Newbie help with Micrologix 1100

[louloizides]

I wasn't sure how to make the IP static without it. But either way, just by debugging it's becoming more obvious to me that I'll need the serial port on this from time to time. So I'm probably going to have to send this PLC back if the serial port is not working.

 

[Lemming]

Go back online to the plc to where the serial config was, channel 1 is the ip port. Turn off dhcp & bootp, and set whatever IP address you want statically..

 

[marcel8u]

On the RS232 link that should be set to COM1 on the jpeg it was COM2?

 

[louloizides]

Good catch, but the reason the com port was different in both shots is because I kept switching between COM1 and COM2 while trying to debug. I was lucky enough to have had an embedded PC with two built in COM ports that was running Win XP. I just got a USB to COM port adapter in the mail to try on my Win 7 laptop so that'll be a last ditch effort. I could also try another cable but the chances of this cable being bad are really unlikely as it was recently used.

I can make due without the COM port but if I ever have some kind of ethernet issue I'll need it. And I can't upgrade the OS without it. So I'll probably have to send this unit back. I'm not paying $300 for a used PLC that's likely damaged.

 

[Lemming]

$300 sounds expensive.... To make you sick, ive got one on my desk acting as a paper weight

 

[louloizides]

I don't know... $300-$400 seems to be the going price on EBay and they're a little more expensive on most used equipment sites. I didn't have a lot of time to shop around. I'm ok with the price as long as the thing works. If it has a busted serial port I'm going to send it back and leave the company a nasty complaint for not testing it.

 

[Helliana]

Try disabling you firewall in Windows 7 to make BootP work. I noticed that the windows firewall tends to block BootP requests.

Also, i'd be willing to bet the old program that was in the ML1100 has the comport set to be DH-485 so it could be used with an DH-485 HMI.

 

[louloizides]

I was eventually able to get in using BootP on another computer. Wasn't able to do it on Win7 but I'm guessing you're right about the firewall. So I just opened up ports 67 & 68 to be sure for future access. The ML1100 was set to DH-485 but once I was able to get in through ethernet I changed it to DF1.

 

[Helliana]

Sounds like you got it all figured out, that was what i was going to recommend do.

Best of luck on your project.

 

[louloizides]

So I think I finally got everything all figured out...

I received a $10 USB to COM port adapter in the mail today. I was able to connect to using DF1 with that without any issue at all. Surprised I had so many problems when trying to connect with actual COM ports before.

Of course, then I tried flashing the thing. And of course then the flashing stopped half way every time I tried. Thought I bricked the thing but it turns out that all I had to do was shut down RSLinx (funny they don't actually tell you to turn that off). I found that out by reading another post on the forum. So I finally now have an updated MicroLogix 1100 set up exactly how I need it. And I found another post on the forum that helped me with another issue for my project - found a great library for Embedded Linux that had no problem reading register values off of this.

Thanks to everyone who helped me try to figure this out. This forum has been invaluable as far as getting everything running.