Allen Bradley PLC-5 Basic Maintenance & Troubleshooting (M&T)
Duration:
4 days + optional 5th day
Additional optional 5th day (08.45 – 13.00hrs) available to include:
- Practical workshop
- Logical Approach to Fault-finding
- How to relate to course to own company site & systems
- How to ensure the benefit of the training lasts for months & years to come
Important: This course content has been radically revised for 2008 & not only includes more
emphasis on developing & consolidating key practical skills based on standard procedures, but the course practicals will include experience with additional relevant hardware e.g. further communications & networking, HMIs, Remote I/O, VSDs, etc. to make the training more relevant to the needs of maintenance people today.
Additionally, & most importantly, this course moves away from the typical old style course where the focus was the Instruction Set. This course concentrates on the development of the key knowledge & practical skills essential for safe & effective system maintenance & troubleshooting.
Prerequisites:
Delegates should have a basic understanding of PLCs or have attended one of our Introductory PLC courses & must be familiar with PCs & Microsoft Windows.
Aims:
The Basic M&T course equips maintenance personnel with the essential knowledge & skills to maintain & troubleshoot PLC-5 PLC systems. Attendees will be able to work safely & competently with common PLC-5 hardware, be able to connect a PC/Laptop to the PLC, access the correct project/program & use the PLC to diagnose machine or process problems.
Objectives:
For specific course objectives see Training Record Log.
Content:
Understand the Hardware
- Be able to identify & understand the function of the main PLC hardware components
- Understand the purpose of the different communication options & know where to connect the PC/Laptop comms cable
- Know how & where the program is stored, the importance of the battery & which areas of PLC memory are retentive
- Understand the wiring connections to the power supply module & power & field I/O connections to I/O modules
- Understand the effects on the operation of the PLC & process under control of cycling power or a mode change initiated by the external switch & what happens to the I/O
- Understand the meaning of all external indicators
Running & Using RSLogix 5 Software
- Understand the key components of an installation of RSLogix 5 software
- Know how to run RSLogix 5 software & open offline PLC-5 projects
- Know how to run the RSLogix 5 software, establish communications (go online) & access the PLC-5 program
- Understand the need for RSLinx Classic when establishing on-line connection
- Be able to safely Upload & Download to a controller & know the difference between the two
- Able to recognise main display areas including toolbars, controller organiser, code & output windows
- To be confident while moving around in the RSLogix 5 environment
- Know how to access controller properties
- Know how to access & monitor ladder & Data monitor windows
- Know how to correctly interpret status in Ladder
- Able to use Cross-Reference & Find/Replace features
- Know how to Toggle bits & Force inputs & outputs
- Know how to monitor the Scan Time of the processor
- Know how to Save As…in order to Backup your PLC program if Automatic Project Backup unavailable
- When monitoring a program, understand where the logic you are seeing is coming from & the important implications for the user
- Know how to make simple on-line edits
- Know how to access help screens & on-line manuals
- Know how to access & configure Workstation Options
- Know how to configure a Trend to aid longer term monitoring
- Know how to document project using RSLogix 5
Running & Using RSLinx Classic Software
- Know how to configure suitable driver for RS232 DF1 communications
- Know how to configure suitable driver for Ethernet communications
- Know how to configure suitable driver for DH+ communications
- Know how to access RSWho to assist resolving communications problems
- Know how to access Driver Diagnostics to assist resolving communications problems
- Know how to access & configure RSLinx Classic Launch Control Panel to avoid conflicts with other communications software
Understand the Terminology, Structure & Organisation of PLC-5 Projects
- Understand the method for addressing field I/O points & internal elements in a PLC-5 program
- Understand that PLC-5 Projects typically consist of Multiple Routines
- Understand how to correctly interpret screen highlights for the different contact & coil instructions & how to relate this to the state of I/O LEDs on I/O modules & the operation of devices in the field
- Understand the construction & display of the various Timer & Counter instructions, know how they work & the different ways to monitor them
- Introduction to Data Handling with PLC-5 & the use of Comparators & simple
Arithmetic instructions
- Know how Analog signals are handled by PLC-5, know how to find them in a Program & the different ways to monitor them
- Understand the different data File Types
- Appreciate how the controller memory is expanded
- Appreciate how to monitor controller properties within user programs e.g. accessing the real time clock
System Maintenance Procedures
- Know how to RUN & STOP the PLC-5 (both hardware & software methods) & know what happens to the I/O in each mode & how that can be influenced
- Know how to correctly interpret the status of the battery & how to appropriately replace if necessary
- Know how to replace & reconfigure suspect power supply, I/O modules, racks & I/O interface modules
- Know how to replace a suspect or failed CPU module & how to reload the program
- Know how to Upload & Download to a Controller
- Understand that the PLC-5 contains the system configuration & the important implications of this for the user
- Know how to compare a project running in a PLC-5 with a project held on disk & be able to interpret the results
- Know how to make minor modifications to an existing program in both on-line & offline
modes to add functionality or as a temporary measure to enable a stalled program to continue
- Know how to generate a report to be printed as hard copy of project
- Gain practical experience of a wide range of essential maintenance procedures
Diagnostic Tools & Troubleshooting Procedures
- Understand the reasons why most faults will not be PLC hardware or software & are much more likely to be due to field device failures or wiring problems
- Know the first level checks needed to begin to quickly distinguish between PLC & field faults
- Know typical fault symptoms for common PLC hardware (module) failures
- Be able to recognise & interpret the meaning of external system diagnostic LEDs
- Be able to correctly interpret the status of I/O LEDs & relate these to the operation of field devices to distinguish between I/O module faults & wiring or field faults
- Know how & where to use a meter to check & confirm I/O module power supplies & for correct operation of digital I/O circuits
- Know how & where to use a meter to check analog I/O modules for correct circuit operation
- Know quick methods to identify a failed I/O module
- Know the symptoms of using a faulty communications cable or if connected to the wrong communications port
- Understand how & when to reinstate factory defaults & the effect of this on system operation
- Know how to set up & use Custom Data Monitors to monitor/modify multiple I/O points & data registers in the PLC-5
- Know how to use the Force function with PLC-5 & understand the dangers & the limitations
- Know how to access the Major & Minor Fault Records provided to troubleshoot problems
- Be able to read a PLC-5 program printout & interpret cross reference information to trace signals when troubleshooting
- Gain practical experience in distinguishing between PLC faults, I/O faults & field device faults
- Gain practical experience of a wide range of troubleshooting examples