Replacing a PowerFlex 753 FW 9.0 with FW 14.0 RS Logix 5000 Tree Properties

Good Afternoon ,

I would like to get much more fluid with changing out PowerFlex 753 Drives. The Powerflex 753 drives that we have are mostly FW 9.001 and replacing them with 14.002. This is what I have been doing .

1. Enter the IP Address , Subnet and Gateway on the keypad for the 20-750
ENETR card.

2. In RS Logix 5000 Tree , select the drive , right click , select properties .
Select Change . You use Match Drive , correct ? Match Drive only appears
Bold when RS Logix 5000 is Offline ? When you select Match Drive , that
changes the firmware from 9.001 to 14.0 in the program ( PLC ) correct ?

3. Once you do that , it seems like it wants you to upload or download . I
guess you download , because you tell the PLC what firmware the new
drive will have ? When do you actually download the parameters to the
new drive ? I guess you use the Drive Tab , and then it Correlates in that
tab. Is that where you download to the drive ? Are the parameters in
the PLC program , or CCW ?

Thanks so much in advance ,

I'm sorry . I need to rephrase this. I have a few PowerFlex 753 drives I need to replace. The reason I need to replace them is because that had a lot of salt blew on them. The versions I have are firmware 9.001 . I replaced a few with firmware 13.001. I just bought 2 new drives and they are firmware 14.002. In the Revision Dropdown within the large window , after I select Change Drive , the highest version I have is 13.

Do I need to download a AOP from the Rockwell website ? If I do , why would I need to do that for firmware 14 and not 13 ?

Thanks so much.

Yes you do need to update Logix & AOP in order to use the ver. 14 FW.

It might be easier for you to downgrade the FW and then plan on upgrading all of your drives at a later date. This assumes that you don't specifically need a feature in the newer FW rev.

Where I work, we are a 27/7 operation, we usually downgrade the FW on drives when we replace them "on the fly". Then during a planed shutdown we will go back and upgrade all of the drives to the latest firmware.

Good Morning ,

We are a 24/7 plant also. I didn't think of or knew I could downgrade the Drive.

I'm sorry. I should know this , but how do you actually downgrade the firmware on the drive ?

I normally use the firmware update tool from AB. You should be able to get the tool and the firmware you need from the link below.

https://compatibility.rockwellautomation.com/Pages/MultiProductDownload.aspx?crumb=112

The process is just like upgrading only your going to tell it to load an older firmware.

If you have Studio5000 setup correctly you can do the downgrade from right inside the software. I'm not well versed in this though, I normally do the firmware on the bench and then take the drive out to be installed.

Yes , I downloaded it from the Rockwell website , and was in the process of downloading to the Powerflex 753 with firmware 9 , and got the following message.......

"Failed to begin update to the Target Device. The Target Device is not in the proper mode to accept an update. "

Would you know what mode it would need to be in ?

Thanks ,

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong on this one.

I'm assuming that your using the flash tool. That being said, I believe that the drive has to be stopped and disabled, also no faults present.
If the drive is connected to the network where is can communicate with the PLC, then it needs to be inhibited in the controler organizer.

I got it to download . I had to disconnect the ethernet cable from the CompactLogix . Everything was good . Now it wouldn't let me create a database. My project is firmware 9.001 and I flashed the drive for 9.002 . I thought minor revison numbers didn't matter.

In the Module Properties, under Module Definition, if Electronic Keying is set to "Exact Match", the minor rev. does matter. Make sure the keying is set to "Compatible Module", then the minor rev. should be no problem.

It is set to Compatible Module. I was told that there is some crazy thing about Signed Firmware due to some Dept. Of Commerce on newer drives and Frequency according to Rockwell. Have you heard of this ? The Firmware I downloaded was "Signed". I'm trying to match the drive again.

Yes, I've heard of that. Looking at AB's Find Download page, it looks like after FW 11 everything is signed. Prior to FW 11 there are both signed and unsigned. Maybe using the unsigned FW ver will do the trick.

Lynx777
When you replace your PowerFlex 753 drives , do you have your parameters stored in CCW or your RS Logix 5000 project ? This is the most depressing thing I've done for awhile.

I did a Match Drive , and that was successful . Both drive's firmware is 9.002.
But in CCW I uploaded all the PowerFlex 753 Drives in that cabinet , I go to download , connect , synchronize , etc. in that dropdown , and it just keeps spinning Download - Waiting on Device.

I can do a compare , and my project is very different from the actual PF 753.
Just wondering , does that RS Logix 5000 project hold the parameters for the PowerFlex 753 , normally ?

Once I get the FW rev installed on the bench, I install the drive in its new home and download the parameters from project. This way the drive matches the project exactly.
Any time I've tried to load the parameters before hand Logix always wants to do a download anyway before it's happy with the drive.

Thanks . So you have all your parameters in your RS Logix 5000 project ? So you don't use CCW at all ?

We do use CCW, but mainly for backup. After a VFD is installed and functioning we upload the parameters and save a copy of the configuration to a network location that then gets backed up every night. We also keep all of our PLC logic backed up the same way.

If we are installing a new drive we will use CCW to do the initial setup and then upload into Logix while adding it into the logic.