Recovering bricked S7-1200 PLC

segment · Jan 8, 2019

Hi,
After having an unexpected electricity shutdown and then restoration of electricity, my PLC went into error mode (blinking Error LED). I can not see the PLC anymore in the TIA Portal. Before the incident the PLC had an IP address, but now I can no longer ping it or open the webserver. I guess some part of firmware is malformed now. It now just turn on and blink.

Assuming that there is no permanent hardware damage happened to the PLC, I was wondering if I can recover the PLC firmware using the SDCard interface?

What kind of SDCard I need?

The PLC which I am using is a 6ES7212-1AE40-0XB0 (1212C DC/DC/DC).

Is there anyway I can recover the PLC?

Appreciate your responses.

BryanG · Jan 9, 2019

You have to use a Siemens SD card, and they are not cheap.

https://support.industry.siemens.co...1/usage-of-s7-1200-memory-card?dti=0&lc=en-WW

The article was written in 2014 but I think you still need to use a 24MB card to try to upgrade firmware. The part number has changed to 6ES7 954-8LF03-0AA0. So it is almost as expensive to get the SD card as it is to get a new PLC and there is no guarantee that it will work.

segment · Jan 9, 2019

First, Thank you Bryan for your answer.

Regarding the question, the price of SDCard is not important. I just really want to be able to fix the PLC. I checked and it seems that the price for that SDCard is around 180 USD/150 Euro (while the S7-1200 is around 250 Euro for me).

What concern me is that if using SDCard works on newer PLCs? (assuming that there is no hardware defect). Apparently using the SDCard to fix the firmware was a thing for older S7-1200 PLCs and for example my 6ES7212-1AE40-0XB0 was already running Firmware 4.x when I bought it. Everywhere I look they talk about using SDCard for S7-1200 PLCs running older firmware like 1.x 2.x.

Further concern is that if I go to the link that you provided, there is a tab named associated products to the SDCard, there is no 6ES7212-1AE40-0XB0.

Any idea if SDCard works on newer PLCs to update firmware when it is in error mode?

cardosocea · Jan 9, 2019

BryanG said:
You have to use a Siemens SD card, and they are not cheap.

As far as SD cards go, they're not.
However, I was under the impression that the cards that suit the 1200 series are far cheaper than the ones that suit the 1500's. I know it sounds silly, but I seem to remember something like this from a while back, but may be misremembering things.

bkottaras · Jan 9, 2019

cardosocea said:
As far as SD cards go, they're not.
However, I was under the impression that the cards that suit the 1200 series are far cheaper than the ones that suit the 1500's. I know it sounds silly, but I seem to remember something like this from a while back, but may be misremembering things.

The cards are the same.
6ES7 954- xxxx-xxxx

If you read the specs they are designated as "1x00" controllers which covers 1200's and 1500's.

Pricing varies though, the 24MB will cost a lot more than a 2MB.

cardosocea · Jan 9, 2019

bkottaras said:
The cards are the same.
6ES7 954- xxxx-xxxx

If you read the specs they are designated as "1x00" controllers which covers 1200's and 1500's.

Pricing varies though, the 24MB will cost a lot more than a 2MB.

I don't quite remember where I got that idea from. Maybe the pricing wasn't linear back then.

segment · Jan 9, 2019

As mentioned earlier I think price wise it is Ok. What I am more concerned is that whether Siemens removed this functionality of recovering PLC from the new S7-1200 series(like 6ES7212-1AE40-0XB0).

The associated products to the SDCard does not have any new S7-1200 PLC, which worries me.

BryanG · Jan 9, 2019

Any idea if SDCard works on newer PLCs to update firmware when it is in error mode?

Yes you can still use the SD card to upgrade firmware, use it regularly myself, it is quicker than going through the maintenance tab in TIA Portal. But, no one will be able to tell you if it will work on a PLC in error mode.

