If you hang out in online forums very long, you’re going to have your heart broken at some point. We recently saw a heartbreaking story: an engineer had lost the parameters of an Indramat CLM1.3-LR1-06V45.
It’s possible to reprogram. Just find the file which was licensed to your company a few decades ago and any changes you’ve made since then, open it with Notepad, and type everything back in with the CLM’s keypad.
Time consuming, maybe, but not impossible to fix. You have to know which parameters must be customized for your particular needs, which can be left at default, and which can be zeroed. You have to have all the parameters — and that could be dozens or even hundreds — and then it’s just a matter of reprogramming the control.
Maybe you see the sad part coming.
Do you have a good backup?
Many factories still have an Indramat control from the 20th century, but hardly anyone still has the same computer they used in the 20th century. If the backup files were saved on a computer your company had when you (or maybe they) set up their motion control, you probably don’t have access to them any more. If they were printed out and saved in a file drawer somewhere, you probably can’t find them.
Printing things out may seem incredibly old school, but electronic technology changes fast and papers from centuries ago are still readable, so printing out a copy of that file and treating it like a really important document — which it is — is a smart move.
Do it now, why don’t you?
Unless you can’t find the file, which was the case in this sad story. Having lost its parameters, the Indramat CLM has essentially lost its mind. It has become a very pricey paperweight.
Last we heard, the guy from the forum was trying to find someone somewhere who might have a copy or a good backup. You don’t want to be this guy. Make sure you have a back up.