August 19, 2025 • 18 mins
Shawn discusses the First Generation of Compactlogix Controllers in today's Automation Tech Talk, Lunchtime Edition:
Watch Automation Tech Talk on The Automation Blog:
Listen to Automation Tech Talk on The Automation Blog:
Automation Tech Talk Show Notes:
Thanks for listening! If you'd like to join the show sometime, don't hesitate to use the contact us link.
Links mentioned in video:
- Article: https://theautomationblog.com/compactlogix-gen-1/
- Course: https://theautomationschool.com/courses/015-cpx-l12/
Read the transcript on The Automation Blog: (automatically generated)
Shawn Tierney (Host): Hey everybody. Hope you can hear me. I'm trying something a little bit different here. Welcome to automation tech talk lunchtime edition, and, I hope you guys can hear me. I hope, you can see me because I've changed everything around.
But, because I have all the equipment here for my new twenty twenty five courses on the workbench, and I don't have any of the other studio set up for what I want to cover today, I decided to cover generation one of the CompactLogic. So I'm just gonna look over here. It seems like audio is working. Okay? It seems like the video is okay.
So in any case, feel free to say hi in the chat if you're watching. But, lots going on here. I just had, three vendors send in, samples for me to look at. Actually, one is a trade show demo from Automation Fair, so I'm looking forward to, covering that. The other is a brand new line of IO.
Very exciting. And then the third are some Ethernet push buttons. So I hope to have more about that. Plus, I have, more boxes of stuff donated to the automation museum. So, just so much to cover in the coming weeks and days.
And, but in any case, one thing I do every day too is work on my courses, not only, answer questions, but also work on my courses. And I'm getting ready to update them all for 2025. And I just wanted to say if you are already enrolled in any of my Compact Logics, whether it's level one, level one, two, you get the new cost for free, so don't worry about that. So in any case, today, I wanna talk about, though, is the first generation of CompactLogix because a lot of people have never even seen them, not even know they exist, but have never seen them. And, just some real interesting stuff here.
And, let me first show you with the, overhead cam here. Let's see if I can do this. Do I still have audio? Yep. Okay.
So, in any case, you can see here, this is the l 30, and I'm actually connected through a serial port. I'm using a USB, a USPS rev three from Rockwell that I bought years and years ago. And, let me see if I can zoom in on that. You can see I don't have everything wired up for the new courses yet. So, be spending some nights and weekends doing that.
But you can see there, I have one of just my, sample program in there. This is the one I use. If you're in my VUE course, you'll be very familiar with this program. But in any case, with all the molding simulators, code in there and whatnot. So but I also wanna get on here.
I'm just gonna stick it off top of the Polysplike, the l 20. And in the description of today's show, I have an article I wrote years ago that kinda detailed some of these things, but the l 20 was the very first CompactLogix to come out. Now I had sourced its release to late twenty I'm sorry, late two thousand or twenty zero zero in any case. But, but, you know, whether it came out early two thousand one or late, February, you know, that was almost directly after, like, a year after the ControlLogix l one, the 5550, controller. So pretty quick.
And, this, unit came in either a single serial port or dual serial port. Now the, the, l 30 I have written down here is, came out the following year, okay, about a year later. And so if we look at that, I mean, it may have been six months later, but, I have one coming down at, one coming out in February, one coming out in 02/2001. And these were known.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Everybody. Hope you can hear me. I'm trying
something a little bit different here.
Welcome to automation tech talk lunchtime edition,
and, I hope you guys can hear me.
I hope,
you can see me because I've changed everything
around. But, because I have all the equipment
here for my new twenty twenty five courses
on the workbench,
(00:20):
and I don't have any of the other
studio set up for what I want to
cover today, I decided to cover
generation one of the CompactLogic. So I'm just
gonna look over here. It seems like audio
is working. Okay? It seems like the video
is okay. So in any case, feel free
to say hi in the chat if you're
watching.
But, lots going on here. I just had,
(00:41):
three vendors send in, samples for me to
look at. Actually, one is a trade show
demo from Automation Fair, so I'm looking forward
to, covering that.
The other is a brand new line of
IO.
Very exciting. And then the third are some
Ethernet push buttons.
So I hope to have more about that.
Plus, I have, more boxes of stuff donated
to the automation museum.
(01:03):
So, just so much to cover in the
coming weeks and days. And,
but in any case, one thing I do
every day too is work on my courses,
not only,
answer questions, but also work on my courses.
And I'm getting ready to update them all
for 2025.
