SLC 5/05 Upgrade

[andy_1983]

Rockwell stuff is silly money now.

Schneider do the M340 / M580 and have adaptors for the SLCs I/O plugs to go onto their cards - saves rewiring. Neater than the compatlogix conversion chassis too. They do a code conversion tool, or just rewrite into whatever language you like in Control Expert.

Andy

 

[durallymax]

My biggest complaint about Productivity Series is that array indices and bit numbers start with 1 instead of 0. That caused me a handful of errors tying bit of word numbers to Ignition alarm tags. I have no idea why they did that. I had a list of other complaints, mostly minor.

The P2K hardware isn't super reliable either in my limited experience. I only have 4 of them in the field and all of them have suffered more than a handful of I/O card failures. I have decided that the Click or Click Plus is hardier hardware. I probably have 100 Clicks in the field and only the worst lightning storms have taken any of them out.

I doubt I'd replace a fully populated 10 slot SLC with a Click though. I have replaced one SLC rack with the newer 5069 platform and really liked it. You might be able to buy better and get it faster, but you can't pay more.

If PSuite would switch (or provide an option) to zero based bit and array addressing, I might give them another chance. I could add I/O protection and still be less expensive than anything A/B.

I'd add that AD support has really gone downhill recently IME. With the Productivity series, they act as a buffer between customer and engineer which drastically slows down complex tech issue resolutions. At no point will they remove the middleman and connect you directly. This in contrast to something like the BRX/Do-more where you can talk directly to the folks at Host and get a more in-depth answer than you bargained for.

Also have had an uneasy number of runtime transfer issues with the Productivity series this year to the point I won't update one unless down. In the past, never had issues doing transfers on a running system. Now various restarts plague them.

These issues along with the increased dev time due to not having good code re-use options pushed me away from them as being our standard.

 

[joseph_e2]

...

These issues along with the increased dev time due to not having good code re-use options pushed me away from them as being our standard.

What do you use as your standard? The BRX/Do-More?

 

[durallymax]

What do you use as your standard? The BRX/Do-More?

Codesys, Wago hardware primarily.

 

[busarider29]

Now is the opportunity to go PC control. Beckhoff with TwinCAT 3. Trust me, you won't ever look back.

 

[CageFreeBMW]

The L8's have been covered pretty well so far. The only thing I'll add that I dislike about them is that there is not longer a replaceable batter/capacitor like previous generations for storing the program if you loose power. The L6's had a replaceable battery. The L7's (most or all?) had a replaceable capacitor unit. The L8's have neither.

When I contacted Rockwell and asked about it, the response was that the built in "capacitor energy storage module" should last an estimated 10 years. After that, if it goes out, the whole card needs to be replaced. I believe they said it could be sent in to be rebuilt, but no info on pricing.

One last thing to note. Once you have converted a .acd file from an L6 or L7 to an L8, you cannot revert the program back to the prior cards. It has to do with the built in ethernet port and how changes some of the coding. Not really an issue, because why would you want to revert back?

All that said, I still really like the L8's and think, even with that downfall, they are still worth using. I haven't seen any issues at all with them. Having the built in ethernet and USB ports is a huge plus.

 

[504bloke]

I would myself stick a Siemens S7-1500 in ET200SP with IM 255's perhaps and either a comfort panel or the newer Unified panels ( I did hate them but now like them )



Siemens or a Distributor can do the software conversion from AB stuff - that includes the panelview - its not great BUT it does convert the code and then it will need tidying up and names and IO adding, the PV conversion is a bit more of a job after the conversion but again its easier that a complete rewrite with commissioing and fault finding if you do it from scratch.......

 

[padees]

You can learn to love anything, if that is what you have and it pays the bills. People learn what it takes and where they are to cover their existence.

Heck, I might even have to do a Micro800, but I feel like this is God's punishment for past sins and not enough repentance for previous sins. I've been in hell once before with a 1769 and component 800PV.




I should add, LOL

 

[padees]

I will take them

I also see why every time I get a L553 for stock they sell fast....

It's not worth the time and trouble for me parting items out. I have to pull another out within the next couple weeks.
I'll get back with you.

 

[JeremyM]

My biggest complaint about Productivity Series is that array indices and bit numbers start with 1 instead of 0.

Oof.

I doubt I'd replace a fully populated 10 slot SLC with a Click though. I have replaced one SLC rack with the newer 5069 platform and really liked it. You might be able to buy better and get it faster, but you can't pay more.

It's also very robust.

 

[JeremyM]

The old TI/Siemens 500/505 was not only 1 to 16, but reverse MSB/LSB. An integer value of 1 was bit 16.

Yay Modicon.