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Allen-Bradley documentation?

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    Allen-Bradley documentation?

    Where can I find documentation for Allen-Bradley equipment?

    The Allen-Bradley corporation has apparently been the victim of a hostile takeover by Rockwell Automation. When I called Rockwell Automation, I received a curt "We don't support that." A call to a local Rockwell Automation authorized distributor resulted in a referral to a shady document-sharing website, but either what I needed wasn't there, I wasn't able to break through their firewall/paywall, or both.

    My immediate need is a book for 150-A180NBDB soft-start motor controllers, but it would be nice to have a general repository. I have the user manual, which has maybe eight pages (per language) of "typical applications", but it doesn't go into any detail about what each control conductor does or how each mode works, and is wholly inadequate.

    A Google search brought up several possibilities.

    You may have to sign up (free) to access this page.



      News Flash! A-B was bought by Rockwell in 1985, so that's 34 YEARS AGO!

      Plus it was not a "hostile takeover" in that the Bradley family PURSUED Rockwell International as a buyer in order to keep it in American hands as Siemens were the ones attempting a hostile takeover at the time. then in 2002 the bigger Rockwell Corp was split up, with the old A-B + Reliance + Iconics + Sprecher / Schuh + several other automation based companies becoming Rockwell Automation, and the avionics / military contractor becoming Rockwell Collins, then later becoming United Technologies and the power tools group becoming Delta, which was bought by Black and Decker (there are new "Rockwell" tools now coming from China, no relation). These are no longer together, they are all totally separate companies. So Rockwell Automation IS the old Allen Bradley for all intents and purposes. They still support as mush as possible, but not absolutely everything ever made given that in many cases, the components that go into things become obsolete.

      Here is a link to the website where you can search for all available literature, called their Literature Library. There you can search for all available literature. Just a warning though, search GENERALLY by the product name, not specifically, meaning don't put the part number in the search bar, only the product name. In your case that is "SMC Plus".

      That said, if a product is no longer supported as mentioned above, they don't keep the literature either, and the SMC Plus is one of those products; it is now 5 generations old (SMC Plus, then SMC Dialog, then SMC Dialog Plus, then SMC Flex, now SMC-50). They stopped selling the SMC Plus when the the SMC Dialog was released somewhere around 1989, so now 20+ years ago.

      So when that happens, Rockwell often still gives you one more chance using what's called their 'KnowledgeBase" on-line support center. You must register for it, but it is free. In this case, there is a KB Article #19059 that has all of the manuals, wiring diagrams etc. for the SMC Plus embedded in it still. So register for the KB, then sign in and do a search for 19059, it will take you right to it.

      If your distributor was an actual official A-B authorized distributor, they should be flogged... they are supposed to know how to do all of that for you. But keep in mind that there are many distributors who CLAIM to be A-B distributors and are not, they buy their A-B parts through surplus dealers or on the "grey market".
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      I'm in California, ergo I am still stuck on the 2014 NEC... We'll get around to the 2017 code in around 2021.