SLC5/03 Firmware Corrupt

Have a customer who had a brilliant employee that ended up flooding the inside of a control panel. Had to replace the power supply, 5/03, 10 slot rack, 1 analog input card & a Panelview Plus 1000.

The old SLC5/03 is flashing 5 LED's then 4 (the Run never lights, the RS232 flashes every other time) which means the firmware is corrupt or lost.

I did a reset as the Rockwell knowledgebase suggested, but still nothing - their response is to replace the PLC.

Is there any way (no removable IC's on the boards) of replacing the firmware & using this?

Or can it be sent out for repair at a reasonable cost?

Not asking about the Panelview, 'cause it was full of water & I'm sure a complete loss.

SLC5/03 1747-L532 Ser C Fac 1M Proc Rev 3 OS301 Ser A Frn 8

I believe that those processors can have their firmware updated with a kit which uses a "piggy back" IC. If you can get your hands on one of those kits you could try that, but if I were in your shoes, I would just replace it and send the bad one out for repair. AFAIK, repairs for those units are still common and reasonable.

If nothing is connected to CH1 (DH-485) you can probably change to a 5/04 or 5/05 if you can get one quicker with enough memory. Changing processor types is generally very simple with the exception of communications and very little else.

I have a firmware kit for that processor (don't remember the version). It is just sitting around doing nothing. If you send me a PM with your address I can ship it to you next week. Let me know.

Just to clarify, you have a SLC5/03 that has been exposed to water, is now indicating that the firmware was corrupted/lost and you’re trying to reuse it or is the processor with the corrupted/lost firmware a different processor that you’re trying to use?

Firejo said:

Just to clarify, you have a SLC5/03 that has been exposed to water, is now indicating that the firmware was corrupted/lost and you’re trying to reuse it or is the processor with the corrupted/lost firmware a different processor that you’re trying to use?

Click to expand...

The 5/03 that's corrupt is the one pulled out after the thorough washing and was replaced.

OkiePC - Had to use another 5/03 because both the 485 and the 232 were used- I had a standby 5/04 I was going to use until I noticed the 2 connections.

It's just I got to take the 5/03 for myself & was wondering of the ability to make it usable, reasonably.

It can't hurt to try the EEPROM to reload the runtime firmware, but I wouldn't hold my breath about it working. Generally a short circuit or surge significant enough to cause data corruption on an EEPROM is also significant enough to permanently damage other components.

Another consideration is corrosion. It might work today but in a month from now it could fail for good. There are all kinds of components (capacitors, chips, etc…) that will absorb some of the moisture and will start to corrode no matter how dry you think you have it. About the only way to get all of the water out would be to bake it but the temperature you would have to reach for the length of time you would have to hold it there would destroy you and the PLC. I wouldn’t rely on this PLC. If it works for now great but anticipate a failure in the near future.

A couple of months after Hurricane Katrina, an interesting technote appeared on the RA Knowledgebase titled "Water or Flood Damaged Electronic and Electro-Mechanical Equipment".

The basic substance of the article was: "just don't."

I realize it's just for test bench purposes. I have a couple of controllers like that which I know won't run reliably or have one damaged port.

One of my colleagues who didn't grow up speaking English asked what the letters "NFG" in large black marker meant.

Aabeck said:

Have a customer who had a brilliant employee that ended up flooding the inside of a control panel. Had to replace the power supply, 5/03, 10 slot rack, 1 analog input card & a Panelview Plus 1000.

Click to expand...

I'm impressed. I don't think I've ever seen a panel that's so waterproof that you could flood it to that depth before it all leaked out around the supposedly waterproof seals

Ken, I once met a guy that thought we wrote "RS" on faulty components because we were sending them to RS Components to be repaired