Welcome back to the Automation Podcast, the world's
number one industrial automation product and technology show.
Thanks to you,
our audience of highly skilled automation professionals. Now
if you're new to the show, my name
is Sean Tierney from Insights and Automation, and
I wanna thank you and our entire audience
for tuning in this week. Now in this
episode, I sit down with John Dattellum of
Siemens
to learn all about migrating
from older versions
of s seven PLCs
and to a portal software
to the newest versions. You know, we just
covered version 21 with, John a few weeks
ago, and now he walks through what you
do to migrate. Maybe you have 19 or
20 and you wanna go to 21, and
he walks us through the steps to do
that. And I found it really interesting that
you don't have to flash the firmware of
your controller right away, and you don't have
to actually,
upgrade your program right away to be able
to use these. So there's some flexibility
there to keep the PLC at the older
firmware while you migrate your software or even
download the software to a PLC that has
a new firmware in it without upgrading your
software. So really interesting stuff, and he goes
through it all. But before we get to
that, we got a couple of announcements. First,
I wanna thank Siemens for sponsoring this episode.
Not only did they take time out of
their busy schedule to come on the show,
but they also sponsor the show so we
could release it to the broadest audience, the
widest audience as possible. So we really appreciate
their sponsorship.
And the other announcement I have is from
the Automation Museum.
They wanted me to let you guys know
that the first eight episodes are now out
over at,
youtube.com
forward /@automationmuseum.
And so the first eight episodes of the
History of Automation podcast is out. We have
four more in the queue that are coming.
So please, go over and check out that
channel and give us a subscription
because, myself and the other host of that
show are working very hard on the weekends
to bring you more podcasts about legacy automation.
Really interesting stuff. So with that said, let's
go ahead now and jump into this week's
episode and learn all about migrating from older
versions of TIA Portal and s seven firmware
to the latest and greatest. Hey, everybody. Welcome
back to the show, and I wanna thank
John for for coming back on. He's gonna
walk us through something which I know if
you haven't used it in a while can
be a little confusing. So, John, thank you
for coming back on the show. Appreciate you
doing the recent v 21 update. And now
you're going to give us a for some
of us, it'll be a review. For some
of us, it'll be new information.
But, go ahead. Let me turn the floor
over to you.
Yeah. So
the one thing that we we agreed to
talk about was an understanding of,
upgrading
the project to the latest version, b 21,
from the previous versions where the project might
reside.
And then secondarily
to that is,
updating
the version or the image
of the devices
that exist.
And the the the one key thing that
I and I think this will make it
easier to understand is that,
if I'm working in an older version like
a v 17 or a v 18
TI portal on my machine,
our intent
is that the devices that come out with
new firmware
are
compatible with the older versions.
So if if my demo equipment that I'm
running here in v 20,
I put in a a brand new PLC
or have to update the HMI,
our objective, our intent
is that
the new device,
even though it won't show up in my
catalog
with the part number and the firmware,
it is backward compatible with the v 19.
So that's the first thing that that,
I I want people to think about is
I'm I'm working with v 17 or v
18 or v 19,
and I get new a replacement PLC
for something that might happen or I have
a new machine, but I still wanna use
that older version.
I can use the new hardware
or the new image, the new firmware,
and it will be backward compatible with that
old set. Yeah. And let's talk about that
for a minute. So I I have an
existing machine.
I'm using v 17 on it. Let's say
it's a 1,500, for example,
and I don't know what the firmware would
be. It could be three dot x, four
dot x, whatever it is.
Now
I have I have to buy one for
the spears for the shelf. Right?
And that one could be newer because it's
bought after the machine. What you're saying is
that if we get a newer unit,
you know, from the storeroom,
that the intent Siemens' intent is that that
newer unit will be able to plug right
into the same spot as the older unit
and, you know, assuming that everything else is
the same. Right? It has the same number,
Ethernet ports and all that stuff, or Ethernet
ports and all that. It'll be able to
plug into the same unit. You'll be able
to download the same program to it so
that you don't have to really worry that
if the room the the replacement and the
spear in the storeroom
is newer, the attempt is that the newer
unit will always be able to replace an
older unit, and you won't have to buy
a software upgrade. Am I understanding that correctly?