And you are telling me that it would be cheaper for me to pay for a flight to the Netherlands to buy one there, than to buy one here in the good old UK!! I would blame Brexit but the price of the card has always been a bit painful.

segment · Jan 9, 2019

Thanks for the Info Bryan. Then I will order it.

Also I found that there is copy of the S7 card from Helmholz website (with the capacity of up to 2GB!):
https://www.helmholz.de/en/products...r-12001500-series/artikel/show/700-954-8lf01/

mk42 · Jan 9, 2019

cardosocea said:
As far as SD cards go, they're not.
However, I was under the impression that the cards that suit the 1200 series are far cheaper than the ones that suit the 1500's. I know it sounds silly, but I seem to remember something like this from a while back, but may be misremembering things.

I think they're cheaper than the 300's, maybe that's what you were thinking of?

segment said:
First, Thank you Bryan for your answer.

Regarding the question, the price of SDCard is not important. I just really want to be able to fix the PLC. I checked and it seems that the price for that SDCard is around 180 USD/150 Euro (while the S7-1200 is around 250 Euro for me).

What concern me is that if using SDCard works on newer PLCs? (assuming that there is no hardware defect). Apparently using the SDCard to fix the firmware was a thing for older S7-1200 PLCs and for example my 6ES7212-1AE40-0XB0 was already running Firmware 4.x when I bought it. Everywhere I look they talk about using SDCard for S7-1200 PLCs running older firmware like 1.x 2.x.

Further concern is that if I go to the link that you provided, there is a tab named associated products to the SDCard, there is no 6ES7212-1AE40-0XB0.

Any idea if SDCard works on newer PLCs to update firmware when it is in error mode?

I think the reason most of the posts about firmware & SD cards are from the v1/v2 FW days is because back then it was the only way to transfer FW. Nowadays you can do it from Portal as well (granted, only if your PLC is actually communicating). It is still a supported function, as far as I know.

Ultimately, however, all bets are off in a crazy error state. You can try creating a support case and seeing what they tell you to do, but a FW reset via memory card is worth a shot as long as you have the program to put back in after.

beethoven_ii · Jan 9, 2019

Have you tried to access the plc using the Siemens Primary Set Up Tool? If the plc is not completely bricked this should allow you to connect to it and set an IP address. Once that's done you should be able to reload the firmware, hardware config and plc program through Portal.

Jeff23spl · Jan 9, 2019

i use a 4mb card to sometimes reset plc and it works. Or for un unknown reason a co-worker laptop always get problem establishing the first connection with a new plc and we use the card to download a dummy project and then it works to connect...
And we did it recently with the 40 series so it still work

beethoven_ii · Jan 9, 2019

I used to have that same problem as your colleague. Connecting to a plc out of the box on earlier versions of Portal was a pain for me until it had an IP address allocated but the Primary Set Up Tool from Siemens cured that for me. It's a free program from Siemens that can be used to scan the network for attached devices and it allows you to set an IP address.

mk42 · Jan 9, 2019

Jeff23spl said:
i use a 4mb card to sometimes reset plc and it works. Or for un unknown reason a co-worker laptop always get problem establishing the first connection with a new plc and we use the card to download a dummy project and then it works to connect...
And we did it recently with the 40 series so it still work

Last time I did it, a 24B card was required for the firmware file transfer.

However, if you're just tyring to reset the device with a "blank" project, I guess that smaller card would work as well.

mk42 · Jan 9, 2019

beethoven_ii said:
Have you tried to access the plc using the Siemens Primary Set Up Tool? If the plc is not completely bricked this should allow you to connect to it and set an IP address. Once that's done you should be able to reload the firmware, hardware config and plc program through Portal.

FYI, I think the PST has mostly been replaced by Proneta.

https://support.industry.siemens.com/cs/ww/en/view/67460624

It adds some really nice capabilities like topology viewing and IO checkout, but it isn't as simplistic as the older single purpose tool.

Recovering bricked S7-1200 PLC

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