an L63/B only supports revisions 13 - 20. An L64 only supports 16 - 20, and so on.

Have you to supply said controller and PC, or are they requesting you do the software for existing hardware that they already have onsite?

Ask yourself...

Is the "pay out" going to be worth the "pay in"?

There are most definitely many systems around the globe still running at the aforementioned versions, but for a new project, or even retrofit, which I like doing, there'd likely be too many potential hurdles and hick ups.

Not for all the tea in China! (or India?)

Regards,
George