Correct.
Yep.
And the other thing is you don't
typically need to download. You just move the
memory card. The memory card has the full,
running,
application in the 1,500.
So the intent is you pull the memory
card out of the PLC because you know
that's what was running in the,
predecessor
version,
if it's a replacement. If it's a new
machine, then that's the other but the mem
I've done it before where I just pulled
the memory card out of the,
older version of the hardware. It was a
a zero two that you see here on
the screen.
And then I I put in a a
new hardware, which is the zero three, the
latest. These numbers go up.
And in my case, it was probably a
3.1 because it was a couple years ago.
Put that memory card from the 2.9 firmware
on this hardware into this one, put it
in, run mode, and I was good. Because
the device know. Yeah. Go ahead. Because the
device is backward compatible.
And that's important to know because the 15
hundreds, they require that
SIMATIC memory card. Right? So you're not gonna
use a 1,500 without that official card. But
the upside of that is that unlike a
lot of other products on the market, if
it goes down, you just put the card
out, put it in the new one, and
you're good to go. So that from a
ease of replacement, that's just awesome. And the
cards are like all these industrial cards. They're
they're very reasonable and priced based on having
to be industrial,
But that's that's pretty awesome. So let me
turn it back to you.
Yep. So that's the first thing that people
need to really
grasp is that
even though there's new version of Kia Porto
v 21,
even though there's new versions of the firmware
4.1,
I can still use the new hardware,
that comes out
in my systems if I'm not ready to
upgrade to v 21
v 21 yet.
The other thing that's key to understand
is
you can see on my screen,
I am working
right now on a v 20
online with my running demo.
And,
I've already updated this PLC firmware to a
4.1, which is not shown.
So
even though v 20,
the latest firmware and functionality it supports is
a four point o,
The actual device
that exists in this running system
is
a 4.1 firmware because I've been doing
things with v 21, so I upgraded the
firmware so I could see it. So I
can go here. I could connect to that
PLC
online,
and you can see that it's a 4.1.
So in your project,
there's a version 20 project.
You have told that the controller, the PLC
is version four point o,
And you downloaded that to the actual physical
PLC, which is a 4.1.
Correct. And I noticed you is that why
you have there's an orange exclamation point at
the top of the
project tree. Is that what that is telling
us, or is that something else?
That's because I don't use passwords.
Okay. That's fine. So
would you when you go to download this
and it sees, hey. The firmware is newer
than what your project set to, Does it
give you a complaint? Does does it say,
hey. Are you are you sure you wanna
do this?
No. Normally, on that, it doesn't.
Okay. On some of the other ones, like,
the,
the HMI
will
notice
that it's a newer version of the image,
and the HMI will queue more.
It will
queue me
if the,
if I'm
downloading
this v 20 project into the PLC and
it's a v 21. I have a screenshot
of that that I captured because I was
downgrading it yesterday Yep. Over the spring. So
it will say,
for example,
I've been working on this demo equipment the
last week, and I've been doing a v
21. This morning, I wanted to start of
v 20. So when I went to download
it,
the download dialogue came up and said, hey.
The device you're dialing downloading to is a
v 21. Are you sure
that you wanna download it to a v
20? Because it knows it's degrading or downgrading
the functionality.
Got it. Great. Well, that's good. Well and
it's good because you may not you know,
you may get a unit in. It's been
flashed to the newer firmware, but you need
to keep the program in 20 for whatever
reason so that we can use to continue
to use that, which I think is so
so pretty, you know, awesome. And, again, if
you use an HMI, you may wanna keep
it. That that's one reason why you may
wanna not change it is because there may
be other things connected to it, and you
don't wanna change everything. Maybe you'll do that
when things are down. But right now, you
we just wanna keep the machine up and
running, so we don't wanna be forced into
migrating. So that's awesome. Okay. Good.
