What is the oldest PLC system you have running?

andy_1983 · Aug 20, 2018

We’ve still got some interesting old stuff running.

1 toshiba EX250, a couple of Toshiba M20, a Toshiba EX20 and a cutler D100A

1 SquareD sy/max 300

A couple of Mitsubishi F2

2 x PLC5

3 x Texas 505 - which to be fair are switched off now. And a 305 which I took out earlier this year

Then a load of SLC500

I like working on the old stuff it’s interesting, a bit different and becoming a bit of a black art. I’ve got a small collection of it at home too, to keep my hand in!

Andy

Tracy Beliew · Feb 25, 2019

Several Model 400 Square D and Screenware HMI.

jraef · Feb 25, 2019

Soon after I started in this industry in the late 70s, I did a project at a brewery to install an A-B PLC-3, the one where the CPU weighed about 250# and you needed a forklift for it. It was the first PLC-3 on the West Coast from what I was told at the time.

Last year I heard that the A-B Field Service people were going to do an upgrade to CLX and they were removing that very same PLC-3... it had been working fine and for almost as long as I have, but they finally got too worried about being able to fix or change anything. They were still using a T4 programmer... Apparently they had kept this from my initial installation, then switched to the DOS based software, but when they couldn't get it to run on PCs any longer, they went back to the good old T4

plc.doctor · Feb 27, 2019

We have PLC5 and SLC processors all over over plant. The main PLC5 are networked together using DH+ and Ethernet sidecars. They are using RIO to communicate to the field IO. One of the projects has 3 1785-SDN DeviceNet scanner modules that the first ones west of the Mississippi. We were the plant that found out you can't put an SDN module in a remote chassis.
All of our new projects are using the CLX platform so we are keeping up with the technology.
But trying to get them to upgrade the PLC5 projects to CLX has been impossible.

rootcon · Feb 27, 2019

gclshortt said:
We currently have a Modicon 984 running a machine in our plant.
Operators are trained every year to run without the PLC for practice.
When it finally dies we will upgrade our "PLC Room" to a small panel.

I did a job fully automating 3 palletizers and Trunk lines using 984's/986's over Modbus+. Was one of the projects I have enjoyed the most.

jraef · Feb 27, 2019

Yesterday I visited a site and they just pulled out the last of their Modicon 084 PLCs, they were working up until last week, albeit with scavenged parts from cannibalizing older unused systems. Their workbench looked like a Frankenstein lab with disemboweled 084s all over the place.

Still, that's an AMAZING length of time to keep operating, we are talking about over 40 years. The 084 was the very first PLC, although it was not called that at the time (A-B trademarked the perm PLC and Programmable Logic Controller early on and staunchly defended it for a decade or so). The 084 was called a "Sequential Machine Controller" and reportedly the "084" designation came from Dick Morely (the "father of the PLC") and team having failed 83 times before it, so this one was "0 for 84". Prior to this the last time I had seen an operating 084 was in 1988 at an aluminum mill in Washington state.

BachPhi · Feb 27, 2019

PLC2s here still running. No cassette recorder, No T47 not T55, not win98 nor WinME, but an VM machine with XP running, using AI v6.25.

oldnerd · Feb 27, 2019

My oldest was

Had a slick 100 and a slick 150 still in use up to about 8 years ago when they closed the plant. I do not remember what year I put these in but it was more than 15. One was under water for two day before I installed it, took it apart blew it dry with a heat gun and never had a problem with it. Don;t build them like they use to.

geniusintraining · Feb 28, 2019

oldnerd said:
Had a slick 100 and a slick 150 still in use up to about 8 years ago when they closed the plant.

There are still a lot out there... I sell a couple cables a week for them

jraef said:
The 084 was the very first PLC

Very cool, thanks.... I was searching it and found this if anyone is looking for some history http://www.eng.utoledo.edu/~wevans/chap1_S.pdf

I cut my teeth on a Westinghouse Numa-Logic

Jim G. · Feb 28, 2019

Anyone remember Allen-Bradley Cardlock?

Hard wired programming.

Also the AB 1742 controller.

forqnc · Feb 28, 2019

Jim G. said:
Anyone remember Allen-Bradley Cardlock?

Hard wired programming.

Also the AB 1742 controller.

Started replacing several of them in 2010, that were still running.
Hard wired programming was on several of our older Cincinnati Injection Molders at my previous company, of which several were still running before they shut down in 2017.

thingstodo · Feb 28, 2019

jraef said:
Yesterday I visited a site and they just pulled out the last of their Modicon 084 PLCs, they were working up until last week, albeit with scavenged parts from cannibalizing older unused systems. Their workbench looked like a Frankenstein lab with disemboweled 084s all over the place.

Still, that's an AMAZING length of time to keep operating, we are talking about over 40 years. The 084 was the very first PLC, although it was not called that at the time (A-B trademarked the perm PLC and Programmable Logic Controller early on and staunchly defended it for a decade or so). The 084 was called a "Sequential Machine Controller" and reportedly the "084" designation came from Dick Morely (the "father of the PLC") and team having failed 83 times before it, so this one was "0 for 84". Prior to this the last time I had seen an operating 084 was in 1988 at an aluminum mill in Washington state.

I've used Modicon/Schneider .. but not for a while.

Did they ever update the instruction set for ladder logic ... since the 084 was released ? Sometimes the extended math functions seemed like something done by someone in assembler, making something fit into a system that was not designed for it ...

jt5405 · Feb 28, 2019

I have some Siemens 115u"s still running and a lot of 95u's. S5 still my favorite software to work with (although I use PLC Workshop instead of Siemens).

jt5405 · Feb 28, 2019

Jesper, you know its old when it can't be found on the internet!

2rlp · Mar 1, 2019

We have a 4 Hi Rolling mill using a Yaskawa R84. It was commissioned in 1985.

What is the oldest PLC system you have running?

andy_1983

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Tracy Beliew

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jraef

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plc.doctor

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rootcon

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jraef

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BachPhi

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oldnerd

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geniusintraining

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Jim G.

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forqnc

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thingstodo

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jt5405

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jt5405

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2rlp

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