adccommunitymod (AutomationDirect) asked a question.
Created Date: November 03,2018
Created By: ApexSight
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Hi everyone, I browse through the forum from time to time but this will be my first post. Our company has been having a recurring issue with our AD P3000 PLC so I was hoping someone may have some ideas. The P3000 is our master PLC with a handful of slaves and remote PLC's that are communicating back to it. The issue we are having is the P3000 is what seems randomly "Freezing ". It will not register any I/O connections or perform any tasks. It will not simply correct itself; and it requires a physical power off reboot and then it instantly begins registering everything again. The error history does not indicate any critical errors; however there are recurring errors from one of the output module cards. When the PLC is "Frozen " it is still in RUN mode; and a STOP -RUN switch transition does not solve the problem. Only a power restart. The activity light to the PLC is also still active during all of this. We have replaced the CPU and also have replaced the output module that has the error. Neither solved our issue. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Created Date: November 03,2018
Created by: ApexSight
Hi everyone, I browse through the forum from time to time but this will be my first post. Our company has been having a recurring issue with our AD P3000 PLC so I was hoping someone may have some ideas.
The P3000 is our master PLC with a handful of slaves and remote PLC's that are communicating back to it. The issue we are having is the P3000 is what seems randomly "Freezing ". It will not register any I/O connections or perform any tasks. It will not simply correct itself; and it requires a physical power off reboot and then it instantly begins registering everything again. The error history does not indicate any critical errors; however there are recurring errors from one of the output module cards.
When the PLC is "Frozen " it is still in RUN mode; and a STOP -RUN switch transition does not solve the problem. Only a power restart. The activity light to the PLC is also still active during all of this.
We have replaced the CPU and also have replaced the output module that has the error. Neither solved our issue.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Created Date: November 04,2018
Created by: a agnone
How often does this happen? If possible isolate half of the slaves and remote plcs by disconnecting them from the master plc giving the problem to narrow it down. sounds like a comms problem. Are you using serial or ethernet? Other on here may need more info. i am not really familiar with the P3000 but there should be error bits that are coming on. Go through help files and see what if any bits you can look at to see if it is a comms issue.
Created Date: November 04,2018
Created by: g.mccormick
What firmware? I had a similar issue with a p2000 system once. I had worked with AD but could not ever get it figured out, so AD replaced it and took it back to try and replicate issue. Mine was a modbus server and not client. I dont thin ad could replicate at their office, but shortly later a new firmware came out with some improvements to networking and not lettind cpu get swamped.
Created Date: November 05,2018
Created by: genebond
Could it be the Ethernet switch overheating due to the traffic? I had this problem at home a while back, and blamed AT&T. The tech that came out gave me a newer switch than my old, cheap one, and cleared it up..
Created Date: November 05,2018
Created by: MikeN
When the PLC is frozen, could you log in with the programming software and manually force outputs on and off? If so, that might hint that the error is not that the PLC itself is frozen but there either the communications are completely down or something is blocking the communications part even though the rest is working. If you cannot make outputs turn on or off manually, or if you cannot connect to the PLC, then that would hint to the PLC truly being locked up. The first step to figuring out the problem will be confirming whether it is really the main PLC, or the comm side of things.
Also are you communicating via Ethernet, or one of the old serial ports? And a port on the CPU, or a module?
Created Date: November 05,2018
Created by: kewakl
I have a project (P3-550) that occasionally the PLC will get stupid. Comms will do dumb stuff.
I can go online.
The project 'runs '
Some things that are COMMS-based will not work as anticipated.
I can flag prox sensors, and the plc will not indicate the prox in the dataview.
A pushbutton/and associated prox sensors should trigger some processes, but the processes will not start.
A simple STOP/RUN transition will not fix the issue.
A HARD POWER CYCLE always fixes it!
It IS running version 1.7.1.1, so maybe a SW/FW update will fix it.
Who know what a sw/fw update will break or render useless?
Created Date: November 05,2018
Created by: MikeN
It IS running version 1.7.1.1, so maybe a SW/FW update will fix it.
Who know what a sw/fw update will break or render useless?
That would be the software version. What is the actual CPU firmware version? Latest for P3k CPUs is: 1.1.15.114
Seeing as how a firmware update from back in 2013 says it requires software 1.9 or higher, Im guessing you havent updated firmware or software since at least 2012?
https://support.automationdirect.com/firmware/historydetail.php?pid=52
Some fixes from the past few firmware versions related to comms are:
Mitigate effects on CPU when the external Ethernet port on the CPU experiences irregular Ethernet traffic.
When using a P3-SCM module with CPI/CPO instructions a stop mode transfer can cause the P3-550 to stop communication to the SCM and create an E1005 error.
Those are fixes from sometimes in the past couple years. Apparently the last time I updated firmware was back in 2015. Im on version ....99
I doubt it is recommended, but if you want to go to a specific firmware version from where you currently are and need that file, then you can simply open the current firmware download link in a new tab and change the version number at the end of the URL to the one you want to get and it will download that one you typed in.
Created Date: November 05,2018
Created by: kewakl
Call me gunshy, but until I can do the required testing to ensure that I have found all of the eastereggs in the 'latest ' SW/FW, I will stick to the SW/FW that I have.
Too many SW/FW releases contains app-breaking err... um... undocumented features. At least with 1.7.1.1 and 1.9.2.0, I know the issues that will present themselves.
Created Date: November 05,2018
Created by: ApexSight
Thanks for the replies.
PLC is faulting to STOP mode... I assumed it was still in RUN because of the indicator light but it looks like that is triggered by toggle switch
The firmware is up to date; when we replaced the CPU we upgraded to newest copy.
Ethernet Connection seems to be stable....Status bit triggers alarm on communication loss.
A counter was also programmed to monitor loss of 12v Powersupply and loss of power to modules..... Counter did not indicate loss of power.
Analog Input card is generating errors due to out of range inputs from equipment that is no longer in use; these errors are occurring every few minutes. Is it possible that these are somehow causing the issue?
Are there any situations where ladder programming could cause the PLC to fault to STOP?
Thanks again
Created Date: November 06,2018
Created by: kewakl
A counter was also programmed to monitor loss of 12v Powersupply and loss of power to modules..... Counter did not indicate loss of power.
That may not indicate anything useful. IF the 12V psu can ride out a AC line loss, then this would not help.
Analog Input card is generating errors due to out of range inputs from equipment that is no longer in use; these errors are occurring every few minutes. Is it possible that these are somehow causing the issue?
That should NOT escalate to CPU fault.
Are there any situations where ladder programming could cause the PLC to fault to STOP?
Sure! Watchdog is one of the first that i would check.
what is in error log and event log?
Occasionally, I get this on another P3.
Add context to my response. Add info about another P3-550 that occasionally goes STOP MODE.