Siemens STARTER and Drivemonitor.

Hi all.

I am using Siemens STARTER to connect to MicroMaster 440's.
STARTER uses the S7ONLINE connection to go online, so I can go online via the Profibus CP's that are installed in each MM. So far so good.
But there is no USS connection available in the Set PG/PC Interface utility. Does that mean that STARTER can ONLY connect via Profibus ? USS is not possible ?

On the other hand, the DriveMonitor software can connect via USS, but I think that it cannot connect via Profibus.

I would like to have the possibility to use the STARTER software, but also to have the fallback solution to connect via USS on a serial link.

Does anybody have an idea ?

Starter can connect via USS. In the Set PG/PC Interface select "PC COM-Port(USS)". If it's not available, you will have to add it by clicking the Select button in the Interfaces section of the same Set PG/PC Interface pop up. I used it with the PC MM4 Connection Kit (6ES6 400-1PC00-0AA0) to configure two MM420s with Starter.

As for DriveMonitor, I have not used it. Perhaps I am reading too much from your post, but are you able to connect via USS using DriveMonitor but not Starter? If that is the case, I am confused. I assume that you have to select USS from the Set PG/PC Interface for DriveMonitor, so should it not also work for Starter? Either way, I hope this helps!

It certainly did help.
Sure enough, there is a "PC COM port(USS)" entry in the Set PG/PC Inteface utility. It wasnt there before, but now it is, appearantly after I have installed STARTER. I just didn't notice it.

DriveMonitor uses its own interface (not the PG/PC interface that is used in STEP7 etc). Thats why I could go online via a serial link with DriveMonitor.
It says in Siemens documentation that STARTER is recommended for MM420-MM430-MM440, whereas DrievMonitor is recommended for older drives - I dont know why, I could go online and configure MM430 and MM440 with DriveMonitor before.
It looks like STARTER is a cutdown version of DRIVE ES, so it should be the way to go anyway.

Thanks