GE 9030 - IMS- Powerfold sheet metal bender

I have a client who purchased a sheet metal bending machine from a company called IMS-Powerfold about 16 years ago.

It looks to me like the company is no longer in business. The machine has a 9030 PLC in it. They have the old logicmaster file on a floppy disk.

I obtained a demo version of Proficy and attempted to import the file but was unsuccessful. The CPU looks to be empty, I know one of their staff in troubleshooting popped the CPU out of the rack, which I believe is what emptied the thing in the first place.

Anyone have any experience with importing the old logicmaster file that might want to give it a shot and see if the issue is operator error? This is my first crack at GE hardware and software, so the confidence level is not high.

As a long shot, also, if you happen to know anything about Powerfold and if they perhaps were bought out or something, please feel free to indicate what you might know. Any and all suggestions are welcome, as right now I fear their best case scenario could be having the whole thing reverse engineered/code rewritten.

Zip and post the files here. I can try to convert them to .pdf for you to view the code. Maybe somebody else could do the import for you, I don't have the Proficy software.

You may send the files that you have to me and I will see what I can do with them.
It is likely that the files you have are a backup from LogicMaster 90. If so it will need to be brought back into LM90 so that Proficy can import it. Most of the time this works well.
PM me or send it to russ(dot)bartels(at)glaSupply[dot]com
It may take a few days.

How many files and what are their file extensions? If there are five or fewer and the extension are .pk*, then what you have is a Logicmaster backup which must be restored by Logicmaster before you can import into Proficy.

If you can post the files here, by all means do so. I have Logicmaster and Proficy. If you rather not expose the files for the world to se, feel free to PM me. You should also indicate which version level of Proficy you're using to make sure whichever one of us does the conversion for you doesn't use a newer version than you have.

LM90 files

I've attached the files I have for this here. I really have no clue what they are. Looks to me (based on zero experience) like old dos files.

This is all I could find that looked even remotely like a backup version of the code. I'm not concerned about proprietary information as they purchased this equipment from an OEM over 15 years ago and I believe the OEM is now out of business.

The unit actually looks like its in good physical condition though, for something that age and the environment it is in.

Also attached a couple other things I nabbed during my intial troubleshooting site visit.

Here's the listing of the Logicmaster file. When you open it with MSWord, be sure to use a fixed characeter width font like courier so that everything lines up properly.

I suspect the reason it doesn't import into Proficy is because the original Logicmaster folder uses SFC. I've never had to convert a Logicmaster SFC project, so I'm not sure what the workaround is.

LM90-30 6.09 says that this is done in SFC (Sequencial Function Chart) Programming. I have this at the office but not on the PC here. If I get a chance and you are still interested, I'll check it out Monday, unless someone else gets to it first.
Strange, this is the second one of these I have run into in 2 weeks. Prior to this, I haven't seen it in 10 years or more.

Edit:
I see that Steve has it and has supplied the print. Thanks Steve.
This is as good as it will get as GEIP does not have a conversion from SFC to anything else, it must be done manually.
You can still purchase the SFC software which is an add-on to LM90-30 so you will need to acquire them both.
They are available for the asking if you are a GEIP "Solution Provider" or "OEM Edge" member.

More questions

First of all, thanks for the efforts.

I want to make sure I'm understanding the posts correctly.

The original code was written in SFC format, which Steve supplied a visual of.

Am I understanding correctly that the import fails because Proficy will not import an SFC project? That seems odd, because it looked to me like Proficy is able to support ladder, SFC, and ST formats. Perhaps one can develop but not import????

In any event, is it correct to say that one should be able to restore and download the program to the PLC using LogicMaster software? If so, I may focus my efforts on Monday on learning the LM software rather than Proficy.

I also wonder if once a program is up and running in the PLC if I'd be able to upload from the controller into a Proficy project. If not, it seems like a really bad business migration plan for GE not to allow one to move to a new software platform.

