akreel
Member
My second question for the day comes with an amusing back-story. If you’ve got a full hour for lunch, or you like field engineer war stories, read my comments after the question.
1) In RSLogix500: when I make changes to a program offline and want to download to the controller (SLC 5/04 in particular), how do I prevent data tables from being overwritten? I don’t want to erase/overwrite data like parts counters or setpoints, just by converting a NO contact to a NC!
I discovered this little quirk while working with a SLC 5/04 attached to a testing station. After downloading a few changes to the processor, I noticed that my parts counters decreased and my “Heat Lot” number had changed. I tinkered a bit and found out that RSLogix was “updating” the processor with data from the last time I had saved online, WITHOUT ASKING ME IF THAT WAS OK. I tinkered some more, but could not find a way to change this. I threw my hands in the air and decided that was that and I was going to have to live with it. I’m used to that feeling when I work with big players like AB.
But, that wasn’t the end of it! Later that SAME day, I was working on another unit with a different set-up. This was a 5/03(?) with a non-RS232 Panelview. I needed that special box, some of you may have seen before, on my comm port to even communicate to these devices. I think I might have even been using a PCMCIA card rather than an RS232 port. All of this was installed on someone else’s laptop, and I can’t remember my exact configuration.
The funny part was this: with a COMPLETELY different setup; different processor, different protocol, different laptop, and different version of RSLogix (maybe), the program actually ASKED me if I wanted to transfer my data after downloading the program! I have no idea whether it was the program configuration, processor type, cable connection, or magic that caused this to happen. The owner of the laptop didn’t either. When I asked him he told me that he’d always had the same problem that I’d seen earlier that day. This was the same AB guru I mentioned in my previous post and he was just as amazed as I was.
1) In RSLogix500: when I make changes to a program offline and want to download to the controller (SLC 5/04 in particular), how do I prevent data tables from being overwritten? I don’t want to erase/overwrite data like parts counters or setpoints, just by converting a NO contact to a NC!
I discovered this little quirk while working with a SLC 5/04 attached to a testing station. After downloading a few changes to the processor, I noticed that my parts counters decreased and my “Heat Lot” number had changed. I tinkered a bit and found out that RSLogix was “updating” the processor with data from the last time I had saved online, WITHOUT ASKING ME IF THAT WAS OK. I tinkered some more, but could not find a way to change this. I threw my hands in the air and decided that was that and I was going to have to live with it. I’m used to that feeling when I work with big players like AB.
But, that wasn’t the end of it! Later that SAME day, I was working on another unit with a different set-up. This was a 5/03(?) with a non-RS232 Panelview. I needed that special box, some of you may have seen before, on my comm port to even communicate to these devices. I think I might have even been using a PCMCIA card rather than an RS232 port. All of this was installed on someone else’s laptop, and I can’t remember my exact configuration.
The funny part was this: with a COMPLETELY different setup; different processor, different protocol, different laptop, and different version of RSLogix (maybe), the program actually ASKED me if I wanted to transfer my data after downloading the program! I have no idea whether it was the program configuration, processor type, cable connection, or magic that caused this to happen. The owner of the laptop didn’t either. When I asked him he told me that he’d always had the same problem that I’d seen earlier that day. This was the same AB guru I mentioned in my previous post and he was just as amazed as I was.