Troubleshooting with RSLogix 5000... can't find how a value is written.

the zip file that you sent me has some "interesting" CSV files included ...

here's a screen shot from the one named Development-Tags201308051834.csv ...

the "OPTION" tag in the file you sent is set for 1 ... so ...

based on this - it "LOOKS LIKE" the OEM sold the customer a Printer with the machinery - and selected a printer model N2 ... what model printer is actually installed? ... can you tell by a nametag, etc. ???

just a thought ... maybe the printer actually is a model 2 - and maybe your problem with the machinery lies somewhere else? ...

going further ... assuming that it is SAFE to experiment on this system - you might try this little trick ... IF "something" (like the HMI) is writing into the location Global\PrinterModel - then you might try just renaming the name of that tag as a temporary TEST ... for example: something like Global\PrinterModelTemp ... this is (usually) easy to do in the Edit section of the Controller Tags listing - and the change SHOULD "ripple" throughout all of the rest of the program code ... that means that the rest of the code IN THE PLC should keep on working normally - but any changes written into the tag from an OUTSIDE device would fail due to the "broken" link ...

so ...

IF (big IF) something actually is writing into the tag - it would USUALLY be linked to the tag by the name of the tag ... and with the name of the tag now changed - the link would be "broken" and whatever value you manually type into the tag's location should be left alone ... this is an old "debugging" trick that sometimes comes in useful when trying to isolate "disturbances" to various tag values ...

again - we can't tell from here whether it would be SAFE to try this on your machinery - but I offer it as another straw at which you might want to grasp ...
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The printer sold was the "N2" inkjet. I'm a little concerned at this point because there seems to be an OEM set-up page for values needed for that printer beyond just selecting the N2 printer. I'm wondering if the tag values for that set-up were written into the PLC file, like they were for the "N2" value that occupies the DINT offline.

I've got a hunch that the information stored in those CSV files might be helpful ... something like the purposes of the "settings" that you just mentioned seem to be listed there - but that type of detail does NOT appear to be recorded in the PLCs program ...
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I'm a little concerned at this point because there seems to be an OEM set-up page for values needed for that printer

Click to expand...

I haven't had time to dig into the HMI files for you - but here's just a thought ... maybe there really is no "OEM set-up page" in the HMI - and maybe the OEM just manually typed the appropriate values into the PLC's tag locations ...

just a thought ...

good luck with your project - I'm pretty much gone for the rest of the day/night ...

This is what I found.... (see attached)

Thanks, for looking!!!

looks like you hit the old proverbial jackpot ...

good work ...

This issue is complete... at least for now. I found an "OEM" login for setting up the machine. I still don't know if you can retrieve the user password in the FTV file (I couldn't find the place where it's stored), but the customer was able to find out what the password was.

I picked up some good knowledge and experience on this one. I'm certainly feeling more familiar with FTV... I'm sure it'll come in handy in the future. There is one thing I should ask before I move on.... Does anyone know how to retrieve the user passwords from the file? I've attached a picture of the screen where with users are listed.

I just wanted to complete this post for future reference by adding what Ken Roach sent me in an email....

After poking around in the screen (above) it seemed like the password was stored in an encrypted file (flashes of my Windows Server class from 2008 went through my mind). Ken confirmed it. The existing password would be very hard to learn. I could only delete it and create a new user and password, and create a new runtime file to load on the machine. If I have some time, I might try to create a new .mer file to run as an experiment, where I delete "OEM" user, then recreate the same exact name with a new password and see if it unlocked all of the hidden "OEM" screens.

As a tech, I see a lot of legacy machines.... and some of those machine manufacturers are no longer in business. I figure I need to up my game for issues like that.