PLC5 and DH+ and Flex IO

dimented · May 10, 2006

I am doing an upgrade on a plc implemented by someone else. The current systen is a PLC5/20E with 3 racks already defined. It also has a DH+ Network on Channel 1A. We are adding 2 Flex IO remote IO racks to it and adding multiple devices off of it. My questions is how to access the Flex IO addressing in the PLC5? Is it just another Chassis in the IO configuraiton? If so then I do not have enough rack numbers available since it is a PLC520. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

JesperMP · May 10, 2006

Hi dimented.

Please specify EXACTLY how your RIO hardware is arranged physically.
Then specify how your RIO configuration is setup in racks/slots/addressing modes.

It is possible that you can mingle the hardware and configuration so that you save one or more of the logical RIO racks.
In that way maybe you can squeze in the extra RIO hardware.

dimented · May 10, 2006

I have been looking into it a little further and I think I may just have to try to upgrade to a PLC5/30. The way they have it set up is they are using 2 racks to do block transfers to two Panelviews and the 3rd rack for a Remote IO block. That doesn't leave me any racks to add in my 2 racks of Flex IO. I could combine my 2 racks using an extender cable but I don't think that will get me there.

LJBMatt · May 10, 2006

Sounds like you are out of logical rack space. A 5/30 or 5/40 will enable you to have move logical I/O racks available. That's your best option unless you your FLEX IO are both 1/4 racks and you can squeeze them into rack 3 of your other Remote I/O block.

dimented · May 10, 2006

Unfortunately they are more than 1/4 rack. I am going to either have to upgrade the PLC 5, or just throw a flex processor in my Flex rack and then message my information back to the PLC5.

Off to see which is going to be cheaper.

Thanks for the help.

dimented · May 10, 2006

I also may want to get an extender cable to bring my 2 Flex racks together. Is there a limit as to how many modules you can have between the 2 racks that a 1794-CE1 Extender cable joins?

OkiePC · May 10, 2006

Or, you could change the Paneviews to DH+ versions, that might be a lot of work, and nearly as expensive though...just a thought.

dimented · May 10, 2006

OkiePC said:
Or, you could change the Paneviews to DH+ versions, that might be a lot of work, and nearly as expensive though...just a thought.

That is not an option as it is not the scope of our work. We didn't do that work so it would require us changing someone elses system.

Thanks though.

rdrast · May 10, 2006

Upgrading to a 5/30 (especially if you need an ethernet processor) is really probably not a good choice at all. I'd strongly suggest going with the Flex processor, and messaging back and forth as needed.

If you absolutely must upgrade the PLC processor, you'll probably find it's VERY VERY expensive. If I absolutely HAD to upgrade a PLC-5, I'd put in a ControlLogix CPU in a rack with some DH+/Ethernet/RIO cards for the brain, and eliminate the PLC5 CPU altoghether.

dimented · May 10, 2006

rdrast said:
Upgrading to a 5/30 (especially if you need an ethernet processor) is really probably not a good choice at all. I'd strongly suggest going with the Flex processor, and messaging back and forth as needed.

If you absolutely must upgrade the PLC processor, you'll probably find it's VERY VERY expensive. If I absolutely HAD to upgrade a PLC-5, I'd put in a ControlLogix CPU in a rack with some DH+/Ethernet/RIO cards for the brain, and eliminate the PLC5 CPU altoghether.

Thanks, That helps. I do not see anyway to do DH+ with a flexlogix though. Do they have a DH+ communication module for that? All I see is a way to do DH-485.

Bruce99 · May 10, 2006

Flex I/O

If my memory serves me correctly, on the 5/20 you are limited to racks 1,2& 3 for flex I/O. We had to upgrade to the 5/40 to use racks 4 & 5. The configuration window on RS-5 will show you this limit. With one slot addressing, the normal I/O limits apply to flex and 1771 modules. The day I had today.... who knows. I could be thinking prosoft or cx. I sure hope the rest of the week is better....Ugh!!.

RSL · May 11, 2006

FlexLogix Has daughter cards for ControlNet,DeviceNet, and Ethernet.

I have implemented several and there is no good way to use DH+ or RIO without a ControlLogix bridge in place. If there is I am not aware of it. There might be a 3rd party device available to get it done?

RSL

dimented · May 11, 2006

Bruce99 said:
If my memory serves me correctly, on the 5/20 you are limited to racks 1,2& 3 for flex I/O. We had to upgrade to the 5/40 to use racks 4 & 5. The configuration window on RS-5 will show you this limit. With one slot addressing, the normal I/O limits apply to flex and 1771 modules. The day I had today.... who knows. I could be thinking prosoft or cx. I sure hope the rest of the week is better....Ugh!!.

Why can't I use a 5/30?

Bruce99 · May 11, 2006

Flex

One way to test is to create a new project with a 5/30 processor. When you try to set up the RIO RSLogics will tell you what is valid. In our case we had spare 5/40s and 5/20Es. I just did a quick check.. It allowed me to configure flex I/O up to rack [Octal] 7 with a 5/30. You can use a 5/30 if this meets your requirements. We didnt have that option.

Bruce99 · May 11, 2006

flex

I did a quick test, RS allowed me to configure flex I/O up to [octal] rack 7 on a 5/30. If this meets your requiments, you shouldnt have a problem.

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