Panelview 1200E on RIO to SLC addressing

Ok this is ugly and I know it. Back story is over a few years

I got a call because the "HMI" was hard to read. I show up and its a 1200E . So I tried to pull the program with PanelBuilder 1400E software. I couldn't get it to upload. Called RA and they didnt have a clue. We spent hours trying to upload. Configuration, baud, transfer mode. The last resort was to sacrifice a chicken and rattle the bones.

A few weeks ago I get the same call again differnt side of the same plant. I called RA and got an oldtimer who pointed me to yhe upload utility that was just for the 1200E. So I have the program and can open and see everything I need to reprogram this screen.

So my real problem is how do I understand the RIO block addressing? I cant find any supporting documentation on RA website. I know RIO is ugly in the SLC and even uglier on a HMI.
I'm guess the best way is to use and Excel spreadsheet and figire out the mapping. Does anyone have a better idea

What are you going to use as the successor platform ?

The PanelView Plus 2711P-RN6 DH+/RIO adapter module only ever supported the first two hardware generations, up to firmware 5.10 and the pre-"PV Plus 6" logic modules.

I used to be one of the experts on that adapter and how to convert Enhanced PanelView to it. But the last one I did was in 2005 and I've gladly allowed those memories to evaporate.

If you have another access method to the controller (please be Ethernet, please be Ethernet) the easiest migration is still probably to FactoryTalk View ME. In theory you could use a RIO Adapter/EtherNetIP gateway device from Prosoft/QTS if you absolutely had to re-use RIO.

I came up with a plan for one of my clients (back in 2005) to re-use the RIO cable with an IP modem that claimed it could get TCP/IP running at 1 Mb/s over a twisted pair. Never got to do it.

You're probably familiar with the 1747-SN and its basic 32-bit discrete I/O image. For example if it's in Slot 5, that I/O is addressed on the SLC side as "I:5.0-31" and "O:5.0-31".

If you want to send more data, you need to implement Block Transfers in the big 3100-word M-file buffers. Some modern SLC-5/0x controllers do support actual Block Transfer (BTR and BTW) instructions, but ones that old probably only have the manual "move an N-file to and M0:xxx buffer" logic.

My recollections have been refreshed: the PanelView 1400e could represent multiple RIO Rack numbers. The "Rack, Group, Slot" address was referred to as the "low/high byte" instead of Slot 0 / Slot 1. And the Length of the block transfers was not part of how they were identified; it was by R/G/S. The PanelView 1400e considered each of these block transfers to be a "File" and supported a total of 5.

Excellent RA Knowledgebase article: https://rockwellautomation.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/25574/related/1

Excel ? No, no, graph paper. And a coaster, because iced bourbon tends to sweat. You can get bourbon on Sunday north of the river, can't you ?

SLC 5/03. The customer has 2 HMI on this plc. They use a selector switch to decide which HMI in online. Its a cool old achool way to swlwcr between them.

So they want a down and dirty solution. Im thinking DH485 and a RedLion. I don't think the new PV+ support DH485 over 485. They will support it over 232 with a special adapter for the serial port.

Ken you know I always have a stash of good bourbon. I had to buy bourbon for Christmas parties this year. I keep the good stuff hidden away.

Cross-reference for the M1 and M0 files for the 1747-SN slot number, and make a not of wherever they are addressed by a COP instruction.

The block transfers can be up to 64 words long, but they are offset at 100 word blocks to make them easier to look at with human decimal-oriented eyes:

M1:5.100 Block Transfer 1
M1:5.200 Block Transfer 2
[...]
M1:5.3100 Block Transfer 31

Then get out the RIO configuration and block editor in PanelBuilder 1400e and figure out how many block transfers there are, how big they are, and which rack/group/slot they are associated with.

Because Block Transfer instructions can have any Integer file for their source and destination, there is literally no way for the PanelView to know where the data comes from in the SLC-5/03. The PanelView knows the R/G/S, size, and direction of the Block Transfer data blocks, but that's all it knows.