Powerflex 40 - communication problem

Join Date
Sep 2015
Location
Montreal
Posts
2
I posted in another thread while searching but there was no solution. In case it's not the same issue, I decided to create this thread.

We have 6 powerflex 40 in a panel (more elsewhere in the plant), when we shut-down power either for maintenance or when they are cleaning (lock out tag out) and we restart. Once in a while, a drive will not communicate anymore and if we wait 10-30 minutes, it will come back alive. That's been going on for nearly 3 years when the equipment was install. (before I got here).

Now I am starting to have the same issue but worst with another drive in the same system.
There was no communication, even if we waited 30 minutes. Last week-end during shutdown, same issue and it took 1hour something before comeback alive. We got the equipment running by installing a contactor but 60hz isn't what we are looking for on this, we need a drive.
It eventually came back but after something like 3 hours.

I don't think my guys tested it on "manual" even if I asked.

Was wondering if anyone ever found the problem and fixed it ?

We don't have all the tools and the knowledge to work on drive and plc, mostly cause we don't have enough issue to keep us busy on this.
When we connect to the drive on a computer, we can see the communication but it will sometimes blink.

On the ones that's been going on for years, we replaced the communication pannels, we replaced the drive and still same issue. I suppose it's ethernet or IT, but how does I find the issue ?


Thank you
 
We have had this issue many times, we contacted Rockwell, what we were told (off top of my head not in office) that the power supplyed to the ribbon cable is bad or going bad. They say it is a heat problem which I think is BS, our cabinets are ac and humidity controlled. Bad design
 
Holy C R A P...I just went through about 6 hours fighting with this same problem. 12 PowerFlex 40s on Ethernet. After a PLC powerdown to change a battery that we couldn't get out of an L35E without removing the CPU, 2 of the 12 22-COMM-E cards went blank (the LEDs all off), would not power up, and would not communicate. The drives were not even shut off. I have to say that I normally enjoy good tech support from Rockwell but, given that this is a known problem, the hours and hours spent on the phone with them today leaves me with a bad taste. I think far too much time was spent on the communications with the PLC and those annoying ribbon cables. The tech support rep clearly thought I was crazy. IMHO, the PLC is not going to communicate if there are no LEDs on, on the COMM-E. Anyway, was only able to get one working again and don't really know why it's working. Just spent hours swapping cards and cables from spare parts and other working drives until it lit up. No rhyme nor reason to it. Also, trying to upload from drive and 22-COMM-E using connected components workshop and 1203-USB. About 20 seconds after plugging in the 1203 to the serial port in the drive, and beginning the upload, the LEDs all went out again and comms were lost with the PLC and the CCW software. Final tech support suggestion was to upgrade CPU firmware to 20 from 16. Not risking that late Friday evening when most things were operational again. Anyone else have less hair over this and maybe some solutions? Bed time. Thanks!! o_Oo_O
 
I'm going out on a limb here.
1. Is your plant's network (PLCs, touchscreens, etc. on the floor) separate from the IT network (office computers, communications with corporate, production efficiency monitoring, etc.)?
2. If they are connected at all, how are addresses on your IT network assigned, static or dynamic?

We had a similar problem with our IT people. We had some shared switches, we had static addressing (with machines that sometimes weren't on all the time) while the IT network used dynamic addressing.
Another issue cropped up when corporate would send a large amount of data through a particular router, overloading it and causing communications problems for machines and drives on the floor.
 
Hey Smiff...There are only the drives, the one PLC, and an office HMI. No large amount of anything moving around on this system. Even so, with the Ethernet cable unplugged the 22-comm-e adapters aren't coming on. The top 2 LEDs should come on as soon as the unit receives power. There may be a slight flicker on these when powering up, but then no LEDs. On the "normal" drives, the top 2 LEDs come on when powering up, and the bottom 2 when you plug in the E-net cable. :confused:
 
Its the drives internal 5volt supply going bad. Leave it on long enough and it may come back up after another power cycle. Only solution is change it out. There is a Rockwell tech bulletin on it I believe.
 
Thanks pogi1952. That make more sense than anything tech support was suggesting. They had us swapping parts around on 5 different units, but the results made no sense at all to the point where it was clear he didn't believe what we was telling him. If however there is a tech bulletin, then one would expect tech support should know about it. I think these may start to get replaced with ABB ACS550s if this is the way it is. :eek:
 
yup, had the exact same problem...we have over 1,000 PF40's in our building. I took a drive apart and the comm board was burned.
 

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