Yeah. That's the one thing I I really
try to drive home is that start somewhere
where you know,
that is,
reachable like the PLC,
where it's not gonna make an impact and
I don't have to risk dealing with the
HMI or the drive or the third party
devices that might be connected or OPC UA,
things that might get impacted by doing the
upgrades, is start somewhere such as the firmware
of the PLC,
the project revision of the project, TF portal
b 21.
And then,
you can after everything verifies it's communicating,
like, HMI,
then you can start to go, alright. Next
week, I'll do the HMI. I'll do the
drives and and then
bridge it so that I I have a
strategy. And the other thing I really try
to bring home is if something does show
us that is not necessarily,
supporting the migration to the firmware or the,
of the
version of the project,
realize that you can go back to v
20 or v 19 and reload the pre
previous project.
So you can see that the demo project
that I actually opened was a v 19
with a 3.1 firmware,
update two of the HMI.
And as soon as I opened it in
b 20, it's put an underscore b 20.
So the v 19 project is still on
my computer,
and then I had this b 20.
You know, I think we also have to
be a little pragmatic
about this too.
I've, over the years, run into some, especially
the younger engineers
who or or technicians or electricians who
they don't understand. Just because there's a new
version doesn't mean you need to upgrade. Right?
It's not like our phones and our TVs
that are always forcing this upgrade. You know,
production is king. Right? Uptime is king. Yeah.
So if there's if there's not a reason
upgrade, you don't need to. Now if you're
building a new machine or putting in a
new new system,
it may make sense to use latest and
greatest, or it may make sense to match
it with what you already have installed. But
I just, you know, I think all the
listeners probably know this too. They'll agree with
me. Prag be pragmatic about the upgrades. You
know? If there's a new feature you have
to have, great.
But, you know, if the system's running and
making money for the company and paying your
paycheck, you know, think twice before upgrading it.
You know, why are we doing this? What's
the what's the practical reason for doing the
upgrade?
Right. The the other thing that I I
had a conversation the other day is there's
two types of people. I'm the type that
will do it,
through a process and and test one step
at a time because I wanna know exactly
where there's a problem. There's other the other
guy, he's gonna have the attitude it should
work. I'm gonna do it all. And if
it doesn't work, then I'm gonna go complain
to the vendor
and go post things on Reddit,
that it didn't work.
And my attitude is that when I get
that guide, then I try to back them,
hey. You gotta go step by step so
that we know
where and what device is the problem, and
and you gotta be reasonable about the concept
of being, like you said, pragmatic
about it. And you have to think about
it's not just your computer. It's everybody else
who's gonna be working on this machine as
well.
So, typically, you you know, some of the
the listeners, they're in an island. They're the
only one who's working on these systems. But
some of them
have colleagues who all their computers will also
need to be updated as well. So you
don't you don't wanna and I've seen that
many times, and it causes a lot of,
consternation in the plant when somebody doesn't upgrade
it. Now everybody has to update their laptops
because they don't have the right, you know,
the software installed, the newest software installed. So
let me turn it back to you. Exactly.
Yep.
So,
what I'm gonna try to do,
is,
take this running system and just update it
from, v 20 project to a v 21
project
and then,
update the device
of the PLC for now and then update
the instruction set. So it'll be a multiple
step project.
But he you can see here's my simulation
of my HMI that was
this is actually a simulation of my v
19 project running in v 20.
I migrated it to v 20, but I
didn't really change anything
in it other than, you know, underscore v
20. But it does run the drive and
the little fake conveyor,
simulation mode. So the drive is running in
the background
and,
providing me that feedback.
I don't know if you can hear that
or not. Oh, yes. Yep.
But the other day when I did this,
the cool part was the HMI continued to
function
even after I had upgraded the PLC
and the,
project. So I'll I'll I'll close this project,
save this project,
because I wanna use this exact project that
I had, all the green checkboxes.
And,
I'll close this because,
I'm gonna migrate this one if I could
find it. This will take a second.
Cool.
And then the cool thing is after my
project is closed, I still just
I can use the online accessible devices to
see all the devices that I have on
my network. I have three or four POCs,
couple HMIs, a couple drives.
So I can go in here and pick
each one of these, and I can actually
do the firmware update,
through this
online access with this tool right here, about
a project open.
