Sometimes you walk into a new customer and have to figure stuff out! This particular customer wanted me to get a metal forming and shear machine that had stopped working to run again. The challenge was no documentation and the control system was unbranded printed circuit boards talking serial bus to a PC card in a DELL desktop with a monitor that was running a program that if I had to guess was a compiled Visual Basic program. In other words, prehistoric controls that no one but the original OEM could support. Regardless the printed circuit boards had 15 discrete inputs mostly from pushbuttons and switches, an encoder and 4 relay outputs. I could not get the old technology to work again. So my proposal was to replace the entire control system with Automation Direct Productivity 1000 PLC and a Cmore headless HMI with a touch monitor. Within two weeks I had documented the old system, removed the old controls and installed the new equipment in the existing panel. About a week later I was testing a new controls program and the machine was roughly working. Only problem was the shear timing. Because the shear (a metal punch to cut the steel sheet) was only on for about 120 ms, I had mistakenly used a mechanical ice cube relay and then figured that the old SSR relay I took out was in there for a reason and found a new one and got the ice cube relay replaced. Still didn't work. There was a mechanical cam switch that turned on each time the shear rotated through a punch cycle and I had to discover the proper timing of the shear cam to interlock the shear relay signal off. Once this was done the machine starting working as required for production.
I had worked on metal forming equipment similar to this about 5 years prior in California, but they had me doing repairs, not a retrofit of the whole machine. Because this was a new customer I did the job with a guarantee. I had them pay for parts, but did not charge for my engineering, programming or startup labor until the job was done and they saw the machine run. It was a risk that I would not be able to get a 30 plus year old machine working again, but it worked out well for everyone. I gave this guarantee because the machine looked so very easy to retrofit, but there was a moment I was worried it wouldn't run again.
If you have an old machine or a panel that needs TLC and an overhaul, reach out and I will take a look and we can figure out what to do that fits your budget and keeps your machine running!