Changing Controller

Hi all,

Hopefully just a quickie here!

We are trying to convert our controller type from an 1756-L71 to an 1756-L81E just to carry out a bit of testing and when trying to do so it generates an error and then a fatal error?

The Software version of the 1756-L71 is 20.04 but when trying to change the controller type, the only software version in the dropdown box is 30; unsure as to whether this is causing an issue?

any help would be great!

Kind regards,
Carl.

the 1756-L81E shows as being compatible only with V29 upwards.....

the 1756-L71 is compatible from V20 upwards

Do you know the error code?

A couple of comments:

Yes, the L8x series start at ver 29 - some at 30 - the safety processors at 31.

Converting to L8x series is sometimes as simple as doing the conversion, but some programs will have some serious issues to contend with. There is a conversion document (book) that addresses the many issues:

http://literature.rockwellautomation.com/idc/groups/literature/documents/rm/1756-rm100_-en-p.pdf.

The book also recommends that you convert by:
1. Saving the program as an L5K file
2. Open the L5k (which will be an import) and select which version to import is as.
I have found that this procedure often flags more errors and warnings than the "normal" procedure.

I will add - the first time I tried converting the "normal" way, I had it crashing like you. As it converted, it showed me the files and devices that it was converting. I noticed that it always crashed while converting a certain drive or device. I deleted that drive from my tree and it converted OK. I think I downloaded EDS files for those drives and was then able to convert.

So you may want to try converting both ways - then pay attention to any errors/warnings after the conversion

of course, make sure you have version 30 loaded on your laptop

kekrahulik said:

A couple of comments:

Yes, the L8x series start at ver 29 - some at 30 - the safety processors at 31.


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Click to expand...

Are you sure about this? i Have 2 only 1756-L83 processors on a project at present running V28!

Rockwell sometimes introduces one specific model of controller before the rest of the family, often because it was developed to suit one or more major users and therefore was complete before the rest of the family.

That was the case with the 1756-L83E. It was released with Version 28 firmware.

The other memory size controllers and features (Safety, Phase Manager, Sequence Manager, etc) were added in later Versions of the firmware; to my knowledge, the 1756-L81E and 1756-L82E were first released with v29.

To circle back to Carl's problem: his Studio 5000 crashes with a major error when he tries to convert a 1756-L71 v20 program to an 1756-L81E v30 program.

I agree that the first workaround step should be to export the program as a *.L5K text file, then attempt to open that with v30, instead of directly attempting to open the *.ACD file.