AB Firmware and Keying

We have a couple lines that have the PF 7 series drives set to compatible match in Logix meaning just the major rev of the drive must match but many times when a drive has to replaced on nights or weekends myself or my manager has to come in and help the electricians either flash the firmware to the correct or a higher version and / or change the keying in the RS Logix 5000 program.

The operations manager wants us to set it up so the electricians can change the drive and us not have to be called out but we don't really want to disable keying as we are doing a lot of things with the drives (more than your normal application) and some firmware will not work correctly but we get repairs and exchanged units back from the Rockwell repair hub so you have no idea what firmware it will come in with or if a drive has been on the shelf for a long time etc.

I don't know of a way to keep us from being called in without disabling keying and that may cause issues with machine operation depending on the unit they put in and it's firmware.

The electricians load parameters in using the him copycat feature or they have a hard copy of the parameters that need to be changed in the line manual if they need to enter by hand but I don't know if you can upgrade /flash firmware with the HIM? but I am not sure that would be a great solution even if you can?

I would like to hear how others handle this?

We trained our electricians on flashing to the correct firmware as specified in our qualification documents. Seemed to be the easiest solution, Made sure that at least one on each shift is comfortable doing it.

Pre flash your spares in your test bed.

Don't wait until the line is down to prepare your spares for use.

AustralIan said:

Pre flash your spares in your test bed.

Don't wait until the line is down to prepare your spares for use.

Click to expand...

Sounds like OP has a wide array of running firmware so that's not really feasible...I doubt there's a spare sitting on the shelf for every drive.

If I were the OP I would flash ALL my drives to a common firmware...then you can have a hot spare on the shelf ready to go. So if you aren't able to train your personnel to flash drives, spend a few down days to being them all to the same firmware.

Sounds to me like a case of management going "we want our staff to be able to perform a moderately complex task, but don't want to train them on how to do it".

Flashing a drive isn't that hard, with a well written procedure and a couple of hours training Bubba should be all over it.

Doesn't answer your question I know, but in my opinion, administrative controls are no match for a small amount of training.

If you have enough excess processor memory, and everything is of a sufficient revision level, you can use Logix ADC (Automatic Device Configuration) to automatically download configurations and firmware to the PowerFlex drives.

It requires that the drives be keyed for Exact Match, and that you will never, ever modify any drive parameter by any means except through Logix.

If you set it up, and use switches that auto-assign IP addresses per port, then you should be able to unplug a drive, plug a new one in from right out of the box, and the PLC will DL the correct firmware and parameter configuration; not only for the base drive, but also for DeviceLogix and any other attached plug in peripheral cards.

Does it work? Yes.
Is it pretty? No.

So I'm curious.
The sparkys are to take the drive off the shelf, not flash the firmware, but are they downloading the drive configuration to the drive?? Also, how do they set the network configuration?
How is this done without having hot spares on the shelf or without them doing it themselves?
All from the keypad??? I assume.
I ask because I am in a similar situation, for now I walk them (electrician) through setting the IP address on the phone with the keypad and I take it from there remotely but it would be nice to have them do it start to finish.
I have tried training them but without doing it on a regular basis it gets foggy on the brain since we don't loose drives that often. Also, having electricians come and go has posed a slight issue with us. The last guy we sent on a drives course is no longer here.