AB Dataliner DL50 Dilemma- Firmware?

[PlasticsMan]

I have 2 Dataliner DL50 displays (2706-F11J) that are driven from an AB 5/03 PLC. Its old school but works very well for being in service for ~15 years. I purchased a used DL50 to add to the system and unfortunately it has some bugs. I set it up just like the other two and connected it to the RS-485 cable, but the new display behaves differently; there's an odd character preceding the message and the message scrolls one pass then remains. Bear in mind the other two displays work flawlessly and do not do this.
The only difference I see is the firmware. My existing ones have 2.01 and the newly added one is 1.01
Would the older firmware cause this bug? Anyone have the firmware I need? (hoping someone has an old dust covered floppy)
On a side note, the power filter is hissing.... Hmm... Noise?

 

[Doug-P]

Can't help with the version issue but, do these have the old blue fluorescent characters? If so I'd say the hissing is normal. Had one that was rather noisy, although one couldn't normally hear it above all the conveyor racket, and it was just the power supply. Ran for years that way.

 

[OkiePC]

It is likely that your older firmware is different or that the old unit is defective. Try PLCCenter for a repair and check out Vorne Industries for a modern and more easily supportable upgrade.

I have used the Vorne units as a drop in replacement for the DL40 with both parallel and serial (ASCII) connections, but have not tried to put one on DH485, and I am not sure how much work is involved in upgrading your application since I have not worked with the DL50.

The Vorne products are time tested and very versatile though.

I am not sure if the DL50 firmware is field upgrade-able.

 

[Ken Roach]

The DL-50 is a pure ASCII slave, so there's not much other than the DIP switches that could be different.

If you have three of them set up on the same RS-485 line, they will all need unique Slave addresses.

And you want them to all be set for Simplex or all set for Duplex. If one of them is set for Duplex, it might be sending back the handshaking and checksum data which will be heard by the "new" DL50 and displayed as an unrecognizable character.

All these settings are displayed at power-up; a very old DL-50 might have aged or corroded DIP switches that it doesn't interpret correctly.

I remember a slight hissing from the big LED driver boards on these old terminals. We considered it normal.

The message "scrolling one pass then remaining" sounds like there's something wrong with Field 3 of the command packet, which determines the hold vs. wipe vs. scroll behavior of the message.

I don't see anything in the user manual suggesting a v1 versus v2 protocol difference, but it's possible.

Check the DIP switches very carefully to be sure the only differences are the Slave Address, then go back to the SLC-500 program to see how the ASCII strings including the new display's Slave Address might be different.

 

[PlasticsMan]

Thanks everyone for the replies.

Doug; this is a large 40" unit with red LED's.

OkiePC; I will definitely contact Vorne to see what they have to offer.

Ken; You touched on some valid points. You're right, these displays are "Dumb" and and simply display an ASCII string. I exercised the DIP switches a couple times and returned them to the correct setting.
According to the manual:

A display with a slave address of 127 (Simplex Protocol) will accept all messages regardless of the message address.

When multiple DL50 displays are placed on one RS-485 link, more than one
DL50 can have the same address when using Simplex Protocol. DL50’s with
the same address respond to all commands addressed to them.

Address is set to 127 (Simplex) and I completely swapped this one with another to see if there's an address conflict. On Monday I will try a unique address.

The firmware is field-upgradeable with a firmware kit Catalog No. 2706-NR4. Just having a hard time locating it.

 

[PlasticsMan]

I am still looking for firmware, hoping someone has a dusty old copy in a drawer somewhere.