>USB 2 COM adapter<working with Step7

Hello all.

I'm planing to buy a new laptop. And most of the new laptops don't have a Com port onboard, so I am wondering if any one of you is useing a USB 2 COM adapte to connect to the S7PLC, or to an S7OP? Do these adpters work fine or do they couse more trouble than good?
If you have souch an adapter would you please tell the manufacturer and the cost of the adapter.

Thank you.

Siemens makes a USB adapter 6ES7972-0CB20-0XA0.

I've already worked with that USB/MPI converter and it's working very fine. You get better speed for a lower price than with a RS232/MPI converter. It's also cheaper than the PCI cards, for which you don't have the room in a laptop, or the PCMCIA card, which you almost never can use on a desktop. My advise: forget the USB/RS232 converter and go directly for USB/MPI. One drawback however: it's not suited for S7-200, because that one uses PPI and that's another story.

However I do have to use the USB/RS232 converter too because I'm also using AB and OMRON PLCs.

Kind regards,

Thank you both for the reply.

Tomorow I'll borow a Usb 2 COM adapter, and I'll try all the possibilites. I'm gonna try to connect to an S7-300 station, S7635 OP,to a Masterdrives inverter, to a MM440 inverter. And I hope that I'll be able to connect to everything.

I'll report how it goes.
Again thank you both!

Today I tried the USB 2 COM adapter and everything worked fine!
I connected to an C7635 OP and to a couple of Siemens inverters and there was no problem with the connection

I would recommend either using the Siemens cable or Belkin USB to serial adapter. The other products might work fine for lower speeds ( (I had a startech.com product) but if at all you have requirement for speeds more than 38.4Kbps it maynot be able to support it... unless its one of the products I have recommended.

This is the answer I got from Siemens too..

(sorry to NoName for hijacking his thread).

Jean Pierre, may I ask you a few questions about that USB/MPI converter ?

How good is it when compared to a CP5611 card ? In particular at 1.5 Mbaud.

Can you set up an OPC connection with the USB/MPI converter ?
Siemens support told me "no", but knowing how many times they told me "you cant do that" where I actually could, I would like to hear it from someone who has really tried.

Jesper,

I mainly started to use the USB/MPI converter because the latest PCs I obtained were too small (SFF housing) to use a full blown PCI card, as the CP5611 is. For MPI and DP use it's as good as the CP5611, and it's even somewhat cheaper. Furthermore I can use it with the laptop I have finally received. I have however not yet used it for OPC, because I don't use OPC on an S7-300. I'll try to test it one of these days. If you don't hear from me within about a week, don't hesitate to bring this thread back up on top of the list. I have to do so much, it's easy to forget a request from time to time you know .

Kind regards,

Jesper,

KEPWare and INAT do not support the USB/MPI converter at this time. I have downloaded a demo of ShowIt. They claim it's working with the USB/MPI converter, but I'm still waiting for a registration code to install the software as a demo. At that time I'll be able to test it.

BTW What OPC server are you using? Maybe I can test it too.

Kind regards,

Jean Pierre,

I use Siemens SIMATIC Softnet S7.
But this one is very easy to setup - NOT !!!
If it wasn't because Siemens software is half the price of the other suppliers offerings, and because I have now carefully made a "how to setup OPC connections with Simatic Softnet S7" document, would I look for alternatives.

The reason that I suspect there is a chance it would work, is that all the communications is via the connections you set up with the 'Set PC/PG interface' utility.
All that the SIMATIC NET software "knows" is that there is an S7ONLINE connection, not that it is a CP5511, a CP5611 or a USB/MPI adapter (*).

cheers

edit: *: Wait, thats not true (writing this makes me think again), you have to make a socalled "PC Station" where you drop hardware and software into virtual slots. So I would have to drop a USB/MPI adapter in a 'slot' where now is a CP5611.

Killing two birds with one stone on this post:

1) Did Jean-Pierre ever get round to posting his info on OPC and USB adapter with S7 300 CPUs?

2) In trying solve my remaining FM352-5 problems, I'm wanting to swap back and forth between my main project and a small, clean, test-project. Unfortunately I can't remember how I got the PC-Station kitted out with it's CP5611 in NetPro, which means that when I go back to the main project I have to load it via MPI and it takes about 20 mins!

Can somebody remind me how to get the PC-Station connected up to the Profibus Net in NetPro?

Edit: Panic over, I managed to solve the problem by cutting and pasting the PC-Station out of the main project.

It would still be nice to know the correct procedure though, for the next time when I'm stuck somewhere with a virgin system and no convenient source to copy from!

