Starting out with Factory Talk

Where I work all of our machines are standalone machines, no scada, no connections whatsoever between the machines.

We still use EVRSI for RSLogix500(0) activation and have not (actively) used Factory Talk at all (nor do we know much of anything about it).

We are changing this, I am tasked with switching activations to Factory Talk and eventually will be heavily involved with any networking, monitoring, and data collection my boss(es) decide they want done.

Is there anythings in the early stages of this transition to watch for to try and limit problems down the road?

The first thing I would say is completely avoid FTView, or any AB HMI offering. There are many better solutions out there, and while Rockwell PLC's and PLC programming software are solid, their HMI stuff is absolute garbage.

I agree of that analysis of FTView we have very little and it is mostly out of my hands whether we get more. Only control I have over how many we get is the systems I design/upgrade

If you're just getting into the Rockwell world, beware of firmware/revision issues. I think there was a revision that was completely broken (v23?) and they just skipped any minor revisions and recently released v24. Mismatched firmware can cause major headaches.

I'd get a hold of a distributor near you through this link. http://www.rockwellautomation.com/global/distributor-locator/distributor-locator.page?

They should be able to set you up with technical support accounts, software and hardware (with proper revisions) for your needs. If you're just manufacturing machines, you should only need FactoryTalk View ME (Machine Edition).

We are not new to Rockwell world, a vast majority of the PLC's are Allen Bradley, new to FTA.

We currently use RSLogix500, 5000, we have two panel views in the plant one legacy we use panel builder, one not so old we use FTV ME on. Version 19 is the highest controller we have so we are still getting away with EVRSI activations. We are preparing for the future because if we get any machine with v20 or higher we must use FTA and not EVRSI.

We have a distributor and recently subscribed to tech connect again.

Even though it seems that it is not working on my account.

I see, sorry for misunderstanding. As far as moving into FT and versions 20+, just beware of v23. We had just changed our standard machines to v24 at my previous employer, (from v21 I think) and didn't notice any issues.

Some will tell you to tie the license to your network card as opposed to your hard drive serial number, but I actually prefer using the hard drive serial because I use a lot of virtual machines and hard drive serial numbers can easily be changed. All I need to do is change my virtual hard disk serial, and then copy the .lic file from my host machine. I suppose it's not how Rockwell intended me to use the license, but technically it IS all on the same hard drive, the same laptop, being used by the same person so I don't think it is unfair to Rockwell.

We have 2 licenses 3 potential users so I am putting them on the server so we can share them, as long as three of us don't want to use the same program at the same time.

To convert a master disk license to an FTA license is there a easier way other than going onto there web chat and asking them to do it?

EDIT: The techconnect answer on how to do the process no longer works because it points to the old site (thanks again Contr_Conn) so I am asking people here that may have done this