Dear Sir,

In Our Factory we are using Conductor NT ver 4.0, Bailey Wintools and they are operating on Windows NT operating System. As we have two servers, ten clients, and one EWS, and Sixteen Numbers IMMFP02 Multifunction Controllers.

As you all knows Microsoft Stopped the Development on Windows NT Operating System, and PCs available with Windows NT operating System is bit Difficult, and availability of the Drivers are also difficult.

As an option we has to go Conductor NT 4.0, with Windows 2000 Operating System. Could forum members please share their experience on Windows 2000 OPErating System with Conductor NT 4.0, what are the Problems you are encountering? Please advise me. Would you recommend this Upgradation?

Could you please advise what are the Problems you are encountering on Windows 2000 Operating System with Conductor NT Ver 5.0, please advise me. Would you recommend this Upgradation?

And what is the Performance and other associated problems on CoMPOSER working on Windows 2000 Operating System? please advise me. Would you recommend this Upgradation?

Advise me also Migration from MFP 02 to Bridge Controller.
Would you recommend this Upgradation?

Why i am writing a very lengthy message, at present, the present system is very stable, and absolutely no problems till last four years.

I would like to you Senior Forum Memebrs would share and transfer your experiences, and advice on this Upgradation Plan.

It would be very much appreciate your help on this issue, and thanks in advance.

Best Regards,
Ravindra Mullapudi
[email protected]

 

I strongly recommend that you contact ABB, the successor company to Bailey, who have well-defined upgrade and migration plans available to you as an Infi90 user. Some of these upgrades are very simple and easy.

Walt Boyes
editor in chief
CONTROL magazine
www.controlglobal.com

blogging at www.livejournal.com/users/waltboyes

 

Well we are still running Conductor NT ver 4.0 in three of our Bailey installations here. It has proved to be quite reliable. However we have separated the Conductor NT networks from all other networks to ensure that it is secure. We are still using Wintools in one Bailey location and the other two are using Composer on Windows 2000.

From our experience we have had no problems running the latest version of Composer with Windows 2000. Also apparently the Conductor NT 4.0 client software works well with Windows 2000. However we have had problems getting the Server installation of Conductor working with 2000, probably something to do with the SCSI card. Apparently Conductor NT 5.0 is fully compatible
with Windows 2000.

However the current suggested migration path is to ABB OperateIT 800xA. This system is a replacement of Conductor and is similar to their old OperateIT Portal B platform.

Another concern for you is the MFP02 controllers. There are quite expensive to support and the new BRC cards are much faster and you can replace
multiple MFPs with one BRC. The also allow you to use ABB S800 I/O which would replace your existing rack I/O (which is also quite expensive to support).

Definitely talk to your local ABB rep because there are a number of migration options for you.

Chris Jennings

 

I upgraded 5 servers and 15 clients from Conductor NT 4 on Windows NT, to version 5 on Windows 2000 about a year ago. I've had no problems due this upgrade. The benefits I've seen are:

Improved stability
Easier/faster setup of replacement clients or servers (drivers & similar issues))
Ability to add Windows security patches

I've heard that there will be a version 6 released in a few months that will support Windows XP. I haven't been able to confirm this. I did try installing version 5 on Windows XP just to see what would happen. It ran but had serious video problems.

 

Dear Mr. Ravi

Ours is a solution provider company in the areas of controls and automation. DCS is our specialty. We have recently upgrades Bailey INFI 90 system in a power plant on OPC based driver and on Windows XP Professional platform using Intellution as the front end MMI. If interested, you may communicate on our E Mail [email protected] OR on [email protected] for advance details.

Regards

H.V.VASAVADA

 

We regularly maintain and have upgraded (Windows 2000) for Conductor NT machines. Its been our experience that Conductor NT (all revisions) is prone to problems (ie. corrupt databases, locking up, etc.) My suggestion is take the opportunity to upgrade to a 3rd party HMI system. We have done this on several machines and have even developed an interface via Opto22 to communicate with the ICI01. All the options have been cheaper than the Bailey (ABB) solutions.

 

That's fine if you are prepared to recreate all the function block interface capabilities that are built into the Conductor System. I more long term approach would be to look at the ABB 800xA operating platform. This also offers a migration path for controllers and I/O.

Chris Jennings

 

ABB has a migration policy from ConductorNT to 800xA. Suggest you contact your local ABB representatives

Venkatramana.G.S