Ancient AB HMI ?

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Thread Starter

Nick Nixon

I have diskettes that should have the project for an AB 1784-T30A HMI. If anyone is still alive that remembers this unit, what software and/or equipment was used to program it? From the process archeology department.
 
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Bob Desrochers

Nick, The only software needed is "crosstalk" or equiv. to transfer the program to the terminal or vise versa using a com port. You can also alter/program these units with just an external keyboard. An older style IBM/equiv. will work just fine. Any modifications needed can be done right on your PC with just a common text editor. I still have some literature on this series if the problem becomes larger. Have fun ;) Bob
 
Nick: I have one of these dinosaurs, fairly unused, sitting in my garage. Actually, I think mine is a T-30C - the color version of the T-30. Anyhow, the T-30's were basically an ascii terminal that had some simplistic page programming capabilities. From what I remember, the programming could be done with either a keyboard or via serial port streams. I actually have (somewhere) the programming guide for this thing at home. I am not sure about any software (other than maybe procomm or qmodem) that was used to program the T-30. At least, I know I never used anything like that. If you know anyone who might need a T-30 color, fairly new condition, with keyboard, let me know! :) ----- Ron Gage - Saginaw, MI ([email protected])
 
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Bob Peterson

I think this was a unit that programmed in BASIC like constructs (much like the Nematron Optibasic units). I think you just hooked a PC keyboard to it and typed away. Been a long time since I've seen one of those. Or I could be wrong about the model number, and am remembering a different HMI device. Bob Peterson
 
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Jim Steenstra

These units sound like they were the ones made by Xycom for AB. They run an AB version of Xycom's OIL (Operator Interface Language). Xycom supported OIL on it 4800 and 2000 series operator interfaces. I think all the screens could be sent out the serial port and loaded back in the serial port. ProComm or some other package could capture the serial data and store it in a file and later send the file back to the unit. Most of the screen data was ASCII characters, but I think there were some ESC characters in the header of each screen. Jim
 
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Scott Kortier

Jim is right, this unit was made by Xycom. You can go to their web page an find information in the support library on how to back up and restore programs. There was more than one configuration of that unit. It should have a 25 pin serial port on the rear of the unit. If the unit does not have any more ports, then it is only a dumb terminal. If it does have more ports then it programs in VIP (AB's version of Xycom's OIL). If it uses VIP then the editor is built in.
 
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Yosef Feigenbaum

Hello Nick, I did some support for the T-30 back in the late 1980's when I was working for A-B. If you've got straight text files then xtalk is probably your best bet. There was a utility that was written by someone from A-B (it was available on the A-B bulletin board way back when) and it would let you up/download and save the registers. Believe it or not I threw away all of my old disks about 2 weeks ago. I think your best bet to find this software is to call either A-B tech support or the RSI web site. Please feel free to contact me, I'll try to dig something up. Yosi
 
How did this project turn out for you? We have replaced a couple of these with AB Panel View systems.

Chris
 
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