Siemens S5 to PC communication

pwbridgeman

Lifetime Supporting Member
Join Date
Jul 2008
Location
North Carolina
Posts
5
Hello All,
I have a machine with a Siemens S5-100U, CPU 103 that I could really use some help with. I have no experience with Siemens products, but do have experience with AB, Koyo, Modicon, and GE. (so I'm not a complete noob ;-)
I found out that I needed Step 5 software to communicate with this unit, which I have w/ proper authorization. I have installed it on a Win 95 box. The Step 5 software is ver. 7.0. I also have a Siemens RS232/TTY converter cable Part # 6ES5 734-1BD20. It has a 25 pin Dsub connector on the PC end.
Here is my problem: I can connect the cable between PC and S5, Start the PC, open the Step 5 software fine, but can not establish a com link between the two. Are there any other drivers required to communicate with this PLC? If so, is this something that I can download somewhere? Thanks in advance for any assistance>

Regards, Paul
 
I am at home now, and a bit rusty!
Have you a program file to work with? or are you working from scratch?

I cannot tell you exactly, but you need to be in a project, then open the config "window", and set to online.

Hmmmmm, its hard when its not in front of you to describe. Maybe you should wait till tommorow morning for me; or hopefully one of the other forum gurus can point you in the right direction asap!

http://support.automation.siemens.com/WW/llisapi.dll/csfetch/1175533/STEP5_v65_(e)_OCR.pdf?func=cslib.csFetch&nodeid=19415243&forcedownload=true

This should give you the manual (5Mb!)

Have a look at page 3.27 (pdf file page 87) onwards, it may help you for now
 
Last edited:
timbo_uk,
Thanks for the response - I am trying to retrieve the program that is in the PLC for troubleshooting purposes. I read elsewhere that I have to save a program with the settings needed to link up, not sure of those settings as of yet though. I have downloaded the Step 5 software manual from the Siemens site, but see nothing definitive in there. I saw something about a "Koster Box" interface??? I'm get the feeling I'm missing something (driver, hardware, etc..) but have no idea what it is. I'm about to the point of ripping it out and installing an AB PLC.

I will check the pages you recommended for direction.

Anything you could offer tomorrow morning would be greatly appreciated.
 
Last edited:
Just about to go for a beer; but if you need to pull the program out of the PLC, then you need to create a new project.

Sorry I cannot help any more at the moment!
 
My cable is a 6ES5734-2BD20; dont know what difference it makes!
We have S5 v7.23.
I am connecting to our bench "play unit" S5-100U CPU100.

I have attached (no I have not, too big at 697k! Link here: http://www.send2deliver.com/deliver.php?6d4ad37678c2eefaf7b85b169bd5ac48)a flash animation of me going through some of the settings, some of these may point you in the direction needed (as I have not seen your exact setup!

I am a bit rusty (and very short of time) so please nobody criticise me for mistakes made in the 9 minute video :)

You need to download the zip file and extract all 3 files to 1 folder. Open S5.swf.htm (allow active x content) this will play the videos. For those interested I used "camstudio" from here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/camstudio/
 
Dear poul,

which Error you get when you connect pc with PLC. Are you doing proper seting for on line? what your useing PG or PC. IF you are useing PC then you have PC to TTY converter?
 
roxtech said:
Dear poul,

which Error you get when you connect pc with PLC. Are you doing proper seting for on line? what your useing PG or PC. IF you are useing PC then you have PC to TTY converter?

He is using the Siemens RS232/TTY converter cable Part # 6ES5 734-1BD20.
 
WOW timbo! I can't thank you enough for the trouble you went to to create the flash animation - that's going WAY above and beyond anything I expected!

Compared to the animation, I am doing everything correctly but when I try to go from offline mode to online mode I get one of two responses:
1. PLC timed out
2. AS interface in PG not ready. (I'm using a PC though)

The only thing I can see different is that you
used COM 1:Standard. I had read in two other locations (forums) that I had to use com 2. Why, I don't know.

I will try again with with com 1 settings and let you know.

Thanks again.
 
SUCCESS! (y)

timbo,
Again, thank you for your assistance! I changed the com port back to com 1 and it connected right away. I had originally tried com 1 but it would not connect,?? then read that I had to use com 2 - tried and it still would not connect.
Anyway I'm online now and am currently troubleshooting the problem.

Many, many thanks to you kind Sir! Let me buy you a beer! 🍺

Regards, Paul

:site:
 
pwbridgeman said:
SUCCESS! (y)

timbo,
Again, thank you for your assistance! I changed the com port back to com 1 and it connected right away. I had originally tried com 1 but it would not connect,?? then read that I had to use com 2 - tried and it still would not connect.
Anyway I'm online now and am currently troubleshooting the problem.

Many, many thanks to you kind Sir! Let me buy you a beer! 🍺

Regards, Paul

:site:

Glad to have helped!

As for the com port, you have to use the one that your cable is plugged into! :p

I was worried that the flash file only has pause, and no fast forward etc. 9 mins is a long time to watch (my rusty attempts on S5!!!!)

It was probably not the most accurate of assistance :)

One thing to remember with S5 is that it uses 2 drivers running as services. If you do not exit S5 properly the drivers keep running. This will stop S5 restarting. In the Windows S5 START MENU there is a terminate drivers application. ..."It does what it says on the tin..."
 
Well, I found out that there is an internal bit (flag) that shows up in two segments as an input, but nowhere as an output/coil when running a cross reference. I went through every program block, function block, and data block line by line and I can not find this flag being written to in bit, byte or word form. As a test, I changed the bit from an AND to an AND NOT instruction, and it worked fine, but I will not just leave it like that and let production have it back. Even if I wanted to make any program changes, I don't have a prommer, so I would lose any changes at the first power cycle anyway. We recieved this machine from a sister plant during a consolidation, and there was no documentation or schematics of any kind with it.
I have talked the powers that be into letting me do a control system upgrade. I have ordered the new PLC, I/O cards, and a TFT touchscreen HMI.(y)

Thanks again for the help.
 

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