PLC-5 to ControLogix upgrade advice

ceilingwalker · Sep 19, 2017

Hello all. I am upgrading a control scheme from PLC-5 to ControLogix. Going from physical address to tag-based system, is there any sort of a converter that will automatically assign tag names to the current RSL5 project's addresses, or do I have to manually create all new tags for these? Common sense tells me the latter however, just thought I would ask. Thank you.

Geospark · Sep 19, 2017

It never hurts to ask!

5514 - PLC5/SLC to Logix Translation Tool: General Information
Access Level: Everyone

It's not perfect, by any means, but it's not "nothing" either. There can be lots of little gotchas. So if you have any difficulties then ask away.

Regards,
George

A_G · Sep 19, 2017

The converter will convert your tags and automatically assign tag names, but the names will be based on the old PLC5 addresses. For example "N7:1" will be converted to "N7[1]". So it is probably a good idea to rename some of the tags after you use the conversion tool.

Ken Roach · Sep 19, 2017

There's a PLC-5 to ControlLogix conversion tool; it's an optional install along with RSLogix 5000/Studio 5000.

Addresses like N7:0 get translated to be N7[0].

It's not plug-and-go converter; there's always a lot of cleanup and conversion to do for instructions and functions that don't have exact equivalents. Expect to revisit every timer preset and accumulated value because of the millisecond timebase in ControlLogix, for example.

Edit: Too slow on the keyboard !

In addition to the Knowledgebase documents on the subject, there is a detailed PLC/SLC Program Conversion Reference Manual available:

http://literature.rockwellautomation.com/idc/groups/literature/documents/rm/1756-rm085_-en-p.pdf

ceilingwalker · Sep 19, 2017

Thanks guy's, this is great info.

Geospark · Sep 19, 2017

Yes, that manual is linked in the technote.

Ron Beaufort · Sep 19, 2017

will you be using all new ControlLogix hardware for the I/O signals - or keeping the old existing PLC-5 hardware (and its existing wiring) ? ...

ceilingwalker · Sep 25, 2017

Ron Beaufort said:
will you be using all new ControlLogix hardware for the I/O signals - or keeping the old existing PLC-5 hardware (and its existing wiring) ? ...

Hello Ron. All new ControLogix hardware, just connecting all the existing field devices to it.

JaxGTO · Sep 25, 2017

As said before it will convert all of your N7 type files to arrays with the same name, but it will also convert your tags to those address and make alias tags to them. So if you have N7:0 with a tag of My_N7_0 it will create an alias tags called My_N7_0 with an alias to N7[0].

Just before you hit the GO button on the conversion there is a check box to create these alias tags.

Geospark · Sep 25, 2017

Tag! Your it!...

JaxGTO said:
As said before it will convert all of your N7 type files to arrays with the same name, but it will also convert your tags to those address and make alias tags to them. So if you have N7:0 with a tag of My_N7_0 it will create an alias tags called My_N7_0 with an alias to N7[0].

In RSLogix 500, I think you mean "SYMBOL" instead of "tag"...

JaxGTO said:
As said before it will convert all of your N7 type files to arrays with the same name, but it will also convert your SYMBOLS to those address and make alias tags to them. So if you have N7:0 with a SYMBOL of My_N7_0 it will create an alias tags called My_N7_0 with an alias to N7[0].

It's just that using the term "tag" in RSLogix 500 for the symbol names could be a bit confusing to some, especially when dealing with a Logix 500 to Logix 5000 conversion. Even though we can class a symbol name as being a tag-like representation of a fixed address, we should not really refer to them as tags.

I've seen such terminology cause a bit of confusion in a recent thread so I thought I'd mention it here.

G.

rdrast · Sep 26, 2017

How big is the program?
Is anything else communicating with it externally?

I only ask, because except for really quick and dirty, one time only, never to be looked at again conversions, the conversion tool generates truly ugly, unreadable, miserable code.

I always just go for a complete re-write, and take advantage of the features on the newer platform.

PLC-5 to ControLogix upgrade advice

ceilingwalker

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