But I do have my v 20
project open.
And here's,
while we I was looking at it earlier
today. This is my g two fifteen hundred,
g two twelve hundred. I went in here
just to get ready to upgrade the firmware.
I'm not gonna do it right now because
it takes a minute.
But I downloaded
from the support site,
the four point o for this g two
PLC. It was released this week.
I browse to the file,
so I could do the update, and then
I click on this, and then it'll update
the PLC.
But I I I'm not gonna do an
update today. I don't I don't think I
don't think we need to do that because
that's something that I think, we can deal
with another time. But let's go ahead and
I'll see if I can find that same
project. Give me a moment. I might have
to edit some of this stuff out
while I search for that
demo project.
So here I I've found that v 20
project.
It's it says a p 20.
It's
a underscore v 20.
And the cool part is,
v 21
will make an effort to read that file
and search what's in it. And, basically,
it will,
check
to make sure
that my v 21 installation has the components
required to upgrade the components that are in
the project.
So it recognizes that I've got some step
seven
with some safety,
a few,
WinCC
devices that exist,
and some drives.
So it it goes through, and it agrees
that it it's a good
installation of v 21,
and then it's gonna relabel it as v
21. So I hit upgrade,
and then it'll go through a process.
In in these later versions,
v 20, v 21, there's not as many
changes to the core,
database
of the devices.
So this is not as,
significant as it was in b 11 or
b 12 or b 13 or b 14.
In in the, v 18, v 19, v
20,
fundamentally, the core of the PLCs and HMIs
are are
are are staying the same, and each version
just adds a few new features like we
talked about during the the update of v
21,
on the other podcast.
Hey, guys. Just breaking in here really quick
to thank Siemens for sponsoring this episode so
we could release it on all platforms.
Really appreciate when vendors do that. And I
want to ask you, if you're enjoying this,
if you're finding this helpful I know I
did. It was a great refresher for me.
But if you're finding this helpful, please let
Siemens know. It helps them justify coming on
the show more often,
and, we really appreciate them sponsoring the shows
too so we can, you know, cover some
of our production costs. Now if you use
other products besides Siemens, please reach out to
them. Tell them to contact me directly. I'd
love to have them on the show. I
I mean, the only caveat is it has
to be industrial automation related,
typically focused on automation, you know, of manufacturing
and process industries.
But in any case, I do get a
lot of people from outside the industry wanting
to come on. But, in any case, you
know, I know there's some vendors I reached
out reach out to every month that are,
like, favorites of you guys, the the people
out there in the audience, and I just
get crickets back. So please
let your vendors know. Say, hey. You should
go on the automation podcast. Sean is very
easy to work with. Just reach out to
him. My contact info is all over the
place. But in any case, we'd love to
cover every vendor that you're using. And, we've
already covered, I mean, on over a 100
different vendors, but we wanna keep expanding it
and get some of the previous vendors to
come back on so we could use your
help with that. And, just let them know
how much you appreciate the show and how
valuable it is to you and the work
you do. With that said, we're ready to
jump back into this episode and learn more
about migrating our s seven and TIA portal
projects.
So, the first thing that you'll notice up
here is there's a underscore b 21.
Yep. And, so basically,
it's given the database,
the project file,
a different unique
identifier,
underscore v 21,
so that
it's not overriding
our
v 20 project or even my v 19
project.
And then, hopefully, theoretically,
the PLC
still is
consistent
with v 20 as it was with v
21.
So I should get, hopefully,
good green statuses.
Maybe a little bit of something going on
with the difference here that I can,
overcome
with
maybe something I didn't compile in the in
the previous version or didn't migrate
properly in b 20 '1. But,
you can see that,
usually, all I get is this little,
version indicating that there's a difference,
And I can go
and,
monitor everything except for this one that some
reason decided
that was gonna be different, and and I
do get that occasion. But here, I can
monitor what's going on in my machine
even though the the PLC
is still,
a v 20 project.
So now I'm using v 21,
the v 21 project of the v 20
project, and I'm monitoring the PLC.
So I can monitor
and troubleshoot.
So what you've done here is you've offline.
