Older RSLogix 500 Programs

I am in the process of straightening out all the laptops and programming software licenses throughout my facility and I have heard a rumor regarding the the RSLogix 500 activations.

As many of you know, the old method for activating Rockwell software was accomplished by transferring the activation files from a 3.5" Master Disk to your target PC. Anytime you needed to move this activation, you transferred it back to the Master Disk again. After version 8.10, Rockwell moved to supplying and transferring activations using the FactoryTalk Activation scheme, a web-based method which eliminated the use of the Master Disk.

The rumor I heard is that problems exist when you have both older versions - pre 8.10 - that utilized the old activation scheme and newer versions that utilize the FactoryTalk activation scheme. Apparently the software gets confused sometimes trying to figure out what activation to use or even whether a valid activation is present.

Has anyone experience this and, if so, have you found a graceful solution?

Additionally, when using up-to-date software (currently V8.30.01), is there any problem going on-line, modifying and/or saving changes to processors that were last programmed using a pre 8.10 version?

Thanks,
Steve

I have not had a problem with the factory talk activation scheme, and I have used various versions of RSLogix 500, oldest I think I used was 6.3? We are a systems integrator so it's common for us to jump between versions.

We have experienced version incompatibilities with 5/04, and 5/05 processors if they have been programmed with v7.x, online edits crashed the PLC and dumped the memory...not good.

I would suggest you go online with each processor using V8.x, do and upload so you have all tag data, then download back to the PLC. This will negate any version incompatibilities. Obviously the download stops the PLC, so you must schedule downtime to do this.

Normaly, if you update your software to a higher version, all lower versions ever installed are still installed.
You can see this if you open your RSLogix software, in the first pop-up screen, and under "help" > "about RSLogix" > "more info" > installed firmware support.

Jack

Paully's5.0 said:

We have experienced version incompatibilities with 5/04, and 5/05 processors if they have been programmed with v7.x, online edits crashed the PLC and dumped the memory...not good.

I would suggest you go online with each processor using V8.x, do and upload so you have all tag data, then download back to the PLC. This will negate any version incompatibilities. Obviously the download stops the PLC, so you must schedule downtime to do this.

Click to expand...

So, Paully, the problems you have experienced with the V7.x programs - is the upload, save, download technique you describe an effective method to resolve these problems?

Steve

Steve Etter said:

So, Paully, the problems you have experienced with the V7.x programs - is the upload, save, download technique you describe an effective method to resolve these problems?

Steve

Click to expand...

That is correct.

I was told by Rockwell Tech Support (and I am paraphrasing here) that V7.x during a download would incorrectly change a CPU setting in the background, under normal circumstance it was not a problem, but if you used a difference version of software such as V8.x, when you committed an online edit this would cause a problem. I assume some internal checksum failed due to the change in the CPU from V7.x, thus the download faulted the processor and dumped the memory. This would ONLY occur if you tried to commit an online edit. Going online with the processor does not introduce the problem. Therefore going online with V8.x, doing the upload to ensure you have all your your current settings now saved into a V8.x program is safe. V8.x corrects the CPU anomaly during a download, so downloading using V8.x eliminates the issue.

I personally avoid any mixing of versions between v7.x and v8.x

EDIT. If you are changing from a minor revision within a major revision such as v8.1 - v8.3 you don't have to worry. But if you are changing from v7.x - v8.x I would use caution

Cool. Well unless new information comes to light, I will plan to go ahead and update all the laptops to the latest versions of software and upgrade my Master Disk applications to the FactoryTalk style.

Thanks,
Steve

nightline said:

Normaly, if you update your software to a higher version, all lower versions ever installed are still installed.
You can see this if you open your RSLogix software, in the first pop-up screen, and under "help" > "about RSLogix" > "more info" > installed firmware support.

Jack

Click to expand...

Nightline

That's only the case with logix 5000. The OP was asking about logix 500.