And I just wanted to say if you
are already enrolled in any of my Compact
Logics, whether it's level one, level one, two,
(01:23):
you get the new cost for free, so
don't worry about that. So in any case,
today, I wanna talk about, though, is the
first generation of CompactLogix
because
a lot of people have never even seen
them, not even know they exist, but have
never seen them. And, just some real interesting
stuff here. And, let me first show you
with the, overhead cam here. Let's see if
(01:44):
I can do this. Do I still have
audio? Yep. Okay.
So, in any case,
you can see here, this is the l
30, and I'm actually connected through a serial
port. I'm using a USB,
a USPS
rev three from Rockwell that I bought years
and years ago. And, let me see if
I can zoom in on that. You can
see I don't have everything wired up for
(02:05):
the new courses yet. So,
be spending some nights and weekends doing that.
But you can see there, I have one
of just my, sample program in there. This
is the one I use. If you're in
my VUE course, you'll be very familiar with
this program.
But in any case, with all the molding
simulators,
code in there and whatnot. So but I
also wanna get on here. I'm just gonna
stick it off top of the Polysplike,
(02:26):
the l 20.
And in the description of today's show, I
have an article I wrote years ago that
kinda detailed some of these things, but the
l 20 was the very first CompactLogix
to come out.
Now I had sourced its release to late
twenty
I'm sorry, late two thousand or twenty zero
zero
in any case.
(02:46):
But,
but,
you know, whether it came out early two
thousand one or late, February,
you know, that was almost directly after, like,
a year after the ControlLogix
l one, the 5550,
controller. So pretty quick. And, this,
unit came in either a single serial port
or dual serial port.
(03:08):
Now the,
the, l 30 I have written down here
is, came out the following year, okay, about
a year later. And so if we look
at that, I mean, it may have been
six months later, but, I have one coming
down at,
one coming out in February, one coming out
in 02/2001.
And these were known. I'm trying to get
close so you can see the label there.
(03:29):
This one was known as the 5320.
See it up there? And this one was
and I know it's hard to see because
it's at a different level there, but maybe
it'll zoom in better if I take it
off.
5330.
And so we talk a lot about fifty
three seventies and fifty three eighties.
Right? But this is where that whole nomenclature,
began way back when.
And,
(03:51):
yeah, so 25 years old, 24 years old.
And, there were some interesting things about that.
Now first of all,
this guy had no
removable
memory, no SD card,
none of that stuff. It did have a
battery in here. Oh, that's noisy. See the
battery in there? And I believe this is
the same battery we were using in the
slick one hundreds. I'm sorry. Slick five hundreds,
(04:13):
the seventy forty seven b a, but I
think it was had a seventeen sixteen maybe
a 17,
69 b a one. But I'm not gonna
take it out just to see it. I
always leave them unplugged because they would just
go dead. So screechy. You can see there
some of the pinouts on the side of
the unit.
And,
you know, the one cool thing about them
is is kinda like the
(04:36):
the original ControlLogix. This particular unit had built
in
a EEPROM. In other words, there was
a flash or EEPROM
equivalent
soldered to the board, and so you could
actually store your program internally.
So if the battery died or if you
get a lightning strike and a power surge,
sometimes that'll
(04:56):
make these guys forget what their program is,
then you would have, you still have your
program there. Now a lot of times, people
would make changes to their program, and they
would forget.
They would forget to,
to update the,
the internal memory. So but, hey. That's gonna
happen with every PLC that has flash or,
you know, removal of memory or, you know,
(05:16):
built in memory. Now the problem with that
was that, you know, OEMs typically like the
lower, less expensive version of the controller, like,
for instance, CompactLogix versus ControlLogix.
And without removable memory, how do you how
do you set them an update? That was
one of the big problems with the l
23, but that's the next generation. We're not
gonna get into that. But still, it was
(05:37):
a great it does take a long time
to download the serial at nineteen two, which
is kinda what everybody defaults to.
A serial at '21, I'll tell you what.
It I was really annoyed because I had
to download it to reset some things, and
I had to download it again to change
some things and so on and so forth.
So, it was like, I actually brought the
air conditioner in here because it was getting
so hot with the lights on. I'm like,
(05:58):
how long are these downloads gonna take? But
in any case, in the days of Ethernet,
serial just is so hard to go back
to, but, it works.
And,
in any case, so these guys were very
interesting. Now the l 20,
besides only having a single serial port, it
has no isolated ports. Right? So if you
want to take the communications out of that
serial port, maybe you wanna do d h
(06:19):
45,
you definitely have to go through an AIC
plus
to May to give you an isolated port
because NEC says you can't have a network
that runs to your POC that's not isolated.
