# Rockwell Automation



## emtnut (Mar 1, 2015)

they stole that.
original was much better


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## mburtis (Sep 1, 2018)

So given this is Rockwell do I have to send them a check for a couple of grand now since I watched it. Was about as useful as any other help I've ever gotten from them.


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## SWDweller (Dec 9, 2020)

Ain't that the truth

You can not pay more for less help.


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## ScooterMcGavin (Jan 24, 2011)

my buddy got so mad at tech support he sent this to them and asked “Which excuse are you going with this time?”


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## Dennis Alwon (May 9, 2009)

I was thinking about this the other day. I wanted to upload it to the resource forum as a gag.... Not sure I will...


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## JRaef (Mar 23, 2009)

emtnut said:


> they stole that.
> original was much better


It was done with permission from the original creator, a guy who did technical movies like this and never had any idea what he was talking about because he would be just reading a script. The first one, called the ”Turboencabulator” was done by him as a joke while he was doing a film for GM and has a drawing of a GM automatic transmission in the background. Rumor has it that he made up his own script off the top of his head while they were filming.


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## emtnut (Mar 1, 2015)

JRaef said:


> It was done with permission from the original creator, a guy who did technical movies like this and never had any idea what he was talking about because he would be just reading a script. The first one, called the ”Turboencabulator” was done by him as a joke while he was doing a film for GM and has a drawing of a GM automatic transmission in the background. Rumor has it that he made up his own script off the top of his head while they were filming.


I know 

Figured you might show up with all this AB bashing going on 

fwiw, the AB rep in my area (20 yrs ago) was awesome, if he didn't know the answer, he'd find out for us ... and quickly !

After a PLC 5 course (week long) he took us all to the 'ballet' on Fri afternoon .... all on his tab


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## JRaef (Mar 23, 2009)

emtnut said:


> I know
> 
> Figured you might show up with all this AB bashing going on
> 
> ...


Yeah, those days are gone now. Bean counters rule the roost and IRS rules have changed.

I don’t try to defend RA from detractors. Everyone is entitled to their opinions and most opinions are the result of experiences, so unfortunately they must have had bad run ins. When you are the top dog,you can’t please all of the people all of the time, and any organization is comprised of people, with flaws and bad days.


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## paulengr (Oct 8, 2017)

No question Rockwell has some good products. Like Caterpillar though it depends on the local supplier. Some are really, really good. Others are just plain terrible and give the product a horrible name. Also like Cat you can often find better but you won’t pay more. I mean $6500 for PZlC development software plus 20% annually just to talk to someone on the phone? That’s crazy. GE went under doing things like that.

The software is mostly excellent. Hard to describe exactly but it takes me a lot more code to get something done in a Koyo, Modicon, Codesys or Siemens instruction set. Their current system is very irritating chasing firmware versions but still solid mostly.

But regardless I can’t bid on jobs using AB products unless customer requires it in the contract. The prices are high and the product is good but doesn’t justify blowing up the bids.


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## SWDweller (Dec 9, 2020)

I locked horns with an AB drive MV for a phosphate mine. I provided an alternate quote from Toshiba which we used a lot in mining. Way better delivery as well. Toshiba knew the deal and hammered their price. 
We did install the AB and paid thier people to commission the drive. Weekly calls of it not working for the first year. The next job we did was Toshiba for them. Now lots of folks are up in the MV drives. I have been away from that market segment for some time now.


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## paulengr (Oct 8, 2017)

SWDweller said:


> I locked horns with an AB drive MV for a phosphate mine. I provided an alternate quote from Toshiba which we used a lot in mining. Way better delivery as well. Toshiba knew the deal and hammered their price.
> We did install the AB and paid thier people to commission the drive. Weekly calls of it not working for the first year. The next job we did was Toshiba for them. Now lots of folks are up in the MV drives. I have been away from that market segment for some time now.


ALL MV drive folks require a factory person (not even an authorized service center) for the initial install. They simply leave the firmware blank when they ship you the drive. Can be irritating because of long lead times on scheduling a tech but it's a liability thing for them. They basically Megger the motor and a few other checks as per factory procedure. On AB MV drives it's basically an ancient LCI design so the motor reactance is part of the design and you can't easily swap motors as opposed to basically everyone else. And no, not "everyone" is in the MV drive game. There is a lot of private branding going on, although not as much as in the LV market. AB is no different in this regard except for the twist that they basically have to build the drive to match the motor since it's not a "VFD" with a standard multipulse design but rather something entirely different. It is current based rather than voltage based.


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## just the cowboy (Sep 4, 2013)

paulengr said:


> No question Rockwell has some good products. Like Caterpillar though it depends on the local supplier. Some are really, really good. Others are just plain terrible and give the product a horrible name.


That has always been my complaint. Back in the 90's I had a great supplier for AB. I moved my company and had to switch distributers and the new one was horrible. I was lucky because I was a direct subcontractor for AB at the time and was able to get a release to go back to my old supplier. Fast forward 20 years, went to work in a factory again bad supplier, and then they sold to another bad supplier. Fast forward 10 more years and I am in Colorado 1700 miles away and who do I get for my supplier the same one I had to get a release from back in the 90's and this branch is just as bad if not worse. My RA folks are good but want you to go thru the distributer for everything. 

Rant over
Cowboy


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## cuba_pete (Dec 8, 2011)

Seeing the Rockwell comedy always reminds me of the time they were barred from government contracts Not long after they got back in the game I got a factory school for the OJ-564 console with a Rockwell controller. Very cool stuff in the day.


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