You've opened the v 20 project
in v 21. It converted it to b
v v 21,
and you immediately went online with the with
the POC that had the v 20 project
in it.
And you didn't have to switch back to
v 20. You could stay in v 21,
and we're online. We're monitoring. We can edit
without having to,
you know,
redownload a v 21 version of this program
to the PLC. And that's really cool. Now
is the question. If I do make an
edit using
v 21,
does that now stop v 20 from getting
connecting again and looking at it? Correct. Yep.
Okay. So now I would decide that I'm
ready to I've I've validated,
that the project seems to compile in in
b 21.
I'm gonna go ahead and download that to
the PLC.
So, you know, I might do some compiles
to make sure, you know, that it it
it's okay
being a a a fifteen fifteen PLC
in a v 21 environment.
So
I'll run the compile
based on v 21,
v 21,
And then I'll download it to the PLC,
which is gonna download the entire hardware and
software.
And
then
I'll,
stop the PLC. In this case, it will
stop the PLC. And then I'll,
put it in remote and test it.
And the key is one one thing is
I haven't yet updated the PLC, so v
21 is still
using
the PLC in a in a
what do you wanna say? A
backward compatible mode where it's
still seeing it as an older version of
the PLC. Okay. So that's important. The PLC
is still at version 3.1.
Got it. Yep.
Now this might be a step that, you
know, you just go right ahead and,
change the firmware
to one of the later versions,
and just accept the fact that it is
a 4.1,
or you can download. What do you wanna
do?
No. Let's go ahead and download. So that
that's the firmware version of the PLC in
the project
Right. Which doesn't have to match because the
hardware is backward compatible. It doesn't have to
match. Yep.
So it gives a nice notice here. Yep.
It's making you check the boxes
to make sure you know that, hey. The
project in this 20,
you're downloading the 21.
You sure you wanna do this? You're upgrading
the project in the unit. Yep.
Good. Yeah. Very helpful.
Yeah. So that's a it's I mean, you
gotta expand these things and read them. Now
the one thing that's hanging up is the
fact that I got a
view of things.
Okay. Dash of y. So it wants that
to be compiled separately.
So
explicit con con,
compile the view of things application as required,
separately from the PLC because it's a kind
of an HMI on the PLC.
Yep. So if I go down here to
the web application,
view of things, just recompile that so that
it's
now,
compiled in b 21. Then I can go
back to the PLC,
and I should have that same preview dialogue
without that error.
Yeah. We did cover that when that first
came out. It was very, very cool feature.
Yeah. It's a nice feature.
So now I I that one's okay. It's
gonna download it. Again,
it's it's giving me clear notice that because
it's gonna download some of the hardware,
It's gonna stop it.
It's going to,
upgrade
the
PLC
so that it's actually running a v 21
project
regardless of the firmware. And then I hit
load,
and I see my PLC stop
and flash
on the display. It's indicating a download in
progress.
Now if you were using some of the
new v 21 features, you'd very likely have
to update the firmware on the PLC.
Or in this case, your PLC's firmware is
already upgraded, but you'd have to tell to
unlock those new features. You'd have to change
the version of firmware in your project
because, as we know, version 3.1 of the
firmware doesn't have all the bells and whistles
that version 4.1 has. Exactly. So, yeah.
I I just went to the
push buttons and reset my safety,
and,
the cool part is
my machine is running.
So
I'm I'm I migrated the v 21,
but I I I I can and maintained
a safe threshold
of not changing the PLC yet,
just to make sure,
that,
the v 21 didn't upset the Apple card
and and change anything.
So then the next step is, okay, let's
embrace
changing the device to the new firmware.
So now I can go here to, properties,
change firmware revision,
and it it right away recognizes
what's the latest.
Mhmm.
So it when I do it down there,
it basically comes up and it gives me
an indication that, okay. This part number
0303,
does have a couple other options beyond the
3.1.
I mean, I could even if something was
wrong, go back. But I I wanna go
forward because I trust Siemens.
Been here long enough that I know.
So now this is the part where I
say, okay. My now I'm gonna make my
PLC a 4.1
firmware.
