SLC5/05 - Repair or Scrap?

[I_Automation]

Do they cycle power on the machine and does it only happen when it reboots?

This shop never cycles the power to their machines. They actually have signs on each one to not shut off the power except in an emergency. An EEPROM would help but the operators do not have access to the mezzanine the control panel is on - a mezzanine with a long set of stairs I have suggested more than once it would be nice to have an elevator for a guy with a bum leg.



This VRAM checksum fault occurs while the PLC is running, if the power is cycled then it wipes memory and goes to DEFAULT. Nicely when it does it keeps the COMM's settings of DF-1 38K baud.



I replaced the power supply just as a press repair company showed up to removed the 2 bull gears and get them replaced as they are missing a few teeth each. Fortunately THAT can't be blamed on the PLC, but will take this press down for a few weeks.

 

[dwoodlock]

Have people in this thread actually had success with electronics repairs??

In a previous job they were spending 750k annually on repairs, and probably 50% of that was electronics stuff. The price wouldn't have been a big deal if the results were solid, but the repairs had probably a 50% failure rate, and if you don't have resources to test them when they come back to you, it just adds fuel to what is already a inferno in a lot of cases.

Machine goes down....troubleshoot for a couple hours, determine the cause.....Oh great we have one in stock, but it's a repair. Install repair and you know have added an unconfirmed variable to a mess of a situation. You finally install a new one, and things go back to normal as expected.

I can't tell you how many times this happened, but eventually I just said we don't repair electronics anymore unless it goes back to the OEM, and in some cases even we stopped repairing with them.

This was one example, but previous in my career I ran into the same thing and it eventually lead the same result.

Just curious if others had better luck.

 

[I_Automation]

I have had good results getting repairs except for cameras. Over half the cameras came back still bad so I stopped sending them out. These cameras were just a circuit board with the CCD chip that mounted in a housing that held the lens

 

[parky]

My experience with PV550's was we sent them to a specialist repair company, although pricey, still below the price of a new one, the company was taken over by Rockwell, I sent one back, the quote was more than I could get a new one with our discount from our local supplier, I eventually replaced them all with a colour HMI from Beijers, 3/4 of the price & more reliable, it turned out that the new version was slightly smaller than the original beijer it replaced so came with an adapter bezel, this fitted into the original 550 slot with just a little filing.

 

[geniusintraining]

Have people in this thread actually had success with electronics repairs??

In my past at a large manufacture (PCBs) they would send everything out for repair to local electronic shops, on return we would have 80% that STILL did not work, very frustrating.

This is the reason we only repair PLC's and I/O's, couple times a week I have people asking for 'other' things for repair and I just turn them away, unless we can plug it in and let it run, test coms, load a program, etc how do you know you really fix it?. Most repair shops dont have racks/power supplies to test what needs to be tested.

We also tell our customers to install it as soon as they get it back, take the one that was running and put it on the shelf for their spare and we offer a 1 year guarantee on the repairs.

I am sure there are others out there that 'specialize' in one product line and I think thats who you need to take your parts to, if you have a valve thats bad take it to a value shop, if you have a motor thats bad take it to a motor shop.