Received via PM

[Steve Bailey]

I get this PM today. I prefer to answer in the forum in case others have similar questions.

Steve,


Good morning! You seem to be the resident expert on GE PLCs here. I have a quick question that seems to come up occasionally on here and other forums.


I'm quoting a job to upgrade a Series 90-30 system to an Rx3i one. The 90-30 has 1 CPU in the "main" rack and 4 expansion racks. There's a seemingly random mix of digital/analog and input/output modules across the the racks. There are 14 total Horner Electric temperature input modules (TC and RTD). Can these modules be reused in an Rx3i system? I'm getting some mixed answers (some from Emerson vendors). At about $2K/each, purchasing 14 new Emerson temperature modules is no small cost!


The 90-30 installation is poorly documented and is on the other side of the world. Even better, no one there will touch the system out of fear of breaking something. As such, I don't know for sure what Horner modules are installed, but I believe the TC modules are HE693THM166 and the RTD modules are HE693RTD660.


Any insight you could provide would be appreciated! Thanks for your time.


Regards,
Kyle Bakis

The Horner modules should work fine. They will be "Third Party" modules in the hardware configuration. Your best bet for the conversion is to get a copy of the project file for the existing system and copy the address and parameter settings from that.

 

[kylbak]

Steve,


Thanks for the quick reply!


Yes, I have a copy of the project and hardware configuration. You're correct, they show as "3rd party" in the hardware config.


We're relatively new to GE/Emerson PLCs. The 3rd party Horner modules are not in the main rack with the 90-30 CPU. I've been told that's a problem as well for compatibility...something about communication issues across the new backplane between the Rx3i CPU and the old Horner modules in an expansion rack.



Needless to say, I've become skeptical with all the conflicting info!


Converting the VersaPro project to PAC Machine Edition was easy enough and it shows no errors on the 3rd party temp measuring modules, not sure if that means we're a "go" or not.



I am getting "fatal overlap" on the addressing of a few of the DI modules that I can't seem to get straight. The starting addresses and lengths seem correct (and match the values seen if I open the project in VersaPro). I'll have to work on that some more.



Kyle

 

[Steve Bailey]

Searching Horner's website for the HE693THMxxx part numbers comes up empty, so I'm guessing they no longer have any ties to the Emerson product line. Unfortunately, the GE/Emerson GFK-2314 manual suggests contacting Horner to verify compatibility.

Since direct replacement with HE693THMxxx modules will depend on availability from third party sources, if I were you I would include the cost of replacing the Horner modules with Rx3i modules in your quote just to cover yourself. Especially if you have no way to test before showing up at the customer's site for commissioning. .