What is the oldest PLC system you have running?

EICS · Apr 7, 2020

I work in the Fibreglass industry (Molten Glass that is then spun into Fibres) still have 8 PLC5's in service most which i migrated from PLC 2's ( 4 that originally had 1777 4 point I/O modules) those PLC's 5's last forever i have spare to keep them going for years till i retire, one is being migrated out this year.

but the oldest stuff is ASEA analog DC drives from 1979 5 still in service, one was migrated out early this year. never had one issue with them since i started 30 years ago.

Russ · Apr 7, 2020

We upgraded a pharmaceutical manufacturer's plc 5's to control logix a few years ago, though I added DH+/RIO cards to talk to their other plc 5's. A few years ago I ran across a customer with a PLC 2. Their "HMI" was a series of lights with status tags taped next to it. I asked if they had a copy of the program and they gave me a cassette.

I have a plc 2 rack around here somewhere. It might be fun for xmas lights.

JERA · Apr 11, 2020

I have a customer who have several Siemens S5 systems running - S5-115, S5-135 and S5-95
I'm still making service and program changes in these.

1 year ago I was called by a new customer who wanted to know if I could make service on a Texas PLC. I went to him and he had a old 5TI system, where he wanted me to make some program changes in.
The PLC system was changed after almost 40 years of operation

Liam Moran · Apr 11, 2020

The 5TI was the first controller I did a program from scratch on for a machine. It was sometime in the early 1980s. Did quite a bit of work on them back then.

Graduated on to TI500 series after that. Still have a VPU 200 in my garage.
That's why my avatar is a 5TI sequencer.

Ronnie Sullivan · Apr 12, 2020

Haha - oldest system you have worked on....

I remember clearly when PLC's first arrived. These were the 'newest' systems.

The first I took an interest in was an S5-115.
How could this off-white box with blinking green lights run this complicated machine without relays and timers and cams???

I stuck to the installation and commissioning men like glue and got my first sight of ladder.
I was hooked.

BobB · Apr 12, 2020

Omron M1R - ha ha - keyboard on the front - strictly boolean. Basically a stepper. Omron S6s as well and Hitachi black boxes - also sold by Square D with 120VAC inputs. Long time ago.

Soggy Canuck · Apr 13, 2020

Ditto on the Omron S6, there are quite a few of them floating around on compensating stackers used by small community newspaper and flyer printers.

The brand is still around (Rima) but they switched to Mits about 20 years ago.

I got quite good at rebuilding the power supplies (mostly dried out electrolytics), and swapping out fried output relays.

I only ever swapped out one processor (back when they were still available).
The press crew dumped 50Lbs of black ink into the control box (mounted facing up on these machines) while the sparky who was working on it had gone to the stores room for a replacement contactor. The solvent the electrician used to try and clean up the mess ate the traces off the circuit board.

parky · Apr 13, 2020

Yeah, Omron S6 & M1R SQD Symax 300, PLC2, Texas I remember them well.

gbradley · Apr 13, 2020

I’ve got a 50 year old hammer.
Of course I replaced the handle three times, and the head twice ;-)

mbartoli · Apr 13, 2020

And while I did not work on it personally (at least directly), we were starting up a line in a switchgear plant back in the late 70s that used the first generation Westinghouse (or maybe GE) PLC (can't even remember what model#). The integrator was programming online while we were checking out the system equipment. I was trying to verify operation of a pump system that started when a limit switch was made. We kept hitting that switch and nothing was happening until the startup engineer came out of the control room yelling at us to stop hitting the switch. He was in edit mode, and every time we hit that switch it erased his edits!

geniusintraining · Apr 13, 2020

mbartoli said:
... first generation Westinghouse (or maybe GE) PLC (can't even remember what model#). The integrator was programming online while we were checking out the system equipment. I was trying to verify operation of a pump system that started when a limit switch was made. We kept hitting that switch and nothing was happening until the startup engineer came out of the control room yelling at us to stop hitting the switch. He was in edit mode, and every time we hit that switch it erased his edits!

Ah... Westinghouse remember them well, that was the first model I learned on... Numa-Logic 784 or NLSW-784, they were good PLC's we had them running our presses and our heating systems, the system was in and running when I joined that was early 90's but I did a lot of troubleshooting using them

mbartoli · Apr 13, 2020

geniusintraining said:
Ah... Westinghouse remember them well, that was the first model I learned on... Numa-Logic 784 or NLSW-784, they were good PLC's we had them running our presses and our heating systems, the system was in and running when I joined that was early 90's but I did a lot of troubleshooting using them

I knew someone here would know! Too many miles since then. Like I said, I didn't really get into the Numa-Logics, back then my experience was old GE Series One and Six, then a bit later the GEC GEM80. Thanks for bringing that back, though. Biggest impression is how crude the programming interface on those systems was compared to what we have today.

bluenoser337 · Apr 13, 2020

My first experience with "logic control" was these Silimog blocks. You chose what function you needed and wired the block into the circuit (small slip on Sta-Kons). A machine could have dozens of these all cascaded together. AND, OR, NOR, XOR, NAND, etc. Needless to say, PLCs eventually took over for these and it was love at first sight! I still have some of those old blocks. :nodi:

padees · Apr 13, 2020

geniusintraining said:
Numa-Logic...

I remember those. I did a few projects for Westinghouse Furniture Systems in the mid 80's and it was a requirement to use those. I was building the machine and another guy was programming.

We did 2 machines in Michigan, and 2 in Puerto Rico.

I remember the timers ran from line frequency. While that worked in Michigan, the line frequency was pretty bad in Puerto Rico at the time, so they let me use SLC-100's on those. That was the 1st PLC I programed. Had the handheld programmer. It worked pretty good.

parky · Apr 13, 2020

Just remembered a couple more a Ferranti system the plc controller & I/O blocks took up 4 double wardrobes where our S5 took one, we used the other wardrobes & replaced the I/O boards with Harting plugs & sockets pre-wired to the plc cabinet for a quick one day changeover. and another was some Swedish thing where the date was 1973, it had I/O boards where the analogue chips were metal top hat IC's with 6 or 8 legs, could not do anything as no idea who the actual Mfr. was, however, managed to find that one of these was faulty, replaced it with a spare channel (fortunately these were plug in).

What is the oldest PLC system you have running?

EICS

Member

Russ

Lifetime Supporting Member

JERA

Member

Liam Moran

Lifetime Supporting Member

Ronnie Sullivan

Member

BobB

Lifetime Supporting Member

Soggy Canuck

Lifetime Supporting Member

parky

Member

gbradley

Lifetime Supporting Member

mbartoli

Member

geniusintraining

Lifetime Supporting Member + Moderator

mbartoli

Member

bluenoser337

Member

padees

Member

parky

Member

Similar Topics