GE 90-30, ME 9.5, Going online to troubleshoot

Another customer called today to help them troubleshoot thier Ferry Rotomold machine. This is good because it's giving me an opportunity to build my Profacy ME skills. I still find it hard to get the answers to some basic questions, though. And with the holiday week, tech support was under-staffed today... there was nobody there who could field a 90-30 question.

Easy question for those familiar.... the red X over the target name doesn't go away after uploading the program to the laptop. I believe that is because the PC version does not match the PLC program. I'm trying to use the software to troubleshoot the program, so I need a real-time connection that shows me the state of the bits. Is there a way to overcome this? Is this a case where I need the old VersaPro software? ....I'm just trying to remember the things I've learned so far.

BTW.... CPU 363

Thinking of follow-up questions in advance.... If I do need VersaPro, I'm guessing the only way (if any) is to contact my GE distributor? (Powermation in MPLS/St Paul) Is VersaPro available, even though it's not supported?

If the program was created with either VersaPro or Logicmaster you will need to first upload from the PLC to Proficy machine Edition and then download from Machine Edition to the PLC to get to a "Logic Equal" state. With a 90-30 you will not get names, nicknames or rung comments when you pull the program from the PLC.

Ugh! That's what I thought you'd say. That scares the heck out of me! I'm not sure what I'd do if the machine didn't work after doing that... for whatever reason.

What's your level of confidence in that scenario? What would you do? If I found the old software, would that help? Would you look for the old software, or validate and download using ME?

In my case I have all three software packages so I could try VersaPro if I couldn't get to Logic Equal with PME.
Does the customer have a backup CPU? If so pull the program from the PLC on the machine and download it to a backup PLC. That should allow you to get to Logic Equal and give you confidence that you have successfully uploaded a program.
Powermation has been a distributor for a long time. They should be able to find a copy of VersaPro for you. If you're on good terms with them they may even be willing to have their automation specialist help you with your customer.

That's a great idea. Thanks!