RIO Scale Replacement

Hello All
I'd appreciate any suggestions / recommendations.
The Issue:

We have Several Old Hardy Scale Heads on a RIO network to a PLC 5 Processor.

All the math for the weight control is done within the PLC5.

Yesterday the plant had a power failure and the RIO from only one of the scales failed Stopping all function of this material delivery system on one particular production line.
I would appreciate any suggestion or recommendations of how to supply the gross weight data from a scale head to a register within the PLC 5?

I have a couple Idea's myself but am more than a little interested what the group has to say.

Thanks for the help.
Michael

I would stay with the Hardy they are among the best
I have been using then for years

mrdegold said:

Hello All
I'd appreciate any suggestions / recommendations.
The Issue:

We have Several Old Hardy Scale Heads on a RIO network to a PLC 5 Processor.

All the math for the weight control is done within the PLC5.

Yesterday the plant had a power failure and the RIO from only one of the scales failed Stopping all function of this material delivery system on one particular production line.
I would appreciate any suggestion or recommendations of how to supply the gross weight data from a scale head to a register within the PLC 5?

I have a couple Idea's myself but am more than a little interested what the group has to say.

Thanks for the help.
Michael

Click to expand...

So you want to stay with the PLC5 but change out the scale heads?

You may want to think about your upgrade path to ControlLogix, perhaps a Prosoft RIO card, and upgrade to newer Hardy scale heads.

You can stage the upgrade to the scales by continuing to use the Hardy with a Prosoft card in a ControlLogix rack. But there is some cash and some time required to convert your PLC5 code to ControlLogix, and the communications for the scales to the Prosoft card, and the communication to your old 1771 IO to Prosoft.
The good news is that you can do the code translation on a test system, in a lab, and make it all work before you change stuff out. The bad news is that this will cost you time and money, whether you do it yourself or contract it out to an engineering company.

I guess you could get the new Hardy scales working with a ControlLogix and ethernet, and use a Prosoft RIO card to message the values to the same register(s) in the PLC5 ... and that would take less time and effort ..

It would also get you a ControlLogix to become familiar with. But a power supply, rack, L71 ControlLogix, Ethernet Card, Prosoft card, and the programming software will be costly. Maybe $15K? Depending on your discount, and whether you have support, and a bunch of other stuff.

I can't think of any cheap and reasonable solution. You COULD go to ebay to source some hardware that others are upgrading from. But that's not a reliable way to source equipment. I would not recommend that.

+1 Hardy
that's all we use.

I suggest that you reboot the scale controller and see if that resolves the issue.
that's what we have to do in the event of a power failure at times.

james

Thank you for your replies so far.
We do have our migration to compact logix planned and is weeks to a few months away.
Until that time we need to keep this production line running.
Is there a "media convertor" that I can connect to a new Ethernet/ip weight indicator and convert it to communicate RIO????
I'm looking to keep this running until our transition.
Thanks for the help.
Michael

You could see if this from Prosoft will do what you want it to do:
https://www.prosoft-technology.com/...-IP-to-Allen-Bradley-Remote-I-O-or-DH-Gateway

Are you looking for a workaround to get a scale with a failed RIO adapter working for the short term until the upgrades are complete?

If so, could you perhaps use some sort of gateway to get the data in/out of the PLC-5
serial port?

Also give us the details about the scale you're dealing with.

[FONT=&quot]Is this a 2151/30WC? It was possible to buy replacement cards and maybe entire units. You could migrate to the 4050 units. If there are cutouts in the panel for a display they are drop in replacement. The 2151/30WC also had 2 option card slots. maybe check and see if there is a analog signal you could use.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The 4050 is available with a RIO option card. If memory serves correct you have to change the rack number to one less than the 2151 in the controller itself.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]This would be best solution if difficulty of calibration is not a concern-E.G not a 200,000 pound tank you can’t empty. Hard to zero that unless the load cells have C2. If this option would be selected the summing board has to be replaced do not matter if the cells are C2 or not. That got me the first one I replaced on a break down. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Good thing about the 4050 is after the PLC is upgraded the communication can be switched over to Ethernet ip communications. Port is integrated, just call hardy and they will sell you the license for each unit. You will have to do that anyway if using a compact logix, that platform won’t support RIO without a 3rd part gateway like the AN-X2-AB-DHRIO.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]They have great documentation also. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]http://www.hardysolutions.com/products/weighing-instruments/weight-controllers[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]PN example:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]HI4050-PM-AC-EIP-RIO-DIO-(Summing card you need)[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]2151/30WC----->http://www.hardysolutions.com/produ...oduct/458/hi-215130wc-single-scale-controller[/FONT]