I never had much dealings with Siemens but last March, for a small project, I purchased a Siemens S7-1200 Starter kit, from an official Siemens dealer, it comes in a nice box, with a S7-1200 cpu, a few bit's n pieces and a floating licence of Tia Portal Step 7 Basic Version 17, which is the latest version on a usb stick. Worked a treat, all happy.
Roll on yesterday (4 months later), when I needed another cpu and a hmi and I decided, for the sake of the extra dosh, I would buy another starter kit, from the same supplier. I would then have another floating licence to put it on my second laptop and save me from swapping back and over.
However when I removed the usb stick, from my new package, I saw this time, it was Tia Portal Step 7 Basic Version 16, which is the previous version.
I contacted Siemens and they said that despite me purchasing it that very day, the only way I could get the latest version was by purchasing an upgrade licence.
I assumed wrongly, that a brand new "package" would include the latest software version, or the facility to update it prior to first usage.
Not the end of the world, but curious, is this "normal" with Siemens ?
Roll on yesterday (4 months later), when I needed another cpu and a hmi and I decided, for the sake of the extra dosh, I would buy another starter kit, from the same supplier. I would then have another floating licence to put it on my second laptop and save me from swapping back and over.
However when I removed the usb stick, from my new package, I saw this time, it was Tia Portal Step 7 Basic Version 16, which is the previous version.
I contacted Siemens and they said that despite me purchasing it that very day, the only way I could get the latest version was by purchasing an upgrade licence.
I assumed wrongly, that a brand new "package" would include the latest software version, or the facility to update it prior to first usage.
Not the end of the world, but curious, is this "normal" with Siemens ?