Bench testing a Logix 5561?

RobScott

Member
R
Join Date
Feb 2013
Location
Manchester
Posts
21
Hi, i'm new to the forum, and new to PLC's

I work for Siemens Rail systems in England, and our points system uses an Allen Bradley 1756-L61 B

Its all running fine, so there is no problem there, but I have a spare L61 here, which I would like to power up, and plug into a laptop to retrieve the files.

I have a null modem cable, RSlinx, and the L61,

is it possible to power up the L61 on the bench?








Also another Question,

I want to connect to the L61 thats controlling the ponts, it has a modem, and a phone line. How would i go about doing this?


Thanks

Rob Scott
 
Last edited:
do you have an EMPTY slot available in a working chassis? ... you can plug the "spare" processor into that and communicate with it that way ...

CAUTION! ... if the SPARE processor has an existing program in it there is a possibility that plugging it into a "working" system could have serious (lawyer-level) consequences ... at the very minimum you should leave the key switch in the PROGRAM position ...

the thrust of my post is that if you just want to "talk to it" then you COULD plug the processor into an empty slot of an existing chassis to "power it up" – but whether you SHOULD do that will require more discussion ...

point in a nutshell, the ControlLogix platform can have more than one processor present in a chassis ...
 
Also another question,

I will be buying a laptop specially for the systems, we have 3 over diferent sites. Is it best to have a RS232 serial on the laptop, or is going through USB ok?
I will be purchasing RSLogic 5000 full edition too, so it needs to be good enough to reprogram the controllers without any corruption (we dont want any trains derailing).

I know with programming vehicle ECU's its preferable to use Serial rather than USB.

Thanks

Rob
 
RobScott said:
Also, with RSLogix 5000, am I right in thinking that version 20 is the last to support the L61?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Yes; more accurately, the 1756-L6x CPUs are not "functional" but for firmware revisions 20 or lower hence RSL5K will need to carry Rev.20 or lower.
 
RobScott said:
Also another question,

I will be buying a laptop specially for the systems, we have 3 over diferent sites. Is it best to have a RS232 serial on the laptop, or is going through USB ok?
I will be purchasing RSLogic 5000 full edition too, so it needs to be good enough to reprogram the controllers without any corruption (we dont want any trains derailing).

I know with programming vehicle ECU's its preferable to use Serial rather than USB.

Thanks

Rob
Click to expand...

If you could secure a modern PC containing a physical RS232 Serial port, go for it; otherwise, using a quality USB-to-Serial adapter (such as the TRIPP-LITE Keyspan USA-19HS)should satissfy most of the encountered applications.
 
I was thinking allong the lines of a Panasonic Toughbook, as they have rs232, and also one thing that was specified to me, was a toughened laptop.
If anyone has any suggestions for a different laptop, i'm willing to listen :)

Thanks
 
Hi.
Interested in what part of the control the L61 does for the points.
From my small amount of experience with railway control/signalling there was no way known a normal plc would be allowed near signalling/control for the track. From memory there were redundant SSI (solid state interface) units made by GE used where hard wired relays could not do the task. Programming and certifying these were limited to incredibly few people world wide.
Regards Alan Case
 
Hi rob

What ever laptop you get start out with using vm ware if you can. I have had a few problems with my current host machine and ver 20.01 of logix. It has upset my networks software and the answer from Ab to install networks on a different machine if I can , so I am now moving to vm ware. I have been thinking about. Doing this for a long while as it comes up here a lot.

On a side not
"I work for Siemens Rail systems in England, and our points system uses an Allen Bradley 1756-L61 B"

Siemens rail using Ab controllers, how did this come about if you don't mind me asking


Donnchadh
 
and if 504bloke can't help, drop me a PM.

i can also test your L6x processor's in my chassis.
 

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