Modicon 884 -Please help

[Ramil]

Customer has Modicon 884 CPU with below configuratoin:
1. P800-03 Power supply
2. P884A-200 CPU
3. B825-016 16 point 24 Vdc input module (8 nos.)
4. B824-016 16 point output (8 nos.)
5. H819-003 primary frame
6. H819-000 secondary frame.

Problem:
The RUN led is not glowing
Battery OK - Green color is lit.

I belive that when battery ok led green is steady it means battery has gone.

Also RUN led is not lit. which means the program might have erased because of failed battery.

I am seeing this PLC for my first time today only.

Our customer has P190 with him. He also showed me 4 nos. of cassette tape. one was written as configuration software for 884 branded Gould and other also Gould tape. The third cassette i belive is the backup program. I really donot know what the fourth caseette is as nothing was written on it.

He had called me to put his PLC to run mode. I am a small sized integrator - i work on my own. I had previous experience only with AB PLC. But now i donot want to loose this customer and his money.

If you can help me to find the manuals for this or tech. support for this product would be of very much help.

Customer showed me (hardcopy)printout of ladder logic program. I also belive that one of the casette might have backup program.

My question is how can i transfer program from Casette to 884 and what hardwares/cables are requied. Customer showed me P190 but his PLC guy has left the company long time before and hence they donot have any idea of which casette to run or which cable to use.

also where to find manuals for P190.

Many thanks for all your support.

 

[Jim Dungar]

Modicon

I have not been able to find any on-line literature for the old 884 PLC and/or P190 programming panel. Usually most Modicon literature is available at http://www.modicon.com.

The P190 was used for several devices, so it had different configuration tapes and key overlays (soft keys).

To talk to an 884 you need the W806 cable, the configurator tape (AS-T884-001), and the user program tape.

 

[yjohn43]

Modicon 884

Send me a note if you don't find trhe info. I have some old books I can "loan" you!

john

[email protected]

 

[ramil]

Modicon

Thanks Jim Dungar & John for your message.

I downloaded the below manuals from Modicon.
1. P190 Programmer user manual
2. 884 maintenance manual
3. 884 prog controller programming guide
4. 884 System planning and installation manual
5. PC tape loader

and read most of them.

Below is what we have:
P190 - > part no.: AS-P190-222

Cable -> part no.: W807-025

connected the cable to Port 1 of P190 and the other end to 884 modbus port.

Switched on the P190. It asked me to insert the P190 tape.
Inserted AS-T884-001 (884A programmer & configuration tape). it took some time about couple of seconds. i think it was trying to load. But after a while it came up with an error message "Checksum failure". I searched all my manuals for the description of this error and so i can troubleshoot that. But no where i could find an info about this error.

Some times i also got this error: "End of tape-fault"

I have also three more tapes. One tape i belive is the user program backup.
the other one i belive is empty.

the fourth tape is : AS-T884-003 seriec C --> 884A tape loader tape

what should i do when i get the above fault. Is that fault removable.

Customer has not used P190 since more than 15 years.

If P190 cannot be used then which programming software + cable should i have to request our customer to buy. He is ready to buy the software + cable to make his machine run.

Thanks for all your help

many thanks

 

[Jim Dungar]

Checksum error propably means the P190 was not able to read the tape. Try the AS-T884-003 tape (the -003 should be the 3rd release of the tape).

For DOS based software, you can try FasTrak at: http://www.fast-soft.com/

 

[jrwb4gbm]

Magnetic tape can lose strength over the years. Try cleaning the tape heads. I'm not sure but maybe you can use a cassette player-recorder to re-record the original to get more magnetic strength in it.It would be good to have a backup tape of everything anyway. I hope this helps.

 

[ramil]

modicon

Thanks again Jim Dungar & jrwb4gbm

Jim - i belive from my reading the other tape -> tape loader is used for misc. functions like creating backup of user program from 884 to a new tape etc.

I have mailed to joe at fast-track for a quote of their modbus workshop software.

thanks jrwb4gbm -> i will try cleaning or re-recording. I realy donot remember whether these tape are of same size as our normal tape. any way i will check that.
Sorry -> i donot have the tape in front with me now. anyway will check.


Many thanks again

 

[yjohn43]

884

"If P190 cannot be used then which programming software + cable should i have to request our customer to buy. He is ready to buy the software + cable to make his machine run."

You may find it cheaper to upgrade the plc, you have no guarantee that the plc will go in the run mode. Your customer may be able to cover some of his cost by selling the P190.

Unfortunately the 884 was noted to shutdown from time to time, they found that certain power supplies would cause this. Modicon had a P190 emulator DOS software, that worked OK. You may want to contact the Modicon distruibtor he may be able to help.

 

[ramil]

modicon

Thanks John,
You are right about the modicon power supply problem.

Customer used to get Overload fault (power supply) whenever their cabinet A/C fail.

Then they used to reset the power supply by pulling it out and then pushing it back.

The manual says that whenever you get overload fault - you need to replace the 8A,250Vac fuse. but every time they get this fault the fuse is O.K. In as many as fifteen years they got this fault lots of time but never ever the fuse failed. fuse is healthy as ever.

As said we are also not sure about the CPU health and as such an upgrade looks as a good option.
I would speak to our customer about an upgrade and if he agrees for that then i would probably use an SLC 500(which i was i am familiar)

Many thanks