And, basically, now it's taking advantage of all
the new features and functionalities and security
benefits of the new,
1,500.
Again, you'll wanna you'll wanna select the PLC.
If I select this and do compile, it's
gonna compile a software part of the PLC.
I like to go up here and set
my context
to the hardware and the software, and then
I just hit this compile.
Yep. Yeah. If you had a big project,
it may make sense if you've only changed,
like, let's say, a data block. Just recompile
that data block. Right? But, you know, that
may affect other other,
you know, like the main OB or other
blocks. So, you know, if you're if you
just wanna
download, just compile the whole thing.
Yep.
Honestly, when you do the download, it's doing
a compile. Mhmm.
But
sometimes it's frustrating to get to this download
dialogue and,
get forward. Yep. Yeah. I think we I
have to go back. So, again, it it's
gonna come up and it's gonna say, hey.
It's gonna reset it because,
because we're making such a drastic change.
I, it's gonna stop it. So in case
I'm still running the machine, I would go
to the HMI.
It's gonna update some of the safety features
because that changed in the web app. So
I like this preview dialogue download. For me,
it's it's like a little stethoscope that gives
me all the details of,
the health of my
online device and what is gonna happen to
it once,
this download happens.
Yeah. Back to what we were just talking
about. If you've made a lot of changes
to the program,
do a compile. If you made some minor
changes,
likely the download's gonna do compile, and you're
gonna be able to go forward. But, yeah,
it does get frustrating to have it when
you go to do a download, to have
it bring up to the download window and
say, oh, something didn't compile. For me, it's
usually I forget to disable the password because
I'm just working on the test bench, so
I don't need the password. It's like, ugh.
Now I gotta close that. I gotta go
all the way down. So doing the compile
first. And I think as people use it,
they know, you know, what what when should
I compile it before I download, or when
can I just go right to download because
there's a low risk of having any issues?
Yep.
So it's it's downloaded, and then now it's
updated to the matching firmware.
And I and I walk over here and
hit my little safety
reasimulate
and validate the safety functions,
and it's,
back up and running.
And, the cool part is my machine is
up and running.
And now you can take advantage of all
the new features we talked about in the
previous episode because you have everything updated to
the latest and greatest.
Yep. Yep.
So for people used to working with other
brands, this may be
quite different. You know, there's no lockstep here.
You have the independence like we did in
in with with older,
POCs.
We still have that with the latest and
greatest from Siemens, that independence between the firmware
version, the version of the software,
the version of the firmware in the software.
Again, if you wanna use all the latest
features, you're gonna have to go to the
newest firmware and the newest software. But if
you're just maintaining a system, then you have
a lot of options here. You don't have
to, you know, automatically upgrade the firmware or
the software
to continue to maintain it.
Yeah. And and the one thing that that,
you know, different from what I have in
my little workshop here and you have there
in the lab is our customers have huge
systems. Way Oh, yeah.
Third party
devices
and and robots and interfaces
and drives.
And you you have to take into the
consideration
that
when you make this change to the the
main device of the PLC,
you're you're gonna have to validate that it
maintains the communication and the connectivity to all
the other components that are in there. So
that's what's nice about this process, lockstep.
If in this last step that the 4.1
firmware in in the project
of v 21
created a situation with one of my interfaces,
I could backtrack.
Yep.
You have to remain calm and you have
to be be pragmatic
about what steps would I go back to
to determine,
how do I get my
confidence back to the because that ultimately, you
know, what we want, we want the machine
to be running for the management people there.
So it's it's kinda creepy.
Yeah. And and I I've done that too
where I'll I'll be trying a new feature,
you know, working with you and Lewis and
the other team the people on your team,
but then I have to go back and
add a lesson to one of my courses
that's using an existing, you know, previous version.
And so I'll I'll downgrade the the controller.
