This laid off dad cant make SLC5/03 talk.

[PLCease]

Hi to all,

I am trying to teach myself SLC5/03 programming and communications.
I bought a SLC5/03, couple of IOs and an analog input mod.
Everything was working fine until I decided to run RSview32 and toggle a tag. After that I have not been able to communicate to the PLC. RSwho doesnt see the PLC it only shows my laptop as channel 0 station. But no PLC.
I am running cha0 RS232 serial port thru a usb to serial converter .

Problem is not cable.
Not a usb to serial problem.
I have reloaded rslynx.
I have tried running autoconfig many times.
I have taken processor bat out and drained cap. Hoping to reset PLC.

How can I make this PLC to communicate? How do you reset a PLC that is hung up.

Is my PLC dead?

Dear friends, any suggestion is greatly appreciated.
Best regards, Bob

[Jezz]

What driver are you using in linx?

[Ken Roach]

If you had it working once, you can make it work again.

The USB/RS232 adapter is what I'm focussing on. Most of them don't support DF1 Full Duplex autoconfiguration well.

If you can hook up to a real-life RS232 port, then DF1 Autoconfig through a null-model cable like the 1747-CP3 will work with a defaulted CPU.

[akreel]

Have you loaded anything that might be tying up your serial port before RSLinx can get to it? Usually you'd get an error message if this happened, but you can't count on it.

AK

[randylud]

Ken is right about the communicaiton protocol you are using.
Ken Said:

The USB/RS232 adapter is what I'm focussing on. Most of them don't support DF1 Full Duplex autoconfiguration well.

Boy is that ever true. The darn thing is pretty particular. Also, you did not say what op sys you are running on your PC but if it is WinXP you are screwed again. AB and MicroSoft would not get together on how to do a PIC module so that option is not available to you. I use SLC5/03's in my PLC class at school and have my students build a null modem cable, it sure beats paying AB for that darned cable they have. Just get a couple of DB9 pin female connectors and a three conductor cable. Connect pins 2 & 3 to pins 3 & 2 on the other end, reverse them in other words and then connect pin 5 to pin 5 on each end and you are good to go with a null modem cable, homebrew style. I figure you could put 3 maybe 4 bucks in that version and it works as good as the more expensive version preciously mentioned. Once you have the cable, set up Linx for the DF1 protocol and let it do auto comms config if you do not want to fool with it yourself. However, if it comes up less than the 19.2Kbaud that you need to run, then change the setting in the processor first, go offline and change linx and come back online and you will be ready to talk. If you are looking for much help from AB, forget it. No money in it for them! We will help you through it here!

[PLCease]

Yes... good ideas. I will try a real serial port.

Thank You again

[Ron Beaufort]

Greetings Bob,

just in case the “reasonable” things that have already been suggested don’t work, here are a couple of “off the wall” ideas that might be causing some problems ...

you said:

I have taken processor bat out and drained cap. Hoping to reset PLC.

if you did that correctly (question: how long did you discharge the capacitor? ... 60 seconds is recommended) then the processor SHOULD have gone back to its default settings ... if so, then following the suggestions of the previous posters should be able to get you back in communications again ... if those suggestions do NOT work, then here is something else to consider ... does your processor have a “memory module” EEPROM installed? ... if so, first remove it and then try the reset operation again ... basic idea: if you have an EEPROM installed and if it has a “non-default” setting for Channel 0, then the reset operation might actually trigger the EEPROM to reload the “non-default” setting ...

[attachment]

if you haven’t already found the “book” on your processor, then this might come in handy:

SLC-500 Modular Hardware User Manual

next question: what flavor and version of RSLinx are you using? ... if you tried to “toggle a bit” with RSView, then you must not be using RSLinx Lite ... if further steps are necessary, it would be a good idea to give us the full details of your system’s set up ...

and ... this one is so “simple” that I hate to even mention it ... but I HAVE seen it cause confusion for newcomers ... when you looked at RSWho to find your processor, were the little blue-and-yellow boxes on the driver icon “marching”? ... basic idea: if the icon boxes are NOT “marching” (animated) then the driver is not actively polling the network ... I’ve seen instances where newcomers have tried all sorts of things to get RSLinx to “see” their processor when all they really had to do was to mouse-click the driver to activate its automatic polling routine ...

good luck ... and please let us know how this turns out ...

[Lancie1]

PLCease,

I had a similar problem with a SLC5/03 last year. RSLinx Gateway would communicate fine with the PLC using RSLogix500 and a PKTX card in the computer, but then if I started RSView Works and established communications between RSView and RSLinx, and then tried to restart RSLogix500, it would not connect to the PLC. I never knew for certain what caused this problem. I thought possibly that RSView was somehow resetting the driver configuration comunications parameters of RSLinx. My work-around at the time was simply to exit RSView, re-boot the computer, and then restart RSLogix without RSView. It would always connect then.

Last week I was tryigng to establish communications from the RSLogix5 software to an Allen-Bradley PLC5. Using RSLinx, I had the PKTX driver configured for the default device address of D700, and the speed set at 57.3 kB. I tried and tried many times, but RSLinx simply would not "see" the PLC5. Finally my electrician came over and said they he needed to kill the control power. So I shut off the computer and waited for power to be restored. I re-started the computer, making no changes in anything. When it came on...behold, there was my PLC5 showing up on RSLinx!!

I guess the moral of these tales is: When all else fails, re-boot, often!

[PLCease]

In response to wonderful inputs from you all, I have done the following:

Switched from my Dell Inspiron laptop with a usb to serial port converter, to my regular PC with a regular serial port.

The SLC 5/03 is still not responding on regular PC with win 2000.
My next option is to find a 1747PIC adapter and use channle 1.
Maybe I have to face the reality that my SLC processor purchased from Ebay, has an intermittent broken communication port.

Does anyonre know where I can repair this PLC or where I can purchase a used working SLC 5/03 ?

Best regards

Bob Safian

[Ken Moore]

Does anyonre know where I can repair this PLC or where I can purchase a used working SLC 5/03 ?

While it's not the cheapest, I've had good relations with this site:
LINK
Everything comes with a one year warranty.
They offer repair services, but it's usually almost as cheap to buy a replacement, and there's no waiting.


Just do a search for a 1747-L531 or 532 depending on your memory requirements.

[Ken Moore]

Here's another link, but I've never used this one, so can't comment about thier service: Another Link

[harryting]

Well, before you take it to repair shop, why not post your location and one of us near you can take the PLC and try it out.

regards,

[Ron Beaufort]

Greetings Bob,

Harry has a good idea ... one of us would be glad to check it out for you for free ... you can mail the processor to me if you like and I could benchtest it and put it back in the mail the same day ... or you can send me a Private Message with your phone number ... I'll give you a call and try to talk you through the set up ... the big question on everybody's mind is: "if it was talking at one point, why did it change?" ... like you said, it could be an intermittent comm port problem ... but I'd be willing to bet my pocket change that it's not that serious ... let us know how we can help ...