Can an SLC 500 RIO a 1771 Rack & Cards.

As the subject says, can an Allen Bradley SLC 500 processor read/write to a PLC 5, 1771, rack and I/O modules? For my home brew experimentation projects I like a SLC 500 rack and modules but sometimes I the variety and bargains I find in 1771 racks and specialty modules. Since most are controled by BTW & BTR, thought perhaps a SLC 500 could use them. I haven't ever tried this so I'm not sure.

RogerN

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RogerN
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The best place to go to get an answer is

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There are a thousands of PLC people there and a few must have done what you are trying to do.

Peter Nachtwey

Reply to
pnachtwey

I don't think the 500 will talk to a PLC 5, but I don't know for sure. But I am curious.. What kind of home brew experimentation projects require PLCs? What are you measuring/controlling?

- AG

Reply to
Andy

Well, it's maybe as much a toy and learning tool as anything else, but I have some projects in mind that I want to try. I'm also wanting to teach my son about PLC's and controls, I'm hoping to give him a head start by time he's job hunting, he's 11 now so PLC 5's and SLC 500 might be out of date by then but the concepts seem to apply.

One project is to use the analog I/O for analog circuit control, I've been interested in making a multi-port battery charger using analog outputs to control a switch mode power supply and read the battery charge voltage and current with the analog inputs for both constant current and constant voltage charging. The PLC seems like a nice platform for control and to be able to see what is happening in the program.

Another project is to control my electric Brinkman smoker monitoring meat temperature and internal temperature of the smoker. I plan to do ramp and soak, I have ramp and soak temperature controls but they don't wait on the setpoint to be reached, they just change the setpoint over time and if the meat never gets to temperature I'd never know unless I watched it. I can program the PLC for maximum internal smoker temperature until the meat reaches the setpoint temperature and then set for 140 deg. F keep warm temperature. Yes, I'm just playing but also enjoying some pulled pork BBQ :-)

Yet another possible future project(s) include making a molding press for rubber molding and plastic injection molding. I have a home machine shop including a CNC lathe and CNC mill, I think it would be fun to make molds using CAD CAM software and the CNC machines. Then using cylinders, valves, and temperature control make rubber or plastic molded items(I work in a tire plant and can get samples for cheap and consult with the chemists for the properties I want). If I make something profitable, great, maybe a little extra income, if not, no big deal, the education and experience would be worth it.

In other words, I guess I'm just wanting a more deluxe Lego Mindstorm :-) I'm underemployed so I come up with projects for a more interesting and fun challenge (Crossword puzzles could save me a lot of money).

RogerN

Reply to
RogerN

I don't know of enough details on how it works, but I know at work we have a mixing line where part of it has a SLC 500 and other parts have PLC 5's, they somehow message each other to synchronize one with the other. Also, on Allen Bradley's documentation of the 1771 ASB Remote I/O adapter it mentioned communicating with SLC 500's but I don't know to what extent. I'm not sure if a SLC 500 can BTW and BTR a card in a 1771 rack or not though.

I looked on eBay at the SLC 500 and PLC 5 options, added up the parts I wanted plus shipping. A PLC 5/40 setup with digital and analog I/O was cheaper than the equivalent SLC 5/04 so I bought:

1771 A2B rack, 8 slot with power supply, 4ea. 32 point DC input modules, 4ea. 32 point relay output modules for about $50 shipped.

PLC 5/40 processor for $125 shipped

Analog Input card, 16 single ended or 8 differential around $50 shipped

Analog Output card, 8 outputs, voltage out, around $50 shipped

My grand Total was around $280 (I spend a little more than the lego mindstorm costs :-)

I also like that many discrete I/O modules are available on eBay for around $20 shipped and quite a variety of modules can be bought for $50 or less.

RogerN

Reply to
RogerN

You found some good bargains, especially on the 5/40 processor. We'll be seeing PLC-5 hardware on the surplus market for a long time as old machines are either scrapped or upgraded with new PLC's. I considered using a PLC to control model railroad signalling, but we normally use just 5 or 12 vdc and those modules are harder to find.

An SLC-500 can do block transfers but it's either very clunky or sort of clunky depending on the OS version. The earlier versions require direct manipulation of M0 and M1 files, while the later versions implement the BTW and BTR instructions. It's been at least 10 years, but I've done it the old way to the 1746-HCSE high speed counter and over RIO to a Mettler-Toledo scale and PanelView terminals.

There are at least three ways for SLC-500 and PLC-5 processors to directly communicate: DH+ between a 5/04 and any PLC-5; Ethernet between a 5/05 and a PLC-5 with integral Ethernet or the Ethernet module; and serial DF1 between a 5/03, 5/04 or 5/05 and any PLC-5 except the original four "classic" processors which lacked RS-232 ports. That doesn't count the various bridge modules that go between protocols.

Mike

Reply to
Mike Lamond

That rack I bought with 4ea 32 point relay cards and 4ea 32 point DC in cards might work with model RR signaling. If so, they had two available and another one was still listed. It was $29 "Buy it Now" and shipping for me was $20.69. I thought 256 I/O, a remote I/O adapter, 8-Slot rack, and power supply for $50 shipped sounds like a pretty good deal.

At work on our mixing lines we have multiple Mettler-Toledo JagXtreme scales. I was originally looking for a SLC 5/03 or 5/04 but after seeing the bargians on 1771 cards I wondered if I could use the 1771 rack with the SLC 500. But then finding a good price on a PLC 5/40 should take care of that.

I'm still looking for a SLC 500 rack and 5/04 processor, if nothing else I should be able to get the 1771 card data to the 5/04 by DH+. I think a SLC

500 rack would be more portable for bench tinkering.

RogerN

Reply to
RogerN

A little update- I found an additional 16 slot rack with 5ea 16 point AC Triac output cards and 8ea 16 point input cards (6 AC and 2 DC), plus a PLC

5/30 and power supply, all for $85 with shipping and taxes, and it all works! I don't find many bargains like that!

I just found a panelview 550 (in "good" condition for $100 shipped) that will do DH-485 protocol over the RS-232 port of a SLC 5/03, /04, or /05. So, my plan is to try using the panelview with a SLC 5/04 on the RS-232 port and connect to the PLC 5's through the SLC5/04's DH+ port.

Additional cards I bought so far are an RTD input card for temperature control and a 1771-IXHR high resolution thermocouple milliVolt input card. I became interested in the IXHR card because in the mV mode it has a zoom feature that zooms in on a +-30mV range to a 1uV resolution, that should work for load cells at least with a little bit of instrumentation amplification as needed.

So far the biggest inconvenience is swapping from one PLC to the other on my COM port, I wish I could pass through one PLC 5 with DH+ and program either or both from one COM connection, just like you can with a PCMK card.

RogerN

Reply to
RogerN

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