Siemens Coros OP25?

Hi everyone,

I'm on a facility running a PLC-5 with a Siemens Coros OP25 as an HMI, now, I'm quite familiar with the PLC but I'm curious to see if anybody has worked with this OP25? Which Protools would be compatible?

The facility laptop has Protools lite, but, working with Allen-Bradley alot, I don't like the sound of any program with the word "Lite" in it. I'm also looking for opinions of this panel, as I believe Ivan may have made it into a paperweight, and if it's c**p I'll just recommend a new panelview or RSView 32.

I believe you need the basic Protool version (not lite).

With OP25 there were two "generations" of drivers for the AB DF1 protocol.

The first accessed the tags via indirectly setup data areas. Very crude and easy to make mistakes. The last version of this driver was v1.2. If your project uses this or previous DF1 drivers, then the latest version of Protool that supports it is v2.51 (because of that I still keep an old copy of Protool v2.51).

The second generation uses are more "normal" approach with directly specified addresses in the PLC. Much easier to program. This driver started with version v2.0.

The panels that replaces the OP25 (OP27 and OP270-6) do NOT support the older generation driver, only the new.

If you want to convert the driver to the new generation, all tags will lose their address specifications and must be retyped again (a real pain).

If v2.0 AB DF1 driver is used in the OP25, then it is really simple to convert the application to one of the newer panels.
Both OP25 and OP27 have been declared "obsolete" by Siemens.

There were many OP25's that had problems with the screen. After a while black stripes would appear on the screen. There was an offer of free replacement even after the guarantee had expired. But that was years ago.

I am afraid that it is all that I know .

Actually, what you're describing goes in line with what I've experienced.

The laptop has protools version 2.something and I'm sure the communication cables are configured correctly, yet I still get errors on trying to communicate and the tell tale stripes you mentioned are all I seem to get from the screen itself.

I appreciate the comments and I don't believe that I'll recommend putting any more money into an obsolete unit. I'd rather go with equipment that is more compatible with PLC-5, of course, that means re-tagging and designing new screens, but hey, it's supportable.

Thanks again for your comments, Jesper. Need a paperweight?

If the DF1 driver is V2.0 or higher then it will be a cinch to upgrade to an OP270-6 (or even a OP170-B, it is a lot cheaper but the cutout is not the same as OP25).

If the driver is v1.2 or less, then it will be a rough job to upgrade.