FX-48MR lost program

We're a used industrial machinery merchant and we have a machine with a Mitsubishi FX-48MR PLC. It appears to have lost its program. The green Power LED is on, the Run LED is off, the red Batt V LED is on and the red Prog-E/CPU-E LED is flashing - which I assume means program error.

I can connect to it using GX Developer but there's no sign of a program to upload. I try to get an upload but it uploads the parameters and then just sits forever trying to upload device comments.

I took off the front cover, behind which the battery resides and there was no sign of an EEPROM or similar. Despite this, I tried to read from Rom (Tools/Transfer ROM/Read...) but this (almost inevitably) failed.

Am I out of options? Trying to find a copy of the software is my only hope, I presume?

Yes, it's gone forever.
The plc is very old perhaps 20 years or more.
The battery was probably never changed so a period of not been powered up and the program fades away.

Re-write or find the old program. Good luck

Ronnie Sullivan said:

Yes, it's gone forever.
The plc is very old perhaps 20 years or more.
The battery was probably never changed so a period of not been powered up and the program fades away.

Re-write or find the old program. Good luck

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And put some ferrules on wires while they are at it!

Yes that is correct, either find a copy or get someone to re-write it if you have enough information on how it works plus drawings, also if you do try to resurrect it then you will need a new battery, I used ones form RS, just soldered on the old connector, never had problems with them probably not last 10 years or more like the originals but then again I know one lasted 4 years as I normally change them every year but forgot that one. also the if you do decide to upgrade the newer FX3U will be able to run the same code, just change PLC type. I know that GXDeveloper v8.1 like mine does not support FX only FX0-3 so not sure if you need an earlier version to read an existing file for the FX so might need earlier version to convert FX to FX2N then later GX to convert to FX3. I suggest if you cannot find the original program then replace the PLC as it has to be re-written anyway.

That looks very familiar, the company I used to work for purchased a number of pieces of plant from the states via a supplier in the UK, it was all food processing machinery, would not surprise me if this is from the same supplier or possibly they used a systems house to build the panels & program them.
Do you know the Mfgr.

The timer to the right makes ya chuckle.
Probably put there by someone who couldn't program.
I wonder if he knew there were probably lots of em spare in the plc

Full size old FX are very durable.

If you replace the battery, do a Clear All and reload (or rewrite) the program it will surely work again

Lfe, is correct, they are very durable, I only replaced them because of spares if one went down, in saying that, there was probably no need as if we had a failure it was simple to replace it with the FX2N, only issue was the 2N was smaller & sometimes the wiring needed to be extended. The FX3U is also almost identical, however, for some reason the terminal layout changed slightly.

tragically1969 said:

And put some ferrules on wires while they are at it!

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Yep. I'm a Brit living in 'merca. For some reason that escapes me, they hate ferrules here.

parky said:

That looks very familiar, the company I used to work for purchased a number of pieces of plant from the states via a supplier in the UK, it was all food processing machinery, would not surprise me if this is from the same supplier or possibly they used a systems house to build the panels & program them.
Do you know the Mfgr.

Click to expand...

Most of our machines are tube benders and tube end formers with a lot of automotive usage. This one was made by Eagle in Brantford, Ontario, I believe

Thanks for all the input. We've actually found a printout for the PLC code, stuffed in the document pocket. The powers that be are deciding what to do from here.

You could always ask for a price from an experienced mitsi programmer to write it from the printout.

Eagle is still operating, maybe they still have the old program in their archives?

Change it for an FX3U, you can copy the program exactly without any modifications. all the plant we had was food production probably the panel builders were the same or use such a familiar way of building panels.