Do I need S7-technology

[JasonWade]

Hi,

Do I need to buy S7-technology to support a system that is already configured and working?

What will be the limitations on the changes I can make without this option package? I have S7 professional so I already saw that lots of the motion control moves are initiated by the normal program blocks which I can modify.

I was led to believe (by a siemens rep) that this package was included with S7 pro, but its appears not to be. Does anyone know the UK price?

Thanks in advance

 

[JRW]

Jason,

I would. the T-config software isnt THAT expensive. ($800.00 US ??)
With this package, you will get all the help files for your PLC Open blocks that are in your T CPU. Also the drive parameters are part of this.
The T config setup also contains the axis setup...LU's...Gain settings..etc. This is part of the T-config.

What drives are you using?
I hope this helps a little.

 

[JasonWade]

Hi JRW thanks for the reply,

The drives are Masterdrives 6SE7012 and some a little larger, 8 in total.

They are already configured so I don't expect to need to alter gains etc, or the drive parameters.

It's hard to say what I may need to alter right now, maybe the home sequence or the units.......?

Is there a motion control program of some kind in the CPU that I don't have access to right now?

 

[JRW]

Jason,

What is the part number of your CPU...
Is it a 31xT-xxx??

I want to make sure your not talking about some other software package

Do you see some FB's that are 66 bytes in size??
Highlight one of the FB's and press F1, does it pull up a help screen? probably not without the software.
Do they have a symbolic name?
They are actually jobs that are passed across the dual port ram to the motion processor.
These FB's are used for your motion program.

Dig around in here
http://www.automation.siemens.com/simatic/regelsysteme/html_76/produkte/techn_controller.htm

and here

http://www2.sea.siemens.com/Products/Automation/Programmable-Controllers/SIMATIC-S7-300/Manuals/Technology-Manuals.htm


Hope this helps.

 

[CharlesM]

I am not sure but I think the drive software is used for some blocks. I know a while back I was looking at using some of the tech stuff and my distributor said I could use the drive software for everything outside of Step 7

 

[JRW]

Well yes and no Charles.
Since Jason is using Masterdrives, he will use Drive Monitor for the drive configuration. I typically use DriveES with this so I can integrate everything together. By the way Starter and T-Configuration are different.

But the axis configuration is done with the S7 T-Configuration software.

 

[Manglemender]

Hello Jason,

here is a link to the product on the Siemens web site https://mall.automation.siemens.com/GB/guest/index.asp?aktprim=0&lang=en&nodeID=10020310&foldersopen=-1298-1-1299-1950-1951-1952-1958-1970-&jumpto=1970

It implies that you can use SCL or S7-Graph also. These are included with S7 PRO. The 317-T can also be configured with Simotion Scout (but that is expensive!)

Can the original software creators tell you what software you require?

The company I work for is a Siemens System Integrator in Blackburn; we support most Siemens kit and lots more besides.

Best regards,

Nick