Okay? So if this port's not isolated,
then you need an isolator, and the AC
plus is the ice
isolated link coupler, I think, or something like
(06:41):
that. Anyways, so,
that was one of the limits of the
l 20. The speed uploading and downloading to
it was a limit,
and they picked up something from the
from the,
Micrologist guys, this
port reset. Right? And we'll we'll take a
look at that in a minute. But, this
channel zero default button,
(07:03):
it wasn't a toggle. It was a reset.
A reset channel zero settings,
it didn't toggle them. Like, in the Micrologix,
it toggles between default and what you had
to set at. So if you had to
set at d h 45 or a modbus,
you press the button, it toggles back to
d f one full duplex. You press it
again, it goes back. Well, not on this
guy. It kinda, like, erases it. And we're
gonna test that out, but that's what that's
(07:25):
what the manual says, and that's been my
experience. But in any case,
so no removal merit memory, only serial,
I e very slow. And then this guy
only could do the l 20 can only
do eight modules where the l 30 could
do 16.
L 20 can only do one extra bank,
so two banks total. The l 30 could
do three banks.
(07:46):
So if you had a very narrow enclosure,
and and these are not rated. I I
I tell these just to people. I know
a lot of proud panel builders are showing
their panels on, on, LinkedIn, and, a lot
of times when I see them put a
product,
vertically instead of horizontally,
there's not many Rockwell products you can put
vertically. So always check the manual, but I
(08:06):
always, like, secretly send them an instant message
saying, hey. You may wanna take that that
picture down because you have it mounted incorrectly.
So in any case and and most of
these products, something like a like VFDs and
other products, you get derate them when you
mount them vertically.
Most of the rockwove's POCs, you can't just
can't mount them vertically. They're just not designed
for that because you don't get the convection
(08:27):
airflow. Now, I mean, you could do whatever
you want. It's a free country. Right? Free
world. But if you want a warranty, don't
tell them you'd mount it incorrectly. Right? So
in any case, so that is the l
20 and the l 30.
And, I wanna take a look at the,
l 30 specifically,
when it comes to,
defaulting that serial port. Okay?
(08:49):
So what I did is,
I I uploaded the program.
I changed this party. It was DH45. I
changed it to DF1FullDuplex
nineteen two. BCC is the default for this
line. I know a lot of the products
Raquel makes is CRC.
And then I changed this guy to DH45.
Let's go over to the computer and check
that out because I'm doing everything live, so
(09:09):
I'm hoping you guys are seeing everything okay
and you can hear me fine.
In any case,
alright. So here, you could see I'm in
the program,
and
let's go to control the properties.
And I've never tried this live. I've never
tried to do this live, but let's go
to channel zero.
You can see it's DH45.
Right?
(09:30):
So let me go back out here
into the field
and
find my what did I do with it?
Okay. It's over here. Let's go ahead and
do this live,
and let's change this, channel zero.
We'll press it. There's no there's no, notice
behind the press it for so long. Just
press it. So now let's go back over
(09:50):
to the computer
and
look at it. You see it changed. Right?
That updated. Now I'm gonna stay here, and
I'm gonna press it again. And from what
I've read, it will not go back
to the d h 45, but
who knows?
Now I'm running version 13. Probably should tell
you that first. That is the latest version
this will run. The newest version it will
(10:11):
run. And so whenever I have a legacy
product like this, I always try to get
the latest. And the 13 was actually a
very popular version. There was some real big
add ons, I think, in motion,
as well in 13, because people think 13
is a unlucky number.
K. So I just did it again,
and
you see it's not changing back. Right?
(10:33):
It's not changing back. I'm gonna try it
one more time.
K.
Let me just make sure it's not because
it's not refreshing. I'll close it and reopen
it.
K. Now look
at channel zero. It did go back. So
(10:55):
is it making a liar out of us?
I don't know. Nope. No. It was just
reading all the information.
So it finally caught up and read from
the controller.
So,
offline, it's d H 45,
but it was took a while to read
from the controller.
So
that's a downside of it. Right?
And I don't think having four tasks will
be limited to four tasks is a downside.
(11:17):
Most of the systems I've seen out there,
four tasks are fine, but in any case,
I do wanna throw that out there.
And
what else did I wanna talk to you
about this guy?
The speed. Oh, well, let's talk about what
replaced it, which was really popular.
So, you know, no Ethernet,
serial only.
(11:37):
You know, the l 20 didn't even have
an isolated serial port. Right? The l 30,
the second port is isolated.
You know, the comp the nonremovable memory, you
know, all those kind of things. Now they
sold this as being able to be
upgraded to Ethernet device that and ControlNet.
Ethernet device that
(11:58):
and d h four eighty five, not ControlNet.
But,
yeah, that was through, like, an AIC or
an ENI or a DNI.
