laptop for interfacing various plcs

[bigbillnky]

I have been asked to spec a laptop for purchase for our plant maintenance department and I am looking for some good suggestions. While it may sound simple, the problem is we use several different brands of logic controller on various machines. None of them are networked, most are small applications. As such, we need a laptop that would be best suitable for such use. Granted we will need the manufacturers software to interface with each controller. We use Allen-Bradley, Mitsubishi, R and B, Modicon, and Siemens, so I was hoping for some experienced opinions of which laptop may be best suited and some reasons if possible. I will appreciate any help and suggestions. Thanks in advance......bigbill

 

[jacekd]

Hi,

Whatever brand you choose, make sure it has RS-232 port on-board. USB-to-RS232 converters are not always solution.
Personally I have good experience with Toshiba Satellite Pro series.

Regards,

Jacek

Do it right or don't do it at all.

 

[lesliemcg]

hi i also use the toshiba satellite laptops (always have)
and as jacek says it must have a rs 232 port for your comms
lesliemcg

 

[AFab]

A/B will recommend Toshibas but any brand name will do just as good. The thing you need to check carefully is the compatability of the operating system with the PLC software you intend to use. NT gave me problems with AB, also some olded PLC Dos based software. RS-232 port is a must!!

 

[Mike6158]

I like my Dell's

 

[mutttt]

so long as it has RS232 and A Floppy drive you will be fine with any of the PLC programs.

You may need to think about resolution, the bigger the better as you get more ladder onto the screen - also if your planning on using it for developing SCADA packages its essential to have the same resolution as the final SCADA startion PC.

 

[ScottyUK]

I use Dell

No problems with AB software (RS Logix / RS Linx) under NT4, nightmares under '95.

My Dell runs MS-DOS and Win 3.11 (on a Pentium!) to talk to an elderly ABB substation control system, without issues.

Lots of other oddball apps on there too - Modbus client simulator, etc.


AB replaces some system drivers with its own - getting the startup of these wrong causes things to refuse to work. And you have to configure them manually!

 

[bigbillnky]

Thanks to all for your comments and suggestions. I certainly appreciate the information and candor. I was considering the Toshiba Satellite but wanted a wider array of opinions before deciding. Thanks again.....Bigbill

 

[electricboy]

it's doesn't matter that you using a kind of laptop, by the way, the most important is it can compatible and the rs 232 is a must !

 

[Tom001]

Personally I use a Sony Vaio PCG-FX701, due to software issues i am running windows 98 (on an Athlon 1400, although only 16 colours) but this can be configured as dual boot with XP. It comes in very handy as it has RS232, ethernet and an internal modem

Best of luck

Tom

 

[wsp]

bigbillnky,
I currently have an IBM running NT4.0 and would not recommend it. We have a typical situation such as yours where we have multiple brand PLC's on the shop floor. I am constantly having seriel port communication issues and would like to throw this thing in the trash. I have an associate with a Dell running XP and it does everything!!!

Hope this helps.

 

[ScottyUK]

wsp,

Suggest your comm port problems may be related to the drivers used for the 1747-PIC converter (if that is what you are using):

[blue]In ‘Devices’:
Disable the COM 1 mouse driver as ‘manual’
Disable the OEM serial driver as ‘manual’
Enable RS Linx AB-PIC driver as ‘system’
Enable RS Linx serial driver as ‘system’

Reboot.[/blue]


Works fine on my Dell, also on a Compaq Armada. Reverse the above if you want normal serial port behaviour.

 

[Mike6158]

Our company's standard PC platform is the IBM Thinkpad. Personally I wouldn't use it to hold a table leg that is too short up. Why?

(1) We develop all of our Wonderware graphics at no less than 1280 x 1024 resolution. Sometimes higher. Dell (and probably others) has a laptop that can be set to 1280 x 1024 without overscan. According to our IT people, at the time of the replacement of my laptop (also a Dell running W2K) IBM didn't offer that resolution

(2) We have had nothing but trouble from the single IBM that we volunteered to try (person does not develop graphics). The serial port works intermittantly. He is trying a USB-Serial converter. If that doesn't fix the problem then we are swapping back to a Dell.

(3) XP, while a nice OS for IT people, is, in my opinion, a pig, while offering little more than a few gee-whiz doo dads for the end user. It takes up too much hard drive space and too much RAM. While not necessarily a PC issue, it can become an issue to a technician or programmer. You can get by with a low end, IBM laptop if you don't develop high res graphics and you use an OS like W2K. Otherwise you might want to move your PC quality up a notch.

I should add that we don't have the kinds of issues we have with IBM laptops with IBM desktops. We are migrating our older Dell control PC's to new IBM boxes and so far have not had any trouble.

I try not to weigh in on brand specific issues with too much of a slant but this particular subject has been a 3 year battle with our IT Dept. One day IBM will step up to the plate with a decent laptop screen and decent graphics card and I will lose the battle. They may have already done so but the price may be too high. I don't know. Out of 30 or so technicians across the company that had to "upgrade" to IBM laptops when the IT Dept rolled out XP, all of them kept their Dells so that they could do their job.