1784-PCMK under DOS 6.22

[RRepsher]

Our company recently purchased 5 new Dell Latitude D600 laptops for our electrical engineers. We have some machinery in the field that requires PLC-500, PLC5, etc.. support. With the last generation laptops, we dual booted them with Win9x and Win2k, using the Win9x boot for the old DOS platform programs. The new laptops have no support for Win9x... drivers for USB, CardBus, etc. are just not available. I opted to go with dual boot... DOS 6.22 and Win2k.

All was well... serial port worked, communication is fine, and then they tell me the PCMK card has to work....(mild episode of hair pulling and utterances of four letter words.)

I have downloaded the CardWare DOS package and the pcmk utilities from AB. I have tried many different configurations of autoexec.bat and config.sys. I can see the CardBus (Siemens O2Micro 0Z711EC1) and the fact that there is a card in the slot, but I cannot "configure" the PCMK card so we can communicate with it.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

[Allen Nelson]

Memory lane

Unfortuanately, my PCMK Autoexec and Config for A.I. / DOS were 5 laptops and 3 companies ago, so I don't have access to that inforomation. I vaguely remember a PCMKInit.exe program, but I can't find any record of it.


A quick look through the Rockwell Knowledge Base found the following:

G15641 - Known, Present PCMK Series B issues.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
PROBLEM: AI series using cardware v5.0

SOLUTION: It is known that the AI series software when run in dos with the
cardware version 5.0, will not work with the online configuration of pcmk.
It does not make the socket calls. You must configure as a 1784-KT/KT2 DH+.
You must then copy the pcmk utility files a:\pcmkdiag\pcmk*.bin to the
appropriate AI-Series directory as KT*.bin

example: copy a:\pcmkdiag\pcmkst0.bin c:\plc5\ktst0.bin
copy a:\pcmkdiag\pcmkst1.bin c:\plc5\ktst1.bin
and so on with the rest of them.


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

And

G11091 - 1784-PCMK Series A - 6200 SOFTWARE CONSIDERATIONS

Addressing can be explained as follows: All 6200 software packages address the pcmk as if it is a KT card. These KT card's addresses were set by dip switches to be specific addresses on 16K boundry regions whereas the pcmk's are software configurable. These boundries, in hex, can be seen in the charts in both the pcmk and 6200 manuals. (ex. ..., CC00, D000, D400, D800, ...)
The pcmk however only has the 4K dual port memory window, which can be found by the 6200 as follows:
*** You must tell the 6200 you are using a valid KT base address, but actually set the pcmk card up at the last 4K of this 16K region. 16K - 4K= the 12K offset that the user must use in the pcmk addressing. 12K in hexidecimal is equal to 0x300. So as an example, if you want to set the pcmk at 110011 (CC00) in the 6200 software, you would set the actual pcmk address ( this is done via the cardware software or the pcmkinit.com enabler) to be CF00.

CC00 + 0x300 = CF00
D000 + 0x300 = D300
D400 + 0x300 = D700

>>> Bottom line, the pcmk's actual address must be 300 hex higher than the address 6200 thinks it's at.

HTH

 

[JesperMP]

Yes. pcmkinit.com is much easier to get working than cardware.
Only drawback is that it exclusively holds the PCMCIA ports for a PCMK card. You cannot use other PCMCIA cards when pcmkinit.com is loaded.

 

[dab]

Which Rockwell DOS programs are you trying to use ? The AI packages work under windows 98 - XP just fine (Sceen resolution can be tricky). In windows ME, 2K, and XP all your problems go away since RSLINKS will solve all your driver issues.

 

[RRepsher]

First off, we can't run Win9x. There are no drivers available for the Dell Latitude D600. We opted to run dual boot DOS 6.22 and Win2k.

We are running PLC-5 and PLC-500. Going through the serial port is fine, but when we need to use the card....

 

[Allen Nelson]

... but when we need to use the card...

... then you don't need to use the serial port. Since you can run these programs well under Win2K (which WILL see the card), just reboot and run the programs in a DOS shell.

 

[RRepsher]

I have not been able to get PLC-500 to run in a DOS shell under Win2k. I tried two ways and both failed with the same "error".

