Help - I Left my Siemens MPI Adapter Behind...

After 14 straight days, the last 6 of which were 12-hour, with the final being 15 hours, and a severe equipment problem 10-minutes before I had to walk out the door so my colleague could catch his flight, I was stressed and tired and not paying attention.

The result? I left my MPI adapter and cable connected to the PLC inside the cabinet as I walked out the door. Now it's in China (where everybody's gone for Spring Holiday) and I'm in Hong Kong in order to catch a flight to Europe in four hours in order to make some changes to the system there.

So, can somebody tell me the Siemens part number of the MPI adapter for the S7-300 series? I'd like to forward it to my European contact so he can order one for me. I've looked on the Siemens website but haven't found it yet. If somebody could provide a link, that would be great, too.

Oh, how I tick myself off sometimes...

Here's what I found on the Siemens site:

6ES7901-1BF00-0XA0: RS232-CABLE PC-,TS-,HMI Adapter
6ES7901-2BF00-0AA0: PC/MPI cable, RS 232, MPI, 5m
6ES7972-0CA20-0XA0: PC Adapter, RS232 / RS485

I'm not sure why there are two cables shown. I have a PC/MPI adapter that has a pigtail on it and then a cable from my serial port to the adapter.

Have they made a change so that I now need another cable, presumably from the adapter to the PLC?

The adaptor and cable have seperate part numbers. I had access to a Siemens cable once and rang out the connections. I found out it is what is called a null modem cable. AKA RS-232.

There is a PCMCIA adaptor with its own unique DB9 to DB9 cable.

I searched the european siemens web shop and i can not find the RS232 serial adapter. It's probably discontinued.

It seems like that an USB or PCMCIA to MPI/DP adapter is what they are offering now.

6ES7972-0CB20-0XA0 SIMATIC S7, PC ADAPTER USB F. CONNECTION OF S7-200/300/400 C7, WITH USB-CABLE (5M) CAN BE USED UNDER WIN 2000/XP

6GK1551-2AA00 SIMATIC NET, PB, CP 5512 PC CARD (CARDBUS, 32 BITS) FOR CONNECTION OF A PG OR NOTEBOOK TO PROFIBUS OR MPI

6ES7901-0BF00-0AA0 SIMATIC S7, MPI CABLE FOR CONNECTING SIMATIC S7 AND PG VIA MPI 5M

Hi,
I recommend the PC adapter with the USB interface.
Just be avare that it requires Win 2000 or Win XP and a recent version of STEP7 (v5.2+ I think).

Hi,

Please pay attention if you are using a Siemens programming unit (a laptop with integrated MPI interface) or a normal laptop with RS232 or USB port.

For the first you can use a home made RS232 cable. For a normal PC you must use a cable with an MPI interface but you have to select in which PC port you whant to connect it.

Did you all know that VIPA CPUs, also programmed wit STEP 7 from Siemens can be programmed either with and MPI interface or with a "normal" RS232 cable? And that some VIPA CPUs are much more powerfull than Siemens CPUs?