VM for older software

Jim G.

Member
Join Date
Nov 2007
Location
Georgia
Posts
187
I have an old IBM laptop (15+ years old) with Logix 5 and 500 on it. It is used for troubleshooting on some of our older equipment. Running on Windows XP.
Management doesn't seem to be in a rush to upgrade, so I must support the best I can. If I lose this computer, I would be up the creek so to speak...

I have purchased a new laptop (Windows 10) for the purpose of creating an XP virtual environment and migrating my old software to it.

I am wondering if this is the best approach to ensuring the survival of my old PLC programs. Would the software migrate to a Windows 7 OS just as good.?

Never used a VM before.

Thank you in advance for your help.
 
Jim,
Have you checked on the price of a tech connect contract? Then you could download the latest versions and run them on a newer machine. I am running both on a Win7 VM at the moment. You could also make a VM image of your current machine. I know with Win7 there are OS issues with certain versions of Win 7, not sure about Win XP. If you are using a PCMCIA card for DH+, then that will not work on the newer machine.
 
Thank you Ken.

Having read your response, it just occurred to me that 2 of my PLC-5's use the PCMCIA for communicating with my old laptop.

What options are available to talk to the PLC without having to upgrade the controller?

For our SLC-500's , we upgraded them to Ethernet models.
 
Thank you Ken.

Having read your response, it just occurred to me that 2 of my PLC-5's use the PCMCIA for communicating with my old laptop.

What options are available to talk to the PLC without having to upgrade the controller?

For our SLC-500's , we upgraded them to Ethernet models.

The option I can think of is expensive. You will need a ControlLogix rack, power supply, an ethernet card and a DHRIO card. That will bridge to DH+. You are looking at some cash for that though. Far more than a new laptop.

On the plus side, when, or if, you ever have issues with the PLC5 you can add a controllogix PLC card, connect the old IO on RIO, and you are set to convert your old PLC program. So it's sort of an investment?

That said, I've only ever replaced a PLC5 due to failure when some bonehead connected 600V to an input card instead of 120V ... a couple of times when the RIO channel blew on a lightning strike ... the PLC5 could last for a long time yet!
 
You can WINPE OOBE image of you XP laptop and use that to create your VM.

Frankly, I'd just install RSLogix 500 ( not sure about 5) directly to win10

as for PLC5, v9 or greater is compatible w/ windows 10.

a cheaper option than 1784-U2DHP (>$1000) is to use USB 1784-CP10.
 
Last edited:
I run RSLogix 5 and 500 on a Windows 7 VM without problems, talking to several SLC's and PLC-5's. All the SLC5/04 (and earlier) and PLC5's in the picture already have an interface to the plant ethernet network in various ways, so I can't help you on the hardware/adaptor side, but I can vouch for the software compatibility.
 
May I chime in here? I have been, in the very same situation you are. I Kept an XP machine for the same reason but I finally moved to WIN 7 and 10.
I want to first emphasize that you will corrupt your keys if you move them with either win 7 or 10 so you may want to move them on a usb stick. There is another option that works and I will share it if you are interested.

You can install RS Logic 5 on win 7 and 10 in compatibility mode and it runs fine. The Latest driver for the pcmk series b card works as long as it is in. PCMCIA slot. No adapters like for a Desktop pc. RSLinx classic 2.57 also works .

Might be a good idea to make an image of the drive or clone it with ghost 5.1c or 8 before you move any keys. Those versions of ghost will safely copy your old keys.
 

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