s5-s7 upgrade

I am considering upgrading several S5 plc's at our facility to s7's. My main reason for doing this is communication flexibility. Other advantages include up to date technical support, modern programming software, spare parts etc.......

The systems each consist of a main rack, and about 10 various racks of distributed I/O on Profibus, along with an OP15 (HMI) and 6 ABB acs 600 AC drives also on the same Profibus. The HMI is useless and I plan on upgrading it no matter what I decide to do.

The upgrade paths I have considered include;

- Changing the main rack to S7 and leaving the existing S5 remote I/o

- Swapping out all of the racks for CLX and abandoning Siemens ($$$$$$$$$$$$).

- Putting in an SLC 5/05 and changing out all of the remote racks. An SLC would control the system just fine.

- GE has told me that they can control anything on Profibus with no problem. They suggest installing a Fanuc and controlling the remote siemens I/O with profi.

So many options, thus my dilema;

- I HATE S5's with a passion, I don't program PLC's all day, every day for a living and neither do my techs. We need something simpler.

- S7's seem to be more user friendly however, from what I have seen from S7 there is still a very steep learning curve.

- CLX sounds ideal. I have worked with AB for years and logix in my opinoin is basically PLC's for dummies (which I am). Problem is ($$$$$$$$$$$$)

- The GE PLC looks attractive, however I have never programmed a Fanuc and I have reservations controlling Siemens I/O with a GE PLC? Comments? has anyone here tried to do this?

- S7 is supposed to import my program and convert it. I gave the program to my siemens rep and they are having "issues" converting it. I am considering re-writing the program anyway as it is a mess right now.

So here's my question to the experts around here. If you were in my shoes what would you do and why?

Hello allscott;
The beauty of Profibus is that it is totally independant of the make of the master on the bus. Although I have personnaly a strong bond with Siemens PLCs, I can understand other techs' reluctance to the learning curve required. However, learning to program a GE product still requires some work and adaptation.
So here is another option you can consider, if you are satisfied with your present Siemens IO and you wish to use ControlLogix: you can get a Profibus master card (scanner) for CLogix from SST (www.mysst.com); their Profibus configurator is very simple to use, so you can easily hook up all the IO racks and your drive without changing the wiring. Of course, you will have to reprogram all the logic in A-B terms yourself. You can then choose any A-B compatible HMI (RS-View comes to mind, or PanelMate stations)and hook it up to the new controller.
Look it up, and good luck;
Hope this helps,
Daniel Chartier