And,
yeah, that's not really
DeviceNet,
d h 45. Yeah. For sure. That's a
100% d h 45, but a d n
I is really messaging. It just encapsulate encapsulates
(12:19):
that, that,
d f one packet into a,
a device that packet.
So it's not like you're, you know, mapping,
you know, like a scanner. You're mapping things
things in. Now there is a scanner, seventeen
sixty nine device that scanner. I got a
few of them here. And, do plan on
adding a section on device that in the
new course.
Probably that'll probably be 2026.
(12:40):
I do have a device set lecture for
$10 if anybody wants to go pick that
up and learn about the device set basics.
But the hands on just requires so much
room that it's like, I gotta get through
all the basic stuff for us. Right? So,
in any case,
but I I don't know if this guy
could actually support the SDM. I I have
a feeling it can't. Maybe I can. I
don't know. But, I was so old and
(13:01):
obsolete that, that, you know, we never tried
by the time the SDN came out. So
and I'd love if you guys if I
say anything wrong or you know I'm wrong
about something, let me know. But in any
case,
what replaced this? Right? So this is what
I call generation one.
Right? And what replaced it? I mean, I
call it generation one because it these two
(13:21):
controllers share so much in common. Right? They're
really of the same family.
But, the next generation totally is different. Right?
And so if we come out, some of
you guys may know this. This product was
extremely popular.
It's the l three x, the l 35
e, the l 32 e, l 35 c,
l 32 c, and l 31. L 31
(13:42):
was not very popular. The l 31 was
was like the l 35, but it it
it had two serial ports. And I know
somebody who was using it, and I was
very unhappy
because of the serial ports. So if you
think, and I'm not gonna pull it out
of the box. I'll do it for the
course, but you think an l 31 e,
an l 31
is like an l 30, like, you know,
(14:02):
two serial ports, but has this it's the
same size as the l 35, and it
has the compact flash port. Now
that was huge. Now I have removable memory,
and I have Ethernet built into the controller
so much faster. And I think these guys
go up to, I'm gonna say, 16. I
could be wrong about that. Do they go
all the way up to 20 or just
(14:22):
to 16? You know, I don't remember. But
I'm guessing they only go to
you
know, I think they do go to 20.
Maybe they do. In any I think they
do. In any case, I'm trying to convince
myself. What do they do? But in any
case, these guys were extremely popular.
The ability to have the ether ethernet port
plus, you know, making that just makes online
(14:42):
edit so smooth. You know, you're editing so
fast. You know, you could online edit these
other guys, but it was so slow.
In any case and the CompactFlash removable memory,
Same battery on the side. You can see
here that we have,
I don't know if we can see that
from there. If it says isolated,
you can see there isolated.
(15:02):
So every serial port was isolated.
You know? That was really nice. It had
still had the same flaw with the,
the reset button for the serial port, but
you know what?
In this unit did not have any built
in
no built in, flash card. You you had
to buy, and it did not unlike the
fifty three seventies,
(15:23):
these did not come with the flash card.
You had to buy them, and they were
pretty expensive because they were heavy duty industrial.
Now some people would say, well, can I
just buy one at the store? Absolutely. Just
buy a Compact Flash from the store and
use it. But here's the thing. If this
product, you know, costs a million dollars when
it's down,
are you really gonna put yourself at jeopardy
of use or or your company at jeopardy
for losing a million dollars because you want
(15:45):
to save $50 on a Compact Flash card?
If you wanna roll the dice, go for
it, man. It's a free world. But, in
most cases, if you were gonna leave the
compact flash in there, you know, you weren't
in a jam, you would order the the
official one from Rockwell, get one with a
warranty and a guarantee and, you know, an
industrial version. A lot of the cheap comp
a lot of cheap memory just does not
(16:07):
hold up. You know, same thing with anything
cheap. I I bought a lot of cheap
stuff over the years. You know? And, you
know, I I say I'm doing it for
my students to see if it'll work or
not, but a lot of times I'm penny
pinching. Right? And, a lot of times I
regret it too. Right? So,
I have to go back and buy the
the higher level. One place that is is
inexpensive,
pilot lights. So I've had so much problems
(16:29):
with the, hey. You get 10 for $10
and they're just, you know, you're you're screwing
the wires on, and then
the the brakes. It's like, yeah. I'm not
doing that anymore. But, in any case, I
digress.
This is generation two. We're not gonna talk
about that today, but I did wanna just
show you what the next generation was.
So l 31, l 32, l 35,
(16:51):
and l 23, which is a shoebox version
of this, has really all the same features
and functions except they took the compact flash
cut out again. We're talking about that when
we are filming the the, History of Automation
podcast this weekend.