Please correct me if anything I've said here is incorrect. Thanks again for all the help. This site, time and again, is the most useful tool in my arsenal. I see you guys are lifetime supporting members. I think it's time I added that label to my monicker.

Most of what follows is my take on what I've managed to find in Proficy help. Perhaps RussB will be able to confirm or correct.

It appears that under Proficy Machine Edition, SFC is only supported on PC control platforms and not on PLC platforms. Given that, your only option for the existing program is to stay with Logicmaster. If the person who supplied you with the Proficy CD can also find a VersaPro CD, you will find Logicmaster on it. You will also need the SFC option disk. This was originally on a 3-1/2" floppy, but I expect the floppy could be copied to a thumb drive.

The only part of your application that I was able to import into a Proficy project was the hardware configuration. From that I see that there are some motion control modules in the project. Those modules may contain motion programs. If they do, you might also need the Logicmaster add-on for motion control. That was also distributed on a floppy, but used to be available as a free download from GE's website.

Is the battery dead? That may be the reason the program was lost.
Does this CPU have EEPROM? If so, you should be able to do a restore. You might be able to do this with any GE software, because you don't need to edit, just issue restore commands.

The hardware configuration is the only part of the project I could import from Logicmaster. It's a CPU331 and set to get the program from RAM on power-up, not from EPROM.

Am I understanding correctly that the import fails because Proficy will not import an SFC project? (Not from a PLC with SFC) That seems odd, because it looked to me like Proficy is able to support ladder, SFC, and ST formats. Perhaps one can develop but not import???? (See Post #9)

In any event, is it correct to say that one should be able to restore and download the program to the PLC using LogicMaster (Plus the SFC Add-on) software? (Yes) If so, I may focus my efforts on Monday on learning the LM software rather than Proficy. (you will need to acquire IC641SWP311, SFC LM90-30 add on)

I also wonder if once a program is up and running in the PLC if I'd be able to upload from the controller into a Proficy project. (Not if it includes SFC) If not, it seems like a really bad business migration plan for GE not to allow one to move to a new software platform. (There are not enough SFC systems out there for a desirable ROI)

Is the battery dead? That may be the reason the program was lost. (Most likely the reason.)
Does this CPU have EEPROM? (Worth looking at)
Look into the CPU331 if you can see an empty IC socket, it is not there.

Update with more question

Hi guys.

We obtained the software add on and I was able to load the PLC with the program. Thus, we are back to square one, which is where they were before pulling the CPU out of the rack.

Basically, I need now to do some troubleshooting with this. I'm struggling to grasp how one nagivates the FB. For example, from the printout I can see when an axis is commanded to start positioning. But I am struggling with being able to actually locate this rung of logic in the FB to view its state.

Anybody have some quick pointers on how to determine exactly which block I need to zoom to see the actual state of the logic?

FYI, the press seems to be hanging up when "referencing" the axis 3 and axis 4. These work in tandem to raise and lower the clamping beam. During referencing, it goes up, appears to define position, then closes, but acts as if it needs to drop further down to complete the sequence.

Another update

I made some headway, but not learning fast enough. We have established that the press hangs up in it's "referencing" mode, which essentially is its homing routine.

I can see in the block CB_REF (subroutine 14) that the machine gets hung up on step 5. I attached a screenshot of the rung I'm looking at online.

There are a few things not clear to me.

First, bit PR>MAX is untrue. I'm struggling to find the condition that sets this to a 1. Same goes for PRESSUP, and all the rest.

Furthermore, bits like B03<-21 I am clueless about. Is B03 an integer or memory location, and is it possible that this truly is a less than comparison? In the printout it is also referenced as %I0078. I originally thought this was a hard input, but the drawings show none as such, so it's got me a bit buffaloed. I'm going to download more manuals and do some reading tonight, but you guys have been a huge help already and just understanding what some of these things are and are not would be a great help.

Again, I appreciate all the input thus far. Wish we had gotten the software disc sooner than today.

Forgot to attach the screenshot

Here's the rung I meant to attach to the last post.