Old Gould PLC

[Marko66]

I have a odd situation that I hope you can point me in the proper
direction to
solve.

I have been doing some work on a boat that uses a Gould 4200 PLC to
control the
propulsion systems. (exciter fields on a generator).

The Motherboard (and the backup) are not responding, and feared dead.
Ideally, I
would like to replace this with a newer model, and keep the old IO and
analog
boards in place. (Is this wise?)

The Gould Programmer is dead.

I found a dead laptop, and revived it enough to get a whole slew of
Modsoft and
484 files.

I am familiar with plc's that are much newer, such as Keyence, and
Koyo.

My questions are...

Where can I find info on the Modsoft software, so I may learn enough to
get the
"program" into a usable form?

Is there a processor that I could use with the existing IO?

Could I install a off the shelf -say Koyo PLC with all new IO and
somehow
translate the 'program", or If I had a printout, could I realistically
re-write
the "program" in Direct-soft?

Please let me know if you have any interest, or if you want more info.


-Best,

Mark-O

 

[darrenj]

Modsoft is a fairly easy to learn program. It is fairly well laid out and uses the function keys for most functions, pressing one will bring up another selection..If you have some files i would save Modsoft to the root directory (C:\) I dont know why but i havnt had much luck trying to save it else where..The explore the modsoft directory and you should find a programms file..Put all the files you have in that directory..Then open modsoft..go to offline and select program..If the files you have are valid then they should pop up..select one and then hit enter..this should load the program and take you to the segment screen..just hit enter there and you should now be able to see the program..Note that to scroll in modsoft you use the page up and page down keys..if you use the arrow keys when you get to the bottom of the screen you will jump to a different screen (A monitoring screen if you like) rather than the next page in the programm

I dont know how Koyo adresses but here is how Modicon/gould does it..

0xxxx An ouput or internal bit
1xxxx an digital input
3xxxx analog input
4xxxx analog output/counter/timer/math

The program is usulay saved in multiple parts..I think it seven all together such as xxx.CFG

when you say 484 files do you mean four hundred and eighty four files or files for a 484PLC??

If its for a 484PLC post the files here and i will try to open them..If i remeber i can export to a TXT file

D

 

[Jim Dungar]

The Gould 4200 is not part of the Modicon 984 PLC family.

I belive it is a dedicated board level "motion controller" instead. While it used components of the 484 PLC family it was not a PLC based system.