I gotta get a copy of that to
the guest, my guest hosts, so they can,
give me the thumbs up on publishing it,
but
(17:12):
we had a lot of fun doing that.
And, we hope to record another episode.
This is all to raise money for the
automation museum, so we have a place where
we can go and and see all the
legacy automation out there, like the stuff I
showed you in the first three videos.
But in any case,
we have another one coming up this Sunday.
Jeremy's gonna be talking about, the history of
(17:34):
Rockwell. He should send me not everything. Right?
I mean, the cut the the company the
company is, like, over a 100 years old.
Right? So not gonna cover the entire history.
You know, five hours later, then we get
to 1924.
No. That's not what we're gonna do in
this podcast. But in any case,
I think that's it for today. I gotta
eat lunch. I hope you guys are having
a great day. Let me see if anybody
(17:55):
commented. Nope. I think most of you are
either driving or maybe my video and audio
is not going out there, but I do
wanna wish you guys all good health and
happiness. Again,
if you wanna pick up my CompactLogix
course, it is, you
know, $20.20 prices. We're gonna keep those until
mid September, and then I have to put
the prices up to $20.25. I wish I
didn't, but the bill collector's
(18:16):
chasing me down. So we gotta we gotta
start, you know, you know, keeping up with
everybody else. Right? All the, inflation. But in
any case,
if you do, like, let's say you pick
up level one, you will get the new
level one at no charge. So don't worry
about it. The the the cost does not
you know, it it was filmed before version
35, '36, and '37 were out. So if
(18:38):
you're looking for the for the latest, you'll
you'll get that when the the new course
comes out. But with that, I wanna wish
you all good health and happiness. And until
next time, my friends,
peace.
Everybody. Hope you can hear me. I'm trying
something a little bit different here.
Welcome to automation tech talk lunchtime edition,
and, I hope you guys can hear me.
I hope,
you can see me because I've changed everything
around. But, because I have all the equipment
here for my new twenty twenty five courses
on the workbench,
(00:20):
and I don't have any of the other
studio set up for what I want to
cover today, I decided to cover
generation one of the CompactLogic. So I'm just
gonna look over here. It seems like audio
is working. Okay? It seems like the video
is okay. So in any case, feel free
to say hi in the chat if you're
watching.
But, lots going on here. I just had,
(00:41):
three vendors send in, samples for me to
look at. Actually, one is a trade show
demo from Automation Fair, so I'm looking forward
to, covering that.
The other is a brand new line of
IO.
Very exciting. And then the third are some
Ethernet push buttons.
So I hope to have more about that.
Plus, I have, more boxes of stuff donated
to the automation museum.
(01:03):
So, just so much to cover in the
coming weeks and days. And,
but in any case, one thing I do
every day too is work on my courses,
not only,
answer questions, but also work on my courses.
And I'm getting ready to update them all
for 2025.
And I just wanted to say if you
are already enrolled in any of my Compact
Logics, whether it's level one, level one, two,
(01:23):
you get the new cost for free, so
don't worry about that. So in any case,
today, I wanna talk about, though, is the
first generation of CompactLogix
because
a lot of people have never even seen
them, not even know they exist, but have
never seen them. And, just some real interesting
stuff here. And, let me first show you
with the, overhead cam here. Let's see if
(01:44):
I can do this. Do I still have
audio? Yep. Okay.
So, in any case,
you can see here, this is the l
30, and I'm actually connected through a serial
port. I'm using a USB,
a USPS
rev three from Rockwell that I bought years
and years ago. And, let me see if
I can zoom in on that. You can
see I don't have everything wired up for
(02:05):
the new courses yet. So,
be spending some nights and weekends doing that.
But you can see there, I have one
of just my, sample program in there. This
is the one I use. If you're in
my VUE course, you'll be very familiar with
this program.
But in any case, with all the molding
simulators,
code in there and whatnot. So but I
also wanna get on here. I'm just gonna
stick it off top of the Polysplike,
(02:26):
the l 20.
And in the description of today's show, I
have an article I wrote years ago that
kinda detailed some of these things, but the
l 20 was the very first CompactLogix
to come out.
Now I had sourced its release to late
twenty
I'm sorry, late two thousand or twenty zero
zero
in any case.
(02:46):
But,
but,
you know, whether it came out early two
thousand one or late, February,
you know, that was almost directly after, like,
a year after the ControlLogix
l one, the 5550,
controller. So pretty quick. And, this,
unit came in either a single serial port
or dual serial port.
(03:08):
Now the,
the, l 30 I have written down here
is, came out the following year, okay, about
a year later. And so if we look
at that, I mean, it may have been
six months later, but, I have one coming
down at,
one coming out in February, one coming out
in 02/2001.
