Panelview 1200e

[arpus4KM]

I did see old threads, but nothing really came up as what I needed.

I'm trying to sort through compatibility here to get a panelview 1200e to show up in RSlinx.

Running Panelbuilder v5.15 in Windows XP, RSlinx 2.5

I have good serial communication to the end of my cable on pins 2 and 3. and i've tried putting a null modem on in case it was swapped around.

panelview settings are 9600, 8 bits, 1 stop, bcc.. standard settings.

Panelview is in configuration mode, and on the upload/download screen

the DF1 rs232 driver does not seem to be able to autoconnect, and the settings put in manually still show nothing.

99% sure i've got the right panelbuilder software, but i'm unsure if rslinx needs a different driver, or possibly a different configuration to get this to communicate right.

 

[alan_505]

Does it even use RSLinx?

 

[alan_505]

I thought there was a separate transfer utility that did the file transfer that did not use RSLinx, you had to make sure RSLinx was turned off to use it.

 

[arpus4KM]

I thought there was a separate transfer utility that did the file transfer that did not use RSLinx, you had to make sure RSLinx was turned off to use it.

I've got the 1400E transfer utitlity that is supposed to work with it.

There is an Invoke Rslinx button in it to bring up rslinx for DF1 driver setup. but they may be only for DH+ or other network comms

 

[arpus4KM]

I would think I should see something communicate back from the terminal while monitoring the serial data.

when monitoring data I only see transmits through the com port connected to it, never a receive. my assumption would be that rslinx is not interfering with it, but i've never transferred data to one of these before, and the older these things get, the harder the communications get.

in terminal settings, it has handshaking features, and I had set them to all possible settings. never once saw any received data back from the terminal. It is a refurbished unit they bought online, so maybe dead?? but i would vote more for a mismatch of software/hardware that I don't know about yet.

 

[arpus4KM]

Well,

turns out this panelview was a standard and not the 2711E. I didn't know which was the right nomenclature, and reading Series E led to it being assumed it was a 2711E, not a 2711 series E

2711-TC1 = Standard
2711E-TC1 = Enhanced

I got the software here,

requires TechConnect, but still available for those conversions.

ID: QA3424 | Access Levels: TechConnect
PanelBuilder 1200 Software for the PanelView 1200 Terminals

The only thing I don't know about being an issue or not is if using the USB-RS232 converter will work with the PB1200W or transfer utility. I know it sends comms out when I try it, but I haven't been connected since so unsure if it will communicate right without linx making that DF1 driver connection for the USB-RS232 like normal.

anyone have any insight on this?

 

[Aardwizz]

If I remember correctly, it's going to depend on the exact model of PV1200 you have. Some of the models had a PRINTER port (so labeled), and was not DF1 compatible; it was used solely to connect to a dot matrix printer for generating reports.

Others had both a Printer Port and a DF1 port. Most of the downloading was done as passthrough from DH+ through the PLC RIO port, again if I'm remembering correctly. It's been a long time since I touched one of those. My memory isn't as good as it used to be.

All that being said, my memory isn't as good as it used to be.

 

[Ken Roach]

Thank you, Ian, for those details. While my experience goes that far back, the details are a little hazy.

RA calls the original CRT character-graphics based PanelView terminal a PanelView "Classic".

There were a few upgrades and new production using the 12" hardware that were called a "PanelView 1200E" were PanelView Enhanced terminals, as well as the more popular PanelView 1400E (CRT) and PanelView 1000E (flatscreen).

The difference between the appearance of the DOS-like Classic and the Windows 3.1-like Enhanced graphics is unmistakable, though.

So you've got a PanelView 1200 Classic, which could use DOS-based PanelBuilder 1200 (2711-ND1) or Windows-based PanelBuilder 1200 for Windows (2711-ND1W). My recollection is that the Windows-based software only worked with v5 or later firmware.