I'll, you know, open up the VM just
for that class, and I'll use the older
version. It's nice to have that independence
to be able to go forward and backward
and be able to use, you know, the
newest software with the older firm was and
vice versa. So,
I think that's just it's so flexible, and
it's kinda reminiscent of how other people used
to do it years ago. But, you know,
it's good that Siemens has, kept that. And
I would like to know for the audience,
what do you think? I mean, those of
you using this in the field, have you
found any or you have any questions that
maybe John and I can answer? And for
those of you using non Siemens products,
what do you think? Is this more flexible
or more confusing for you? I'd love to
hear you guys' thoughts in the comments.
So there's two more things that I I
can do here.
So I I just wanna, you know, give
everybody a moment to, you know, digest all
the things that we've kinda covered so far.
But the the final thing is the actual
instruction set
also has a version on the instruction set
that resides within the PLC.
So these these instruction sets that are in
in the
configuration of the PLC also
have a a version to them.
And,
some of them get updated with e with
with each release for bug fixes or whatever.
So there's one final step
that a lot of people miss
is, you know, and upgrade the program up
upgrade the program in in star systems.
So this will basically
look through any counter
or motion or move instructions
that might have been fixed or
or or updated in in the v 21.
And it will basically,
update
the reference
instructions that are used for the project
and,
fix any bugs that might have been identified
from v 20 to v 21.
So that so then that would be another
step that is kind of required.
And you can see, you know, it looks
like there's some safety stuff and some other
stuff that kinda got updated
in the instruction sets.
So that would be one more final little
download to get myself
completely up to and, again, you don't have
to do that upgrade program if your instruction
set works for the running machine.
It's just I I I like people to
understand that if you were to start a
new project with this PLC and use the
latest and greatest stuff,
that's where we would be at.
This time, I'll see if I can actually
download that with
the software
since it didn't look like it showed up
as, anything in the hardware.
But it it is gonna because I think
there's some motion stuff. But, basically, yeah, now
it it it'll do a reload of some
of the hard hardware configuration
stuff that's related to the instructions,
but that's the final little update for the
PLC.
Cool.
Yeah. So that if you have an older
system and it operates a little differently, the
instruction operates a little differently
than the latest system, that's something to keep
in mind that, you know, we're not it's
not only firmware, it's the instructions as well.
And, so keep that in mind. That's part
of, you know, what all these industrial automation
vendors do is in testing their products as
they're updating that stuff.
Yep.
So I I think it's it's to me,
coming from the other vendor and doing things
the other ways and some of the other
stuff that I've struggled with the past,
I I really appreciate
the the the concept of this flexibility.
And, again, I haven't even updated the HMI.
My HMI is still
a image
that is a
v 19 update two,
in the project here. So this little HMI
device is,
still
the v 19 version. My actual HMI hardware
is a v 20 image,
and it's got a v 21 project that's
running in there. So,
to me, you know, I like the fact
that I can focus on one thing at
a time, like the PLC,
and the motion control.
And then
in a couple weeks, once I have all
the confidence in the world of this, then
I can tackle the HMO
as a whole part.
Absolutely.
So I think that was an excellent to
run through that. I mean, it was a
great refresher for me, and I hope everybody
who's watching, I thought thought it was a
good refresher, or maybe you learned something new
if you're not if you're not using Siemens
yet. But,
John, I really appreciate coming on and going
over that. Was there anything else you wanted
to cover before we end the show? No.
I I think that was the key is
is is the highlight of that.
There's there's some slides that are that explain
some of the stuff in the in the,
links to the other update that I'm gonna
give you. But I think this is the
most important part is to to have this
available as a little tech tip that you
can show.
Excellent. Well, I appreciate coming back on, John.
Really do. Absolutely.
I hope you guys enjoyed that episode. I
know I did. That was a great refresher
for me. I haven't touched some of that
stuff in a while, and I really appreciate
John coming on. He's actually coming back on
to show me how to upgrade my licenses,
which I'm gonna share to you as a
tech tip. So that'll be pretty cool to
do as well. But, I do wanna thank
Siemens for,
sponsoring this episode, coming on the show, bringing
us up to speed. I also wanna thank
you, the audience, for tuning in. There would
be no reason to have a show if
you guys weren't interested in this kind of
stuff. So thank you for tuning in. I
do wanna wish you all good health and
happiness.
And until next time, my friends,
peace.