And these were known. I'm trying to get
close so you can see the label there.
(03:29):
This one was known as the 5320.
See it up there? And this one was
and I know it's hard to see because
it's at a different level there, but maybe
it'll zoom in better if I take it
off.
5330.
And so we talk a lot about fifty
three seventies and fifty three eighties.
Right? But this is where that whole nomenclature,
began way back when.
And,
(03:51):
yeah, so 25 years old, 24 years old.
And, there were some interesting things about that.
Now first of all,
this guy had no
removable
memory, no SD card,
none of that stuff. It did have a
battery in here. Oh, that's noisy. See the
battery in there? And I believe this is
the same battery we were using in the
slick one hundreds. I'm sorry. Slick five hundreds,
(04:13):
the seventy forty seven b a, but I
think it was had a seventeen sixteen maybe
a 17,
69 b a one. But I'm not gonna
take it out just to see it. I
always leave them unplugged because they would just
go dead. So screechy. You can see there
some of the pinouts on the side of
the unit.
And,
you know, the one cool thing about them
is is kinda like the
(04:36):
the original ControlLogix. This particular unit had built
in
a EEPROM. In other words, there was
a flash or EEPROM
equivalent
soldered to the board, and so you could
actually store your program internally.
So if the battery died or if you
get a lightning strike and a power surge,
sometimes that'll
(04:56):
make these guys forget what their program is,
then you would have, you still have your
program there. Now a lot of times, people
would make changes to their program, and they
would forget.
They would forget to,
to update the,
the internal memory. So but, hey. That's gonna
happen with every PLC that has flash or,
you know, removal of memory or, you know,
(05:16):
built in memory. Now the problem with that
was that, you know, OEMs typically like the
lower, less expensive version of the controller, like,
for instance, CompactLogix versus ControlLogix.
And without removable memory, how do you how
do you set them an update? That was
one of the big problems with the l
23, but that's the next generation. We're not
gonna get into that. But still, it was
(05:37):
a great it does take a long time
to download the serial at nineteen two, which
is kinda what everybody defaults to.
A serial at '21, I'll tell you what.
It I was really annoyed because I had
to download it to reset some things, and
I had to download it again to change
some things and so on and so forth.
So, it was like, I actually brought the
air conditioner in here because it was getting
so hot with the lights on. I'm like,
(05:58):
how long are these downloads gonna take? But
in any case, in the days of Ethernet,
serial just is so hard to go back
to, but, it works.
And,
in any case, so these guys were very
interesting. Now the l 20,
besides only having a single serial port, it
has no isolated ports. Right? So if you
want to take the communications out of that
serial port, maybe you wanna do d h
(06:19):
45,
you definitely have to go through an AIC
plus
to May to give you an isolated port
because NEC says you can't have a network
that runs to your POC that's not isolated.
Okay? So if this port's not isolated,
then you need an isolator, and the AC
plus is the ice
isolated link coupler, I think, or something like
(06:41):
that. Anyways, so,
that was one of the limits of the
l 20. The speed uploading and downloading to
it was a limit,
and they picked up something from the
from the,
Micrologist guys, this
port reset. Right? And we'll we'll take a
look at that in a minute. But, this
channel zero default button,
(07:03):
it wasn't a toggle. It was a reset.
A reset channel zero settings,
it didn't toggle them. Like, in the Micrologix,
it toggles between default and what you had
to set at. So if you had to
set at d h 45 or a modbus,
you press the button, it toggles back to
d f one full duplex. You press it
again, it goes back. Well, not on this
guy. It kinda, like, erases it. And we're
gonna test that out, but that's what that's
(07:25):
what the manual says, and that's been my
experience. But in any case,
so no removal merit memory, only serial,
I e very slow. And then this guy
only could do the l 20 can only
do eight modules where the l 30 could
do 16.
L 20 can only do one extra bank,
so two banks total. The l 30 could
do three banks.
(07:46):
So if you had a very narrow enclosure,
and and these are not rated. I I
I tell these just to people. I know
a lot of proud panel builders are showing
their panels on, on, LinkedIn, and, a lot
of times when I see them put a
product,
vertically instead of horizontally,
there's not many Rockwell products you can put
vertically. So always check the manual, but I
(08:06):
always, like, secretly send them an instant message
saying, hey. You may wanna take that that
picture down because you have it mounted incorrectly.
So in any case and and most of
these products, something like a like VFDs and
other products, you get derate them when you
mount them vertically.
Most of the rockwove's POCs, you can't just
can't mount them vertically. They're just not designed
for that because you don't get the convection
(08:27):
airflow. Now, I mean, you could do whatever
you want. It's a free country. Right? Free
world. But if you want a warranty, don't
tell them you'd mount it incorrectly. Right? So
in any case, so that is the l
20 and the l 30.
