Faillure to comunicate

[kapooski2012]

Hello out there,
Just got the my (used) Micrologix 1000 1761-L32AWA with the serial cable today, whoohoo!
Wired L1 and L2 it and the “LED’s” for power and run are green and the force and all output lights are yellow, as that good? Remember I’m learning… It came with the communication cable and this cable is female RS-232 which I find weird shouldn’t it be male so it can connect with the laptop because the laptop also has a female port. But first I decided to plug the cable into the desktop…arg! No serial port! Do you believe that! I guess I need to remove the existing program when I figure how to do that , but first I need to communicate with the thing just to see if I did not buy dud!
Can someone please help me, and tell me that everything will be fine!

 

[Lancie1]

You are going to need a USB-to-RS232 Serial Port Adapter. Contact user "Geniusintraining" on this site.

http://www.ind-concepts.com/

 

[Mickey]

The cable you need is the 1761-CBL-PM02 see pdf below. The 9 Pin side is female, the 8 Pin side is male.

This is in addition to what Lancie1 said.

 

[Ron Beaufort]

everything will be fine ... (eventually) ...

because the laptop also has a female port.

check carefully ... if there are 15 pins (instead of 9) then chances are you're looking at the video output connection (where something like an extra monitor would plug in) ... it would be very rare for a computer's serial port to be a female connection ...

 

[kapooski2012]

Would a gender changer work?

 

[Ken Roach]

Look carefully at that "female" port on your laptop; does it have a blue face and 15 pins ? It's probably a VGA port, not an RS-232 serial port.

I'll second the service and prices of Ind-Concepts.com. You can get their Industrial USB/RS232 converter or buy a Keyspan USA-19HS through them.

There are a lot of very inexpensive USB/RS232 converters on the market, but in my experience many of the $15-$20 units don't work with industrial stuff like PLCs. The extra $10 or $20 you'll spend on a proper converter is definitely worth it.

 

[kapooski2012]

Boy you are right, its got more 9 pins...arg!

 

[Lancie1]

Would a gender changer work?

No! If you have no serial port, then you have no valid communications method from your laptop with your existing equipment. I assume that you DO have a USB port on your laptop. You should use a USB port and an adapter and the proper cable to connect from the USB adapter to the PLC.

The alternative: Buy an old laptop or one of the few that still does have a real RS232 serial port. That option would cause you more time and money than the simple USB adapter.

 

[kapooski2012]

Thanks Lancie, I got USB ports to spare...now to get a good one that will no fail me..
BTW what about those lights I mentioned in the begining of this post

 

[Ken Roach]

It's interesting that ALL of the output lights are yellow... this suggests that somebody programmed or forced them all on to test them.

I've never seen a failure mode that resulted in all the output lights being on, so the odds are very good that the controller is functional.

You'll find out once you get a USB/RS232 converter, configure a DF1 Full Duplex driver, then upload the program from the controller.

 

[Lancie1]

Wired L1 and L2 it and the “LED’s” for power and run are green and the force and all output lights are yellow,

Do you have any wires connected except at the MircoLogix terminals L1, L2, and Ground? Do you have anything connected to the Output terminals VAC1, VAC2, and VAC3? If not, then as Ken said, there could be a program running.

 

[kapooski2012]

Do you have any wires connected except at the MircoLogix terminals L1, L2, and Ground? Do you have anything connected to the Output terminals VAC1, VAC2, and VAC3? If not, then as Ken said, there could be a program running.

All wires are at the right spot even using color code L1,L2,ground, and there was no other wires to it.

UPDATE:The PLC works, there was a program that was running (as suspected by some fine members of this forum)and I saved it for anybody that wants to see it. I was able to borrow an adapter that somebody actually had from work,they use it to program the VFD! It's the Keyspan that works fine.Another thing, the cable that came with the PLC the tag is still on it it was from PLCTrainer.net....
The adapter that borrowed has to be returned, but I want to know which other ones work! There are some that start at $10 and then go up in price.I guess I can start another post to find out which ones works and it is within my training budget....

 

[Mickey]

Your are not going to find them for less money and guaranteed to work then at the links below.

http://www.ind-concepts.com/Allen_Bradley_PLC_Cables.htm

http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showpost.php?p=501871&postcount=2

http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showpost.php?p=501875&postcount=6

I use an "Aten" see link, it works with everything I have tried it with. It's about the same price as the others though.

http://www.aten.com/products/produc...1&psid=20050117102915002&pid=2005022316346005