Over the last few weeks many of our readers made use of our “submit a question” link to send us topics they’d like to see us cover, and today I’ll share a few of them along with my take on how to resolve each question.

Note: Readers can ask submit questions directly for me to answer weekdays at Automation.Locals.com, or submit them on the blog here if they’d like us to consider covering them in future Q & As.

Question 1:

We have a machine in our factory which runs off a chip, with around 5 buttons and a number pad. The system is pretty old, and the screen broke, so we were looking for a replacement.

Long story short, the manufacturer shut down and a replacement unit wasn’t available, so our fix was to connect serially to the machine through a windows computer and use Putty to serially communicate with it.

It works, but we want to get rid of the computer system and possibly replace it with a touch screen tablet.

Shawn’s Take:

Good morning, if you’d like to use a modern control system, I’d recommend contacting a local System Integrator for Siemens, Rockwell, or another automation company with local representation.

They can come in and give you a quote to replace your chip/buttons/screen with a modern, low cost PLC and HMI which any good integrator in the world can program, and you can learn to program yourself.

Siemens and Rockwell both have starter packs under $1,000 that include the PLC, SW, and HMI. Siemens would be the S7-1200 / Basic Panel, and Rockwell’s would be the Micro800 / PanelView 800.

To learn more about either product check out my previous coverage, and best of luck with your project!

Question 2:

While opening PowerFlex 525 drive properties in RSLogix 5000, the display setting changes and becomes small and I’m unable to change the Ethernet properties of drive.

Shawn’s Take:

While I haven’t run into this issue, it sound like a bug that would likely be fixed in a patch. Since you didn’t share the version of RSLogix 5000 and PowerFlex AOP, I’ll generically recommend you first close all other programs first, prior to trying this again.

If the issue continues, I’d recommend first updating your AOPs using this link, and if that doesn’t fix the issue try installing the latest minor revision of the version of RSLogix 5000 you are using which you can learn about here.

Question 3:

I need to install the firmware version 8.0 on PanelView Plus 1000, but on the RA Download Center I just notice the version 5.10.16UP, so my questions are: Why Version 8.0 doesn’t exist for PanelView Plus 1000? Or I’m doing a bad search in the website download center? Have you a recommend method for install firmware 8.0 on PanelView Plus 1000?

Shawn’s Take:

This is a great question which many PanelView Plus users have. As I’ve covered previously here, the original PanelView Plus only supports up to version 5.1, which the PanelView Plus 6 and 7 support revision beyond 5.1.

Your best solution is to first find out which PanelView Plus you have, then grab the right firmware for it. Below I’ll include a screenshot of the firmware available for the PanelView Plus 6:

Question 4:

I am working on a programming and I need to convert the runtime logic in Studio 5000 to CCW version 12.0.

Shawn’s Take:

According to Rockwell’s release notes for CCW, you can import Studio 5000 programs into your Micro800 programs starting with the Feature Pack for version 11, which is also built into v12. These features are also said to be enhanced in v13.

Here’s a snippet from the CCW v12 release notes:

“Share Connected Components Workbench logic with Studio 5000 Logix Designer and RSLogix 500. Supports the ability to share ladder logic between Connected Components Workbench and Studio 5000 Logix Designer or RSLogix 500 by doing a copy-and-paste operation in either direction. Enables easy logic transfer from the existing Studio 5000 Logix Designer or RSLogix 500 project to a Connected Components Workbench project, and vice versa. Supported logic sharing ways are:

  • Copy ladder logic ASCII text from or to Studio 5000 Logix Designer or RSLogix 500.
  • Copy ladder logic graphically from Studio 5000 Logix Designer or RSLogix 500 and paste to Connected Components Workbench ladder logic ASCII text.
  • Copy ladder logic graphically from Studio 5000 Logix Designer or RSLogix 500 and paste graphically to Connected Components Workbench.“

Question 5:

We have a refrigerant charging machine whose Allen-Bradley PanelView is 550, shows error 613 network node not found’, do you have any idea what would be the issue.

Shawn’s Take:

Errors like this typically happen when the PanelView and PLC become disconnected. This often happens when the networking cable becomes frayed, or is expanded or added to in an unsupported way.

According to page 254 of the user manual here, the error is caused when, “Tag or address does not exist or is the wrong data type.”

If you’d like to see our previous Q & A’s, click here.

To submit a question for us to consider covering in a future blog, click here.

Those readers who’d like to ask me questions directly, can do so here.

Until next time, Peace ✌️ 

If you enjoy this episode please give it a Like, and consider Sharing as this is the best way for us to find new guests to come on the show.

Shawn M Tierney
Technology Enthusiast & Content Creator

Eliminate commercials and gain access to my weekly full length hands-on, news, and Q&A sessions by becoming a member at The Automation Blog or on YouTube. You'll also find all of my affordable PLC, HMI, and SCADA courses at TheAutomationSchool.com.

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