HMI vs SLC 500

Hello,
I have an SLC 5/03 16K Allen-Bradley PLC communicating thru RS232 cable with desktop PC and this is what shows on the screen (see attached). Any Idea how to retrieve the MS DOS HMI program?? Or how to create an exact copy for backup purposes.

I will maybe try and program a new HMI from the ladder logic in the PLC in windows 10 format if possible.

Thanks for any help!

Welcome to the forum!

No attachments came through...

I'm unable to send the .RSS file...

[/QUOTE]

wetransfer.com/downloads/4e1f4bf03051842858204b0ec7b8f37d20191001203625/0ce3904401033a0b3b91f9f4c901b97020191001203625/2305ee

It is from a fuel depot where they transfer fuel from trucks to reserves and vice-versa. (French display)

You can't attach RSS format, if you zip it first then you can attach it

https://*****/t-mJpqxEYX3g
https://*****/t-mJpqxEYX3g

Is the HMI machine literally running DOS, or is it running a DOS application in some version of Windows, or even a DOS virtual machine ?

The first thing to do is to get a backup image of that HMI computer's hard drive.

I can't say if that HMI is done in ControlView or something else.

Do you have personal experience with other PC-based HMI software, like RSView or Wonderware or Indusoft ? Often the best choice is the one you're familiar with the toolset for.

It's running a DOS application in some version of Windows (i think its XP pro)
I've programmed RSView about 10 years ago so it's a bit of a challenge for me today.
I was thinking about hiring on Upwork but would like to have enough data for my programmer.
I figure it's not as simple as: upload, translate and download...??

Also: Welcome to the PLCTalk forum community !

Step 2 is to figure out what that HMI program is. Look for the shortcut that launches it on the XP computer, then follow that to the directory it's in, and look at the file types.

I've got a feeling that this is a custom HMI program and that you aren't going to be able to "convert" it to anything commercial.

I had a quick look at the *.RSS file for the SLC-5/03 controller. The program isn't exceptionally long or complicated, but the version you uploaded has no rung comments or address descriptions.

The serial connection to the HMI appears to be done with ASCII instructions through the Channel 0 serial port. That supports the hypothesis that the HMI is custom, since it evidently doesn't have a commercial DF1 protocol driver.

But it's good that it appears to be sending very little data, making it relatively easy to correlate between the things you see onscreen and the things you see in the SLC-5/03 data table. A serial sniffer might even be straightforward to use in this case, since the data is probably human-readable.

Do you have your own toolset of a 1747-UIC and RSLogix 500 software ?

yes I do, thats how I was able to upload the program. As far as I know, I cant get the comments umless I have the original version from it's creator.
Can you tell me more about the serial sniffer?

by the way, your help is greatly appreciated!

When I'm doing serial troubleshooting, I like to get right down onto the wire level and independently monitor what's actually going in and out of the ports.

For those purposes, the Stratus Engineering EZ-Tap or EZ-Tap Pro is the best money you can spend. I've had a dozen different taps and splitters and intercept rigs and it is by far the simplest and easiest to use.

https://www.stratusengineering.com/product/ez-tap/

Because this data looks like it's going in simple human-readable ASCII, then you can use the SLC user program and your wire intercepts together with what's on the screen of the HMI to determine what SLC-500 registers the program is reading and writing.

Or how to create an exact copy for backup purposes?

Click to expand...

If the computer has USB, you can use the built-in Windows Backup utility, and an external USB hard drive.

Alternatively, I use a software called Acronis that allows me to make a bootable USB stick. Then I'd boot from it, and execute a backup of the hard disk to the USB external hard disk.

How to Back up Files With Windows XP on an External Hard Drive

@Sigmadelta
Thanks for the reply. My ultimate goal is to upgrade their hardware to whats trending today (CompactLogix?) and Win10. This way they will be able to operate several more years and also get support from other technicians. I dont think it will be as easy to find SLC 500 in 5-10 years from now...

It may be a good thing that the data is sent (and received ?) by ASCII.
With ASCII the PLC program must actively send (and receive) the data. So this makes the job of finding the data to be sent and received relatively easy.

Most HMIs can read and write any address in the PLC, which makes reverse engineering such an HMI program a tough job, since without the HMI source code you dont really know which addresses are being read and written to.