Often when working on PLCs it can happen that you need to pull a log book from the PLC but don’t have a remote connection to the controller. Maybe you don’t know the IP address (Here’s a helpful thread if you don’t know the IP) or just don’t have an ethernet cable. Whatever the reason maybe, it can be very beneficial to pull the contents off of the compact flash or CFast card such as the log book for additional analysis or sharing with a support team.
To do this, the first step is of course to have the appropriate reader (compact flash or CFast depending on the PLC). Once you have this, power off your PLC, remove the CF/CFast card and follow the below steps!
As a note - before beginning you’ll need to have Runtime Utility Center which can be downloaded from the B&R website here
-
Open the Runtime Utility Center
-
Select “Create, modify and execute projects (.pil)”
-
Go to “Tools” → “Back up files from Compact Flash / Image file…”
-
Select the CF or CFast card:
-
Wait for Runtime Utility Center to finish reading disk information:
-
Expand the contents of the disk as follows: DATA1 Partition → RPSHD → SYSROM
-
Within the SYSROM folder, select all entries which begin with a $. These correspond to the log files. (Note that you may not have all of the entries shown in the screenshot below.) Checking these boxes will automatically check the boxes of the parent folders DATA1 Partition, RPSHD, and SYSROM.
-
Browse for a location to save the files (for example, the C:\ drive):
-
Click Start:
-
Once the files are saved, you will receive this pop-up:
From there you can open the resulting .br files in Automation Studio, make a post here on the community asking for some help or send them to your local B&R support contact for help in analyzing the contents.
Hope this helps!