Hi from Croatia,
I have an old 2003 series PLC system (attached picture) that suddenly went into ERROR state. This PLC is part of an old FRONIUS ORBITAL welding system , and after it sat in storage for a couple of years , we decided to power it up and test it. It was OK, and we did a few tests with the machine, but suddenly, for no reason, the PLC went into ERROR state (red LED active). We also have a handheld HMI ( KEBA ht401 model) that is not showing date and time, and it is not responding to commands .
My question:
If I download Automation Studio 4.0 from the B&R website and use the appropriate RS232 cable, will I be able to connect to the PLC and see the error description? Do I need a paid license to be able to do that? I don’t need to change the program, just pinpoint the potential problem with the system .
I see from the pictures that the PLC from 2003 family, which is quite old an legacy / obsolete, but it’s still supported by AS4, as far as I know.
Automation Studio has a 90 days trial mode with a few restrictions but online communication is possible in trial mode - so it could be possible to read the error logbook from the PLC without having a license.
“Could” because of it was possible to program this 2003 family with Automation Studio, but also with PG2000 (a very old DOS based development platform). As we don’t know what exactly was used, unfortunately I can’t swear if it will work with Automation Studio (it could be that the logbook format was the same in both programming environments, but I’ve checked that).
Instead of Automation Studio, I think it would be also possible to use Runtime Utility Center to read out the logbook (also possible to use it in a trial mode, without license the online connection will only run 2 hours then you need to restart), maybe for a first troubleshooting this would be enough and would need less effort for download, installation, a.s.o.
If I interprete the status of the LEDs right, the system is in service mode.
From what you described about the machine, I think most probably there’s hardware defect on IO module(s) or a corrupt module in the PLC memory (checksum error or similar)… but in the end this is just a guess.
Important to know: the setup of all interfaces of the PLC could be changed by the project installed onto the PLC. That means, we don’t know how the RS232 interface is parametrized - the B&R default setting is 57600 baud, 8 databits, 1 stopbit, parity even.
The’re multiple threads in our community forum about serial connection, for example:
I will try with Runtime Utility Center. Can you please send me the link where to download this software with and corect version that will work with this old PLC?
When executing the setup, it’s enough to keep the default settings as you just need the drivers + Runtime Utility Center (+ Help recommended to have some information about how it works, the commands, and so on).
I managed to connect to PLC but I have problems reading logbook.
Can you please take alook at attached picture. Maybe you can point me in the right direction what am I doing wrong. I just want to read active ERROR code. Thank you.
I’ve already finished work for the day, which is why I only just saw the message now.
Concrats!!
Sounds great that the error has gone.
Just for completeness:
9104 seems to be the cause error message, I agree: 9104 means “division by zero”, which leads to service mode.
I assume somewhere in the code, a division was performed using a variable with a value of 0.
Performing a cold restart deletes all battery buffered (retained) data, including variable values… hard to say why this restored the machine function, but maybe the coldstart also resetted the whole software into some kind of “initial commissioning” and cleared other “fragements of data” too…
I was also afraid that doing a cold start will delete everything and make things even worse, but in the machine manual (attached screenshot), it is stated that the PLC will go to initial conditions and I will need to reenter machine parameters. This is in contradiction with PLC manual but somehow it works.. You will know better.
One last question. Is it possible for me with Runtime Utility Center to do a complete PLC backup? To have it just in case something similar happens and then I cen restore it.
there’s no dedicated function for a backup, and you need to know that the source code is not readable as B&R systems are using compiled code only, so in the PLC are just stored binaries.
Nevertheless the’re some possibilities to upload those binaries.
Please see rhe pdf document in the following thread (I’ve never used the process described there, but looks good and sone users already did it as I know) :
