# Can you troubleshoot our PLC?



## ibew415 (Mar 23, 2014)

Oh, and by the way....most of the labels are missing or mismarked


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## backstay (Feb 3, 2011)

ibew415 said:


> Oh, and by the way....most of the labels are missing or mismarked


 Looks pretty normal as far as what I've seen. Remember, you're not fixing the whole thing. Some output isn't on or off, run it down.


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## Bootss (Dec 30, 2011)

what type of facility is this and what are they controlling?


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## martindag (Oct 30, 2009)

Your panel make me want to eat spaghetti tonight for diner now.


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## Big John (May 23, 2010)

I love it. Just did a job like that. I had the old prints that clearly explained where the original wiring went. I had the new prints that clearly explained what the new PLC inputs where. I just did not have the prints that explained how they transitioned the old wiring to the new inputs, and the terminal strips looked like that mass of spaghetti.

My MO was to just throw commands at it and write down what IOs lit up or went dark until I found the field devices I was looking for.


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## ibew415 (Mar 23, 2014)

Lep said:


> what type of facility is this and what are they controlling?


Its a granite quarry, so this is all conveyor motors, crushers, travel motors, ect.


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## ibew415 (Mar 23, 2014)

backstay said:


> Looks pretty normal as far as what I've seen. Remember, you're not fixing the whole thing. Some output isn't on or off, run it down.


Yea, that's what I do. Nothing is broken right now....it just makes it difficult when the old plant electrician "makes it work"


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## ibew415 (Mar 23, 2014)

Big John said:


> I love it. Just did a job like that. I had the old prints that clearly explained where the original wiring went. I had the new prints that clearly explained what the new PLC inputs where. I just did not have the prints that explained how they transitioned the old wiring to the new inputs, and the terminal strips looked like that mass of spaghetti.
> 
> My MO was to just throw commands at it and write down what IOs lit up or went dark until I found the field devices I was looking for.


Unfortunately I haven't seen it heard of any prints....but throwing commands at it seems like a good method.


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## oliquir (Jan 13, 2011)

if i have access to plc program then it becomes easy to identify each wires since they are probably clearly identified in programming


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## gesparky221 (Nov 30, 2007)

These are Genius blocks. They are tied to a PLC with a 2 conductor coax style of cable. Hopefully it is a newer PLC and not a Series Six. Series Six PLC's can be hard to work on since the software is DOS based. We still have several in use at our plant but slowly changing them out and using the older Genius block with the new stuff. These I/O blocks were built tough. You can also access each block with a hand held programmer to look at the I/O.


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## Big John (May 23, 2010)

gesparky221 said:


> ...Hopefully it is a newer PLC and not a Series Six. Series Six PLC's can be hard to work on since the software is DOS based....


 One of my old plants used to run a Series 6. The programming was on 5¼ floppys and the only system that had the program had been loaded to was one of those old 45 pound "luggable" portable computers. Every time I booted it up it was like a timewarp back to 1989.


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## CyberKnight (Sep 3, 2013)

Big John said:


> One of my old plants used to run a Series 6. The programming was on 5¼ floppys and the only system that had the program had been loaded to was one of those old 45 pound "luggable" portable computers. Every time I booted it up it was like a timewarp back to 1989.


I still have one of those old machines in my shop at work. It is a Compaq. It is running dos 6.0. I have not booted it in a couple of years but I am pretty sure it still works. It really took a beating using it around the plant for many moons but kept on running.. Maybe tomorrow I will see if it boots. LOL


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## just the cowboy (Sep 4, 2013)

I like the way they just passed the cable through and cut the insulation to get at a couple of wires


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