And, I wanna take a look at the,
l 30 specifically,
when it comes to,
defaulting that serial port. Okay?
(08:49):
So what I did is,
I I uploaded the program.
I changed this party. It was DH45. I
changed it to DF1FullDuplex
nineteen two. BCC is the default for this
line. I know a lot of the products
Raquel makes is CRC.
And then I changed this guy to DH45.
Let's go over to the computer and check
that out because I'm doing everything live, so
(09:09):
I'm hoping you guys are seeing everything okay
and you can hear me fine.
In any case,
alright. So here, you could see I'm in
the program,
and
let's go to control the properties.
And I've never tried this live. I've never
tried to do this live, but let's go
to channel zero.
You can see it's DH45.
Right?
(09:30):
So let me go back out here
into the field
and
find my what did I do with it?
Okay. It's over here. Let's go ahead and
do this live,
and let's change this, channel zero.
We'll press it. There's no there's no, notice
behind the press it for so long. Just
press it. So now let's go back over
(09:50):
to the computer
and
look at it. You see it changed. Right?
That updated. Now I'm gonna stay here, and
I'm gonna press it again. And from what
I've read, it will not go back
to the d h 45, but
who knows?
Now I'm running version 13. Probably should tell
you that first. That is the latest version
this will run. The newest version it will
(10:11):
run. And so whenever I have a legacy
product like this, I always try to get
the latest. And the 13 was actually a
very popular version. There was some real big
add ons, I think, in motion,
as well in 13, because people think 13
is a unlucky number.
K. So I just did it again,
and
you see it's not changing back. Right?
(10:33):
It's not changing back. I'm gonna try it
one more time.
K.
Let me just make sure it's not because
it's not refreshing. I'll close it and reopen
it.
K. Now look
at channel zero. It did go back. So
(10:55):
is it making a liar out of us?
I don't know. Nope. No. It was just
reading all the information.
So it finally caught up and read from
the controller.
So,
offline, it's d H 45,
but it was took a while to read
from the controller.
So
that's a downside of it. Right?
And I don't think having four tasks will
be limited to four tasks is a downside.
(11:17):
Most of the systems I've seen out there,
four tasks are fine, but in any case,
I do wanna throw that out there.
And
what else did I wanna talk to you
about this guy?
The speed. Oh, well, let's talk about what
replaced it, which was really popular.
So, you know, no Ethernet,
serial only.
(11:37):
You know, the l 20 didn't even have
an isolated serial port. Right? The l 30,
the second port is isolated.
You know, the comp the nonremovable memory, you
know, all those kind of things. Now they
sold this as being able to be
upgraded to Ethernet device that and ControlNet.
Ethernet device that
(11:58):
and d h four eighty five, not ControlNet.
But,
yeah, that was through, like, an AIC or
an ENI or a DNI.
And,
yeah, that's not really
DeviceNet,
d h 45. Yeah. For sure. That's a
100% d h 45, but a d n
I is really messaging. It just encapsulate encapsulates
(12:19):
that, that,
d f one packet into a,
a device that packet.
So it's not like you're, you know, mapping,
you know, like a scanner. You're mapping things
things in. Now there is a scanner, seventeen
sixty nine device that scanner. I got a
few of them here. And, do plan on
adding a section on device that in the
new course.
Probably that'll probably be 2026.
(12:40):
I do have a device set lecture for
$10 if anybody wants to go pick that
up and learn about the device set basics.
But the hands on just requires so much
room that it's like, I gotta get through
all the basic stuff for us. Right? So,
in any case,
but I I don't know if this guy
could actually support the SDM. I I have
a feeling it can't. Maybe I can. I
don't know. But, I was so old and
(13:01):
obsolete that, that, you know, we never tried
by the time the SDN came out. So
and I'd love if you guys if I
say anything wrong or you know I'm wrong
about something, let me know. But in any
case,
what replaced this? Right? So this is what
I call generation one.
Right? And what replaced it? I mean, I
call it generation one because it these two
(13:21):
controllers share so much in common. Right? They're
really of the same family.
But, the next generation totally is different. Right?
And so if we come out, some of
you guys may know this. This product was
extremely popular.