1) "cmd" at the Start\Run menu, navigate to the C:\SLC500 directory, type AB500 at the prompt.

2) Create a shortcut to C:\SLC500|AB500.EXE

Both of these methods fail and leave some text on the screen (a little garbled) saying something about:
Not INT 24h, or didn't originate in real mode!
Fatal error TNT.11020 in application 'C:\SLC500\AB500.EXE' has caused ..... garble (the text gets mixed with the SLC500 text)

What am I missing here?

Thanks again

 

[rsdoran]

You may need to right click on the AB500.exe file and goto properties then set the parameters, memory, video etc, for it to work in the dos window.

Not sure it will help but wont hurt to check. May want to goto the AB support knowledgebase and do a search on pcmk. I noticed that there are several model laptops, Dell included, where the bios will not work with cardware.

May be time to consider upgrading the software.

 

[RRepsher]

We actually have all of the RSLogix (5, 500, 5000) software for the Win2k boot. Our electrical engineers tell me that they absolutely must have the old software in addition to the new. We have machinery out in the field that was written with PLC5 and PLC500.

It was my understanding that the RSLogix family worked fine with all of the processors we have in the field, which would eliminate the need for the DOS boot altogether, but they are telling me different.

I am just an IT person. A pawn in the evil game.

If someone can tell me different.....

 

[rsdoran]

If you have the latest versions then you should be able to get them all to work in XP or 2k without the need for dos at all.

I think I have used RSLogix 500 to access processors with programs created by A.I. I know it can read .ACH, .SLC and .RSS files. I know I have converted .ach files to .rss with no problems.

Maybe Ken or Ron will offer more on this or give AB tech support a call, I think its possible you could get away from using the old stuff entirely.

I think your field guys may be wrong on this or just so use to using the old stuff they are scared of a change.

 

[JesperMP]

I know about getting APS and 6200 running with various OS's. Dont know about AI software. In later versions of 6200, it could use RSLinx under NT-2000-XP to connect to the PLC. I think that late versions of AI could also use RSLinx.

For the PLC5, in RSLogix5 you can easily open an old AI5 software program with the .X5 extension. All comment will be imported correctly. Try it !
(there is a small problem with the analog card setups being "lost", but it can be retrieved if it happens. I will help you with this if it happens).

I dont know if RSLogix500 can import AI500 programs, but I would think so.

 

[PhilipW]

Confirm rsdoran's post. There is NO need for your electrical guys to be using the old DOS software. ALL old processors and programs are supported in the RSLogix 5/500/5000 packages.

Plus the old DOS drivers are a real problem to get them runnning correctly on modern PC's. You will forever be running into bios, irq, memory allocation, tsr's and similar issues.

Your electrical guys simply need to make the change.

 

[RRepsher]

Thank You All

I am sure that my coworkers will be happy to hear that a "jury of their peers" said that it is time for them to move on. I know that I am.



Rick

 

[corkers]

Just a thought...

The older DOS software is MUCH quicker to go online with than RSlogix.

Other than this there is no reason not to use RSLogix exclusively.

 

[daba]

Other than this there is no reason not to use RSLogix exclusively.

- corkers

How about PLC 5/250 (Pyramid Integrator) - I need to download a 6200 to a PI, and then I can upload into AI and I'll be sorted.

I know about getting APS and 6200 running with various OS's. Dont know about AI software. In later versions of 6200, it could use RSLinx under NT-2000-XP to connect to the PLC.

- JesperMP

That's one avenue I've tried - although I get "DTL_KT Driver Not Loaded" error. How do I get this driver loaded?
If I try to use the native PCMK driver - I get "Error Attempting to change communications state". I think I've tried all combinations of card adress, Who online config, 5/250 online config etc. etc. without success.

I noticed that there are several model laptops, Dell included, where the bios will not work with cardware.

I have a Dell Latitude D600, but am not using cardware - as Win XP allows the card to be located at the "right" physical address, (eg. D4000).

Yes. pcmkinit.com is much easier to get working than cardware

- JesperMP

Presumably PCMKINIT must be setup to run in the Custom "Autoexec" or "Config" file specified in the DOS PIF file, or am I barking/wrong tree.

I would be appreciative of any help to get this working .....