Transfer protected by password

[Alan]

Trilogi V5.12a
Server V2.0
JRE 1.3.1

For a reason unknown to me whenever I now attempt to upload a new file to my TM1000MD2424 r45 I receive a dialog box ("Transfer Protected by Password") requesting a password.  I do not know the password.

I have tried the 'samples' user but it also requests a password.

I have reinstalled all three of the above components, starting from a clean disk and manually cleaned the registry (W2K).

How did this password request become enabled in 5.12a?
How do I reset this password?

Thanks.

Alan

[support]

Is this the first time you attempt to transfer program to the PLC using this computer? Have you previously successfully transferred a program to this PLC?

The "Transfer password" is a legacy feature in the DOS TRiLOGI software but is not enabled in TL5. So if you have never used the DOS TRiLOGI to enable the password then it is unlikely that you should receive a prompt for a transfer password unless your EEPROM has been corrupted or your COM port is not working properly.

Open the "Serial Communication Setup" in the TLServer and type in the following command:

IR*

What do you get in return? The correct response should be "IR01*"  (or other ID if you ever change that). If your response box returned "IR*" then you serial port is not a "real" serial port. What will happen is whatever you type will be echo back to you (try typing your own name). If this is the case, try to use another available COM port. Sometime Windows may report a COM port to TLServer that it cannot use for some reason. So change your com port selection to another working comm port number and re-try.

[Alan]

The response I receive back from the "IR*" command is "IR01*", which I assume means I have proper communications with the PLC.

However, when I try to upload an empty program to clear the memory I still received the "Transfer protected by password" dialog box.

My problems started after my battery backed MD2424 lost 120VAC power and ran the 24VDC backup battery down to about 20VDC.  Apparently this low voltage has corrupted EEPROM or even CPU memory.

How to up load new EEPROM?

Thanks,

Alan

[support]

Indeed your EEPROM seems to have been corrupted. Can you type in the following command at the serial command prompt:

@01$cKILL00*

(notice small letter "c" and capital "KILL")

That would delete the corrupted program and password which must have been there because of the corruption.

[Alan]

The KILL command appears to have corrected the corrupt EEPROM, although it took a number of attempts to fix the corrupt PLC ID number.  (it was set at HEX82 after the corruption and would not reset back to 01).

Am I correct in assuming there is no low voltage watchdog in the PLC to gracefully shutdown the CPU?

Thanks for your help.

Alan

[support]

Glad to learn that the issue has been resolved.

There is a watch dog timer to reset the PLC if the CPU goes hay-wire. In your case, the EEPROM corruption may not be due to a spurious write by the CPU, but an electrical transient via the power supply that may have directly erased the EEPROM.

You can use the "Change PLC ID" button in the TLServer to easily change the ID to any number from 00 to FF.

[Alan]

With my application running on the PLC I shut down Trilogic and TLServer, remove the serial cable from the PLC, remove and reapply power to the PLC.

The PLC will not reboot into the application, it remains in Pause Mode. I reattach the serial cable and start TLServer and Trilogic.  When I try to connect to the PLC, the ID of the PLC is shown as HEX82 (not 01 as was assigned).  When I try to transfer my application to the PLC, I am again asked for a Password.

I then apply the KILL command and I can get everything working again until I try to reboot the PLC, and again it fails to restart.

I don't think the KILL command clears the EEPROM sufficiently.

What next?

Alan

[support]

Can you try to transfer one of those simple sample program to the PLC and then power OFF and then ON the PLC again. Check if the PLC goes into PAUSE mode again. We want to be certain if it is due to your application program or there is some hardware problem in the EEPROM.

If the PLC pauses after reboot even with the simple demo program, then most likely the EEPROM chip may have suffered some damage during the power outage. You should email us at support@tri-plc.com providing us your full contact address and we can make arrangement for replacement of the PLC or the EEPROM chip.

[Alan]

I tested with two sample apps.  Demo.pc5 (set to run on start) will reboot successfully, power off-power on.  However HMI25to40.pc5 fails to reboot and hangs at pause.  (I am using the MD-HMI in my application)

I also noticed after a failed reboot that the DM[] memory has been filled with random non changing values.  These values remain in memory even after the KILL command or another reboot.

The password request dialog appears only when I try to reload my own application after a failed PLC reboot.

Alan