It's the l three x, the l 35
e, the l 32 e, l 35 c,
l 32 c, and l 31. L 31
(13:42):
was not very popular. The l 31 was
was like the l 35, but it it
it had two serial ports. And I know
somebody who was using it, and I was
very unhappy
because of the serial ports. So if you
think, and I'm not gonna pull it out
of the box. I'll do it for the
course, but you think an l 31 e,
an l 31
is like an l 30, like, you know,
(14:02):
two serial ports, but has this it's the
same size as the l 35, and it
has the compact flash port. Now
that was huge. Now I have removable memory,
and I have Ethernet built into the controller
so much faster. And I think these guys
go up to, I'm gonna say, 16. I
could be wrong about that. Do they go
all the way up to 20 or just
(14:22):
to 16? You know, I don't remember. But
I'm guessing they only go to
you
know, I think they do go to 20.
Maybe they do. In any I think they
do. In any case, I'm trying to convince
myself. What do they do? But in any
case, these guys were extremely popular.
The ability to have the ether ethernet port
plus, you know, making that just makes online
(14:42):
edit so smooth. You know, you're editing so
fast. You know, you could online edit these
other guys, but it was so slow.
In any case and the CompactFlash removable memory,
Same battery on the side. You can see
here that we have,
I don't know if we can see that
from there. If it says isolated,
you can see there isolated.
(15:02):
So every serial port was isolated.
You know? That was really nice. It had
still had the same flaw with the,
the reset button for the serial port, but
you know what?
In this unit did not have any built
in
no built in, flash card. You you had
to buy, and it did not unlike the
fifty three seventies,
(15:23):
these did not come with the flash card.
You had to buy them, and they were
pretty expensive because they were heavy duty industrial.
Now some people would say, well, can I
just buy one at the store? Absolutely. Just
buy a Compact Flash from the store and
use it. But here's the thing. If this
product, you know, costs a million dollars when
it's down,
are you really gonna put yourself at jeopardy
of use or or your company at jeopardy
for losing a million dollars because you want
(15:45):
to save $50 on a Compact Flash card?
If you wanna roll the dice, go for
it, man. It's a free world. But, in
most cases, if you were gonna leave the
compact flash in there, you know, you weren't
in a jam, you would order the the
official one from Rockwell, get one with a
warranty and a guarantee and, you know, an
industrial version. A lot of the cheap comp
a lot of cheap memory just does not
(16:07):
hold up. You know, same thing with anything
cheap. I I bought a lot of cheap
stuff over the years. You know? And, you
know, I I say I'm doing it for
my students to see if it'll work or
not, but a lot of times I'm penny
pinching. Right? And, a lot of times I
regret it too. Right? So,
I have to go back and buy the
the higher level. One place that is is
inexpensive,
pilot lights. So I've had so much problems
(16:29):
with the, hey. You get 10 for $10
and they're just, you know, you're you're screwing
the wires on, and then
the the brakes. It's like, yeah. I'm not
doing that anymore. But, in any case, I
digress.
This is generation two. We're not gonna talk
about that today, but I did wanna just
show you what the next generation was.
So l 31, l 32, l 35,
(16:51):
and l 23, which is a shoebox version
of this, has really all the same features
and functions except they took the compact flash
cut out again. We're talking about that when
we are filming the the, History of Automation
podcast this weekend.
I gotta get a copy of that to
the guest, my guest hosts, so they can,
give me the thumbs up on publishing it,
but
(17:12):
we had a lot of fun doing that.
And, we hope to record another episode.
This is all to raise money for the
automation museum, so we have a place where
we can go and and see all the
legacy automation out there, like the stuff I
showed you in the first three videos.
But in any case,
we have another one coming up this Sunday.
Jeremy's gonna be talking about, the history of
(17:34):
Rockwell. He should send me not everything. Right?
I mean, the cut the the company the
company is, like, over a 100 years old.
Right? So not gonna cover the entire history.
You know, five hours later, then we get
to 1924.
No. That's not what we're gonna do in
this podcast. But in any case,
I think that's it for today. I gotta
eat lunch. I hope you guys are having
a great day. Let me see if anybody
(17:55):
commented. Nope. I think most of you are
either driving or maybe my video and audio
is not going out there, but I do
wanna wish you guys all good health and
happiness. Again,
if you wanna pick up my CompactLogix
course, it is, you
know, $20.20 prices. We're gonna keep those until
mid September, and then I have to put
the prices up to $20.25. I wish I
didn't, but the bill collector's
(18:16):
chasing me down. So we gotta we gotta
start, you know, you know, keeping up with
everybody else. Right? All the, inflation. But in
any case,
if you do, like, let's say you pick
up level one, you will get the new
level one at no charge. So don't worry
about it. The the the cost does not
you know, it it was filmed before version
35, '36, and '37 were out. So if
(18:38):
you're looking for the for the latest, you'll
you'll get that when the the new course
comes out. But with that, I wanna wish
you all good health and happiness. And until
next time, my friends,
peace.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.