So we take a deep breath and think about that 25-pin serial port on the PanelView. You've already figured out the keyswitch that puts it into "Transfer" mode.

I think Aardwizz is correct: you could use the onboard menus to set the serial port for Printer or Download. That's on page 2-7 of the User Manual.

Page 3-3 of the User Manual shows the pinout for the serial port, and only refers to an "upload/download cable".

Since it shows Pin 2 is RX and Pin 3 is TX, that means this is a "DCE" type port, so you need a "straight through" serial cable from a PC.

There was a purpose-built 2711-NC1 cable, but my recollection is that I used a 1784-CP10 (which was meant for PLC-5 serial ports), plus a null-modem converter.

I do not think that the PanelBuilder 1200 Transfer Utility ever used RSLinx at all. I never used a USB/serial converter, but you may need one that enumerates as COM1 - COM4; many software products from that era could only use the first four COM port numbers.

 

[arpus4KM]

Thank you, Ian, for those details. While my experience goes that far back, the details are a little hazy.

RA calls the original CRT character-graphics based PanelView terminal a PanelView "Classic".

There were a few upgrades and new production using the 12" hardware that were called a "PanelView 1200E" were PanelView Enhanced terminals, as well as the more popular PanelView 1400E (CRT) and PanelView 1000E (flatscreen).

The difference between the appearance of the DOS-like Classic and the Windows 3.1-like Enhanced graphics is unmistakable, though.

So you've got a PanelView 1200 Classic, which could use DOS-based PanelBuilder 1200 (2711-ND1) or Windows-based PanelBuilder 1200 for Windows (2711-ND1W). My recollection is that the Windows-based software only worked with v5 or later firmware.

So we take a deep breath and think about that 25-pin serial port on the PanelView. You've already figured out the keyswitch that puts it into "Transfer" mode.

I think Aardwizz is correct: you could use the onboard menus to set the serial port for Printer or Download. That's on page 2-7 of the User Manual.

Page 3-3 of the User Manual shows the pinout for the serial port, and only refers to an "upload/download cable".

Since it shows Pin 2 is RX and Pin 3 is TX, that means this is a "DCE" type port, so you need a "straight through" serial cable from a PC.

There was a purpose-built 2711-NC1 cable, but my recollection is that I used a 1784-CP10 (which was meant for PLC-5 serial ports), plus a null-modem converter.

I do not think that the PanelBuilder 1200 Transfer Utility ever used RSLinx at all. I never used a USB/serial converter, but you may need one that enumerates as COM1 - COM4; many software products from that era could only use the first four COM port numbers.

I appreciate the reply.

I do in fact have the 2711-nd1W installed on an XP (and even set up a win98 VM just in case).

the printer and upload/download data lists were set to defaults on this, which should work fine according to the manuals.

The cable I was using was a 1747-cp3 (tried with and without null modem adapter), which I use for most of my serial comms for other panelviews, so my guess here would be that the pinout just won't work. I did find that the 2711-NC1 and 1784-CP10 are supposed to be interchangeable per this doc https://rockwellautomation.custhelp.com/app/answers/answer_view/a_id/823750/loc/en_US#__highlight , so i'll end up making a "cable" out of two breakoutboard DB9/DB25 adapters.


and I did find that RSlinx is only used for "Network" communications with the 1400e panelbuilder application, which can be used to convert the 1200, but not to download to them. so that at least solves that.


Thankfully I was able to test that the 9300-usbs and the Keyspan tripplite USA-19HS both work on either com 1 or com 2 (checking com port using PuTTy), so that shouldn't be an issue. (when monitoring the ports and using the applications to start transfers, data transmits)



Hopefully when I get a chance to go back out there, the Cable remains the only thing I had not "perfect" to get it to communicate... Having all of these notes and knowing the right combinations will make things much easier as we've been running into quite a few PLC2 and PLC5 applications that still need converting. Thanks again for the Insight, having this permanently plastered on a public forum should help other people down the line as well.