In late 2002, GE Fanuc moved its popluar Series Six PLC system to 'Obsolete' status.  While many manufacturers throughout the world who used the Series Six had already replaced the 20+ year old PLC with a new, faster, sleeker model, many saw no reason to replace the system, as long as we can get spare parts and keep it running.

For years, Qualitrol International had been supplying parts and repairs for the Series Six.  Once this announcement was made, customers from all over the world came to our site to get the parts and repairs needed to keep their Series Six running.

And now, 8 years since GE Fanuc decided to no longer support the Series Six, there are still many people throughout the world who still have them in production. And you know what - Qualitrol is still providing quality remanufactured Series Six parts with a 2 year warranty, and turning around Series Six repairs within 2 or 3 days.  You can't get that kind of service anywhere else.  And Qualitrol will be in the business of serving Series Six users until the last call comes in.

As a Series Six user, you have to decide - do i keep my Series Six running for a few more years until I have money in my budget to replace it (knowing that you can get parts and repairs from Qualitrol until then) or is now the time that you say that it's time to put the ol' Series Six out to pasture and replace it with one of those sleeker, faster models? 

Well, Qualitrol is ready to help you with the conversion too.  For years we have promoted the GE-to-GE conversion solutions - either a wholesale replacement of your entire Series Six system or a more cost-effective approach whereby we simply replace the Series Six CPU rack (yes, in many models of the Series Six the CPU was made up of an entire rack of modules) with a new GE 90-70 or GE Rx7i CPU and your Series Six I/O structure is none the wiser and stays intact.  You can learn more about these options on our Series Six Conversion page.

Now, because of additions to our engineering staff, we can offer Series Six Conversions to any major PLC - Allen-Bradley, Siemens, Modicon or any other leading brand.  We can specify the hardware that will be equivalent to your Series Six system, convert the ladder program, help with installation and be on site for start-up.  Learn more at our PLC Conversion page.

Just go to our Contact Us page and mention that you want to speak to one of our engineers about a Series Six conversion. 

Conversation from a recent customer inquiry regarding addressing schemes in the GE Fanuc Series Five, as answered by our Senior PLC Engineer:

Question:  I am looking for assistance in monitoring local input/output Series 5 PLC addresses using Cimplicity HMI with the CCM2 protocol.

I am able to read register values correctly by simply entering the register reference (i.e. R00442) but when using the same method to try and read the Local I/O points (i.e. O0290, I0122 etc) I don't get the same value as in the PLC and they don't match up. I have tried many varients but just can't get the correct value to come through.

Answer:  The Series 5 addressing for I/O points when using CCM protocol does not use the actual I/O point address. It uses group numbers. For example, if you want to access inputs 1-8, you need to use address 257 (101H) in your communication command. (Please see the Series 5 Data Communication Manual, GFK-0244B.)

I was explaining to a customer recently the difference between Qualitrol's repair warranty and the warranty of most other repair houses.  I told the customer that when Qualitrol repairs a PLC module, we functionally test all aspects of the module by installing it in a PLC rack with other modules, uploading a program in the CPU that is designed by our engineers to fully test the functionality of the system and the repaired module in particular, and letting it 'burn in' for 8 hours.  If there is another problem with the module besides the one that it was sent in for, we typically find it during this testing process, and fix it before we send the part back. 

As a result, when we guarantee our repair for one year, we are actually guaranteeing the operation of the entire module, not just the circuit or failure for which the customer sent the part in.  If we fix the output circuit and then 3 months later the interface to the backplane goes bad, we fix it under the original one-year warranty.

In explaining this to our customer, I used the term "board level repair" to illustrate the fact that we guarantee the entire board, not just the repaired section of the board.  One of our repair technicians overheard me using this term and later set me straight on use of this term.

In most repair circles, the term "board level repair" refers to the act of swapping out suspiciously bad boards from a system and replacing them with new boards until the system functions again.  In fact this is not repairing the board, but simply removing the bad board all together.

This, of course, is on the complete opposite end of the repair services spectrum from the repair service Qualitrol offers.  I guess we should call our process "Functional Repair" or "Edge-to-Edge Repair" because it is fully comprehensive. 

When I asked another of our long-time (over 10 years) customers why her company uses Qualitrol for repairs sent in by their customers, she said, "because you're easy to deal with and we never have had any problems." 

One of our Inside Sales representatives received a call the other day from a prospective client.  This visitor to our site had found just the part they were looking for, liked the price that they saw on the screen, but just weren't comfortable taking that last step to place the order on-line.  They picked up the phone and called our toll-free number.

"I see your price and I see you have 3 of these in stock ready to ship.  Is that really true?" the visitor asked.  "Absolutely," replied our sales rep.  "Just wanted to be sure," said the visitor, "since I have you on the phone, can I just give you my credit card information?"

This story illustrates some wonderful realities about internet shopping these days.  First, you want to be sure that the information you are seeing is accurate and can be relied upon.  At Qualitrol, we update our pricing and our inventory levels every 10 minutes, so what you see is accurate and up to date.

Second, some people want to deal with people.  They want to hear a voice on the other end of the phone and be assured that everything will be handled properly.  Especially if you are in an emergency situation.  With Qualitrol, you will get the same great service whether you place your order on-line or in person.

You can call us, email us, or chat anytime.  We have an after hours number that is avialable 24/7 in case you have a problem that can't wait until the next business day.  We have one technical support person and one order processing specialist on call all the time. 

Rest assured that our on-line transactions are secure and time-tested.  Or feel free to call us anytime.

I've just celebrated my 25th anniversary in the Factory Automation Distribution Industry.  We've sure come a long way.  Well, maybe not all of us.

At Qualitrol, our goal is to embrace the latest technology used on the factory floor without leaving the past behind.  We know that a manufacturer can't just rip out all of the older legacy controllers in the plant whenever their PLC vendor of choice comes out with a new model, although a lot of vendors would be extremely happy if they could pull that off.   No, engineers and maintenance teams are tasked with keeping all of the controllers running smoothly - from the shiny new controllers that just came in on that new machine to the controllers that were introduced during the Carter administration. And what plant doesn't have several PLC brands throughout the facility?

Nothing matches the stress and anxiety that you experience when a critical machine goes down, you open the panel to see what is wrong, and that PLC you haven't touched in years, if ever, has decided to take a vacation.  Do I have the manual?  How do I reload the program?  What do all of these flashing lights mean?   I only know Allen-Bradley PLCs - who put this GE Fanuc Series Six in here? Who do I turn to for help?

Turn to Qualitrol.  Our mission is to provide after-market products, repairs, programming assistance, and phone and field support services for Legacy PLC systems.  And we offer one thing more - a knowledgeable and caring team of sales and support people who pride themselves on helping you get out of a crisis and get your machine running again.  We never fail to get compliments on the responsiveness of our team and their ability to follow through on commitments.  We're with you every step of the way.