Pablo_660 said:
Unfortunatly I can't upgrade firmeware over 20.018. I don't have Studio 5000 at my disposal...
Pablo,
While that confirms my thinking that a firmware upgrade to above r20.xx is not as simple for some as it may appear, I think my last post may be somewhat confusing or misleading.
Some clarity, I hope?...
I had read down through this thread, which is related to a 1998 RTC issue, and then went to read the older thread that Jeremy had linked to. That thread, in which I had contributed to, relates to a 1997 RTC issue. When I came back to this thread my thinking was now thrown off because I now thought I was replying here to a 1997 RTC issue, when in fact it was a 1998 RTC issue that you have.
All of my thoughts on it being the firmware are more relevant in the other thread where users were presenting with an RTC in a CompactLogix controller that was resetting to 12/31/1997 7:00:00PM. I do not necessarily think your 1998 RTC reset issue is also firmware related.
So the first part of my post was related to the 1997 issue in the other thread and the rest, after my "EDIT", was pointed back at your specific 1998 issue in an attempt to correct my earlier and perhaps incorrect thinking.
Now that I see you were considering a firmware upgrade I realize that my, and perhaps Jeremy's advice (I'm blaming Jeremy for all of this!) to flash the firmware is misleading you into thinking this is a firmware related issue. So as not to mislead you, I am now telling you to pretty much ignore at least my advice to flash the firmware. I do not see any grounds for blaming firmware here. At least not yet.
So back to your specific issue and forgetting about firmware for the moment...
As I mentioned, in KuulKuum's linked technote, you can deduce what the likely cause of your 1998 RTC reset issue is most likely related to.
From your screenshot above, and assuming there is an SD Card in the controller, and you were Online when you took that screenshot, you appear to have no image stored to the SD Card. If so, then you cannot be using "Restore On Powerup" from the SD Card. So the "Powerup without Restore" section is where you need to look at in the technote...
Power-up without Restore (NO CF Card, OR set to User-Initiated)
RAM Status.....RTC Status......Load RAM From:......Set WCT from:.....Set TZ/DST from:
....
Good..............
Bad.............Internal Flash........
Reset to 1998...... NVRAM (ignore CF Card)
When you power-up, and you are not looking to the SD Card to load an image into RAM, the RAM is checked and if its Status is
Good then the program is loaded from Internal Flash memory. Your program is being retained so we know the RAM is
Good on power-up.
The controller's WallClockTime (WCT) is not retained at power-down. So when you power-up it has to be set from somewhere. It is defaulted otherwise. This can be done from the SD Card or from the Real Time Clock (RTC).
If we know you are not using the SD Card, then we know that the WCT is relying on the RTC to get its initial time and date at power-up. At power-up, before the WCT is set, the RTC Status is also checked. If its Status is
Good then the RTC is used to set the WCT and the time and date should be current. If the RTC status is
Bad then the WCT is "
Reset to 1998".
Therefore...
If, during a power cycle, you are retaining your program, then we can say that the RAM Status is
Good.
If, during a power cycle, the WCT is being "
Reset to 1998", then we can say that the RTC Status is
Bad.
The most likely reason for the RTC to be
Bad is as Ken pointed out...
Either the ESM (capacitor) or RTC hardware itself is defective.
We probably cannot completely rule out a firmware issue here, but my/our best guess for a 1998 RTC reset issue (and not a 1997 RTC reset issue) is hardware failure.
Now I hope...
Advice Status =
Good
Just some information to add...
The ESM for the new 5370 CompactLogix controllers can backup the RTC for up to 40 days, or typically 1 month. Again, when this stored energy is depleted the WCT is reset to Jan 1 1998 on power-up. The ESM's expected lifetime is 10+ years and the program stored in internal flash can also last this long.
Regards,
George