Oops! Bit too quick off the mark there! The cut and paste copy worked OK and all the parameters appear to be correct, but after downloading the system data file to the CPU, when I change over to the CP5611 as PG comms device it doesn't work. I did remember to save and compile the changes in NetPro before downloading the system data file, so where do we go from here?

Cheers

Roy

Hi Roy,

what is it that you want to achieve ?

To use the CP5611 via Profibus to connect to a DP port on a S7-315 (or 317) does not require you to set it up in NetPro.
Simply using the Set PG/PC Interface utility to specify S7ONLINE --> CP5611(Profibus) should do the trick.

By the way, if you use S7 317-2 PN/DP (you have mentioned you are using that model before), then its MPI/DP port is capable of up to 12 MBaud, for both MPI and Profibus. No need to stay at a measly 187.5 kBaud. And no need to switch to Profibus unless you have to.

Hallo Jesper,

I think you've just arrived, like the US cavalry, at the right time.

Now I've managed to get things really screwed up. What I wanted to achieve was to be able to access the CPU (317-2 DP by the way, not PN/DP, but still 12 Mb capable MPI) from my test program via the CP5611 as I do in the main program. Simply changing the access in Extras > Set PG/PC Interface didn't work, possibly because in the main program I've got the PC set up as a PC-Station in NetPro (possibly/probably unnecessarily). Unfortunately, with my playing around I've now got into the state that I can't speak to the CPU AT ALL!

If I try to access over the CP5611 it says no communication and if try via MPI it says that the PG/PC address is higher than the Highest bus address - which according to both programs in NetPro, it isn't.

I've tried everything I can think of everything powered down and back up, memory reset, new/empty MMC card but I can't shift it. Is there anyway to get back to some sort of factory default setting?

I've had this happen to me a couple of times before, but in each case, just as panic was about to set in, it suddenly all started working again - needless to say, I've no idea why! Unfortunately, this is not the time when I can use this sort of problem as the shipping date is finally and remorselessly drawing nearer!

They've shut up the test hall for tonight, but I'll be grateful for a long list of suggestions to try out when I come in tomorrow morning.

I'll log back on from the flat later on, just in case anybody needs any more info.

TIA

Roy

Hi , try a 5511/5512 however be careful - some laptops are a pig to configure for the card - lowmem area and dma/irqs , take a tip from the siemens guys and use a sony laptop , they work good out of the box , even xp home .
Be carefull with terms - the dongle can look at a 12M network , but you are still limited with 38Ksomething to the pc , I can't comment on the usb floggler , maybe that can run much faster (should be able to run usb 2 speeds) , but I doubt it .
Someone posted about an 12M mpi network - I thought the max was 187.5kbs .
Take the trouble to look at (carefully) the parms in set pg interface , you can obviously set the card as s7 online interface , and also for other things (protool/netpro server interface). Setting the pc up as as station in netpro shouldn't matter , you are the pg , not the pc
i thought that the 5611 was a pci card , not for laptops - though I have an old NTK laptop that does accept PCI cards (yes really)
don't mess around with mpi - go for gold , use profibus in the way it deserves - straight in at 1.5m
ps , I have a vinnie too , sorry , only an old rapide , not one of your swiss doofer frame , but still a bit of fun with megs

Hi Roy.

These things allways happens 5 minutes to twelve so to speak.

I have seen something about the S7 CPUs storing the X1 interface settings in onboard flash (not the MMC flash). For some reason that should make the CPU reachable with the settings chosen by the programmer even if the main program is lost. It should apply to S7-400, but I am not sure if it also applies to S7-300.
This could mean that you cannot reset the X1 port without an online connection (catch-22).
But as I said, I am not sure if it applies to S7-300.

I am afraid that the default for the X2 interface is that it is NOT networked, so if the CPU has been reset, then it can have shut down the X2 port

Try the diagnostics function with the Set PG/PC interface utility.
It can help you to establish the CPU ports settings.
Try various baud rates and modes.
edit: Try to change the node address of the PC. It is possible that you have set the S7 to the same address as the PC.
Try both X1 and X2 interfaces.
Try another online adapter or another PC.
If you have a MMC prommer, then try to write a simple program where both X1 and X2 ports are set to known parameters. Then use the MMC to load the program in the CPU.

Good luck.

edit:
fred, MPI has exactly the same electrical properties as Profibus. The dogma "MPI=187.5 kBaud" comes from the beginning when S7 was launched. Then all MPI ports where max 187.5. It still applies to all ports that are only "MPI" rated, in contrast with ports that are "MPI/DP" rated. The MPI ports in the smaller S7-300's are "MPI" ports without electrical isolation, ad max 187.5k. The ports in Roy's S7 317-2DP are "MPI/DP" and "DP", both with electrical isolation and max 12M.