Issue Changing IP on TP700 (WinCC / TIA Portal v14)

Hi,
What I thought should be relatively simple process turned into a bit of an issue at a client today. I'm not as experienced using Siemens / TIA Portal or WinCC, so maybe I am missing something basic.

I went onsite to change the IP of a PLC (S7-1200) and a TP700 Comfort panel.

I did the following:

1. Opened project in TIA Portal
2. Changed the IP of the PLC in the project, downloaded the Hardware changes only.
3. Also changed the IP address of the HMI in the project as I got a warning that the devices were not on the same subnet. I did NOT download the HMI project.
4. Confirmed the new IP address on the PLC (ping and went back online).
5. Exited the application on the panel and changed the IP address of the panel at the Control Panel settings (not the project).
6. Confirmed the new IP address of the panel.
5. Restarted the application.

Now the application cannot talk to the PLC. Screens are blank and data fields are "#####". I suspected I need to change the IP of the HMI in the actual project to revalidate the Connection, and re-download the entire HMI package. So I then changed the IP address of the HMI project as well and re-compiled. Before blowing away the project, I decided to use the HMI simulation function in TIA portal to ensure the project could indeed talk to the PLC. Same issue.

I reverted my IP address changes and everything went back to communicating again.

It seems it should be as simple as re-downloading the updated HMI project but now I am hesitant to do so since I couldn't get the simulated application running from the TIA Portal, and I don't want to download a non-functioning project.

Am I missing anything here? Was there a simpler way to do this that I am not aware of?

Thanks

Edit: Original IP addresses are on a completely different subnet range. Devices went from 172.20.42.xxx to 172.16.50.xxx

Can you post a screenshot of your HMI Connection, which shows the IP address of the PLC that the HMI is supposed to talk to?

If you are having problems simulating they you are as you said missing something and it's a good idea to make sure you got it working in simulation first as a confirmation that yourself know what you're doing.
For the sake of being thorough please specify you CPU, firmware and TIA version.


It is supposed to be as simple as changing the IP on both devices making sure they're on the same subnet. So try it again n your project and after you compile>Hardware (Rebuild all) have a look at you connections to see if you still have a valid connection between the two devices. If yes then simulate and it should work just fine.


Note: Both attached pictures show bad connection.


Edit: I added a picture showing relations and IPs.You get that by clicking on the "Relations" button and then click on "Show address labels" (the one with the little eye)

If you change the PLC IP, the HMI definitely 100% for sure won't be able to talk to it until you change it in the HMI project and re-download. This is, of course, not a guarantee that it will work after, but it is a necessary step. If you are worried (which is a completely rational concern), you can take a binary backup of the HMI first.



Does your HMI SIM work to the real PLC with the IP at the original address? If so, did your PC change IP when you switched the subnets of your devices? The PC IP needs to be in the subnet of the PLC for HMI SIM to work. If it never worked, you might need to futz with the PG/PC interface (see windows control panel) on your computer and select the correct Ethernet Adapter.


It might be worth calling tech support, if you haven't done so. HMI SIM can be finicky. I see it work 49 times out of 50, but sometimes i run across a laptop where we just can't get it to talk.

I agree with that in the desription in the 1st post, the new HMI seems to never have been loaded on the panel, thus the runtime will try to connect to the PLCs old IP address.

Why the simulated HMI on the PC wont connect to the real PLC, maybe it is because the S7ONLINE access point is not selected correctly. Or, sometimes I see that the HMIs gets an access point called S7ONLIN2 or something like that. And because that access point is not defined, it wont connect.
Notice, the online connection setup in TIA and for WinCC Runtime are totally different.
TIA does not use S7ONLINE or Set PG/PC Interface, instead you set the online interface in the download dialog inside TIA.
WinCC Runtime (also the simulated) uses S7ONLINE (sometimes a slightly different name) and Set PG/PC Interface.

Thanks all for the replies.

I managed to get access to our lab and did some testing. Indeed, the HMI project needs to be re-downloaded to update the new connection to the PLC.

Changing the HMI of the PLC ONLY does not require a redownload of the HMI project as the target connection IP is the same.

As soon as the PLC IP changes, the HMI needs to be re-downloaded.
I also realized the HMI needs to be put into Transfer mode (exit the application and select the "Transfer" option on the panel). Lots of extra steps with Siemens and their documentation isn't the easiest to navigate....

I took a couple of screenshots, I still have questions about some things:

1) Could not download to the HMI when PN/IE was selected as the interface. I'm not sure why. I am connected directly to one of the Ethernet ports on the panel. Also, there is an error but the information provided does not explain why (see screenshot).

2) Even after changing the HMI IP address from 172.20.42.152 to 172.16.50.169, the .152 address kept showing up in the extended download screen. I'm not sure why

3) Had to switch to Ethernet interface to do the download.

4) I still can't figure out why the Simulation won't work. When I downloaded to the HMI and PLC, my network adapter was automatically updated with a 2nd IP in the correct subnet (seems like TIA does this "under the hood" as the actual adapter properties never updated with the additional IP). So I could ping both PLC and HMI. What connection setting do I need to update in TIA to get the simulation to communicate with the PLC?


This all seems a bit unnecessarily complicated / contrived
Sorry if these are basic questions - The programming is the easy parts, it's the nuances of the software that always take time to figure out! I'm probably overdue for some Siemens training

Actually, you can now change the connection on the HMI from the hmi menu. Not only change the IP of the HMI, but also change plc connection. But, I'm not sure if it was there in V14 so this might not help anyways..

but..
1)scroll down?
2)i don't know. things get weird when changing IP. Depends if you change your IP first, download first, restart first.. You get the point..
3)I think you always go to Ethernet when downloading a HMI.
4) like Jesper asked, have you set up yout PG/PC inteerface? In the Control panel..

kdcui said:

Thanks all for the replies.



4) I still can't figure out why the Simulation won't work. When I downloaded to the HMI and PLC, my network adapter was automatically updated with a 2nd IP in the correct subnet (seems like TIA does this "under the hood" as the actual adapter properties never updated with the additional IP). So I could ping both PLC and HMI. What connection setting do I need to update in TIA to get the simulation to communicate with the PLC?

Click to expand...

What Jesper and mk42 explained can be viewed here on this youtube. To setup simulation follow the same steps paying particular attention to PC/PG setting and IPv4 settings.

Thanks for the info and links on the PG interface option. I didn't realize that was there in the Control Panel.