A programmer from Siemens was in our plant when we had one of them fail, he said it's usually the power supply and that we should keep some in stock.
It took forever to get Siemens to get us a part number and info so we could order power supplies but we finally got there. Now when a MicroBox quits we try a new power supply and have fixed some. A power supply is $120 versus over $2k for a new MicroBox. We bought a MicroBox 427B (Obsolete version) from Zeppelin (Hindenberg company) for $6K, they reamed us, more than 2X the cost from Siemens. RogerN ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dave" <e...@dc9.tzo.com> To: "Enhanced Machine Controller (EMC)" <emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net> Sent: Sunday, October 24, 2010 9:32 AM Subject: Re: [Emc-users] OT ultra-reliable, long life PC > Any idea what caused the Microboxes to fail? I used to work for Siemens > and about 2005 they had a really big mess on their hands when the > Hitachi drives they used were found to be unreliable. > > Siemens sent crews of techs out to plants that had large installations > of these PCs just to to replace hard drives. > > One Chrysler plant near me had a couple hundred of the Hitachi equipped > PCs running a production line. > > They lost money on those PCs! > > I've used the Windows EWF manager with Window XP running off a CF card > with good luck on industrial apps. > > One PC has been running nearly 3 years now - 24x7. Of course, it is > not connected to the Internet. > > Dave > > > On 10/23/2010 6:38 PM, RogerN wrote: >> At work we use Siemens Mircobox 427 PC's to control machines. They have >> a >> heat sink on the back and don't have a fan. Some of them are using >> compact >> flash for a hard drive and we use EWFMGR Enhanced Write Filter Manager to >> protect the CF cards because of the way windows is always writing to the >> hard drive, damaging CF cards in a few months. If you use EWF on the C: >> drive and store data to the D: drive it will prevent you from losing data >> changes on every reboot. I'm not sure if Linux has an equivalent to >> Windows >> Enhanced Write Filter but perhaps. Also, since this is about the >> reliability subject, I should mention that we had 10-12 Siemens MicroBox >> failures within the last year and only 1 Allen Bradley PLC processor, and >> we >> probably have 5 times as many AB PLC's as we do Siemens MicroBox PC's and >> the Allen Bradley PLC's are several years older than the MicroBox PC's. >> In >> other words, the Siemens MicroBox doesn't seem to qualify as an >> Untra-reliable PC! >> >> Roger Neal >> >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: "Ian W. Wright"<watchma...@talktalk.net> >> To: "Enhanced Machine Controller (EMC)"<emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net> >> Sent: Saturday, October 23, 2010 4:51 PM >> Subject: Re: [Emc-users] OT ultra-reliable, long life PC >> >> >> >>> FWIW, I've had to replace the SSD in my son's quite >>> expensive notebook twice in less than 15 months. I've seen a >>> couple of articles saying how they have only a limited >>> number of read/write cycles before they are lible to fail - >>> I don't think I'd like to trust important data to one yet... >>> >>> Ian >>> >>>>> I have a SSD in my office computer for the fantastic speed. However it >>>>> did fail after less than 6 months which is rather worrying. It was >>>>> replaced under warranty but it doesn't bode well for long term life. >>>>> >>> >>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >>> Nokia and AT&T present the 2010 Calling All Innovators-North America >>> contest >>> Create new apps& games for the Nokia N8 for consumers in U.S. and >>> Canada >>> $10 million total in prizes - $4M cash, 500 devices, nearly $6M in >>> marketing >>> Develop with Nokia Qt SDK, Web Runtime, or Java and Publish to Ovi Store >>> http://p.sf.net/sfu/nokia-dev2dev >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Emc-users mailing list >>> Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net >>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users >>> >> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> Nokia and AT&T present the 2010 Calling All Innovators-North America >> contest >> Create new apps& games for the Nokia N8 for consumers in U.S. and >> Canada >> $10 million total in prizes - $4M cash, 500 devices, nearly $6M in >> marketing >> Develop with Nokia Qt SDK, Web Runtime, or Java and Publish to Ovi Store >> http://p.sf.net/sfu/nokia-dev2dev >> _______________________________________________ >> Emc-users mailing list >> Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net >> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users >> >> > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Nokia and AT&T present the 2010 Calling All Innovators-North America > contest > Create new apps & games for the Nokia N8 for consumers in U.S. and Canada > $10 million total in prizes - $4M cash, 500 devices, nearly $6M in > marketing > Develop with Nokia Qt SDK, Web Runtime, or Java and Publish to Ovi Store > http://p.sf.net/sfu/nokia-dev2dev > _______________________________________________ > Emc-users mailing list > Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Nokia and AT&T present the 2010 Calling All Innovators-North America contest Create new apps & games for the Nokia N8 for consumers in U.S. and Canada $10 million total in prizes - $4M cash, 500 devices, nearly $6M in marketing Develop with Nokia Qt SDK, Web Runtime, or Java and Publish to Ovi Store http://p.sf.net/sfu/nokia-dev2dev _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
