Making Studio 5000 work with older firmware

[Rocguy]

Hello, In our factory. We have a CompactLogix 5380 controller that is running a process. We are upgrading our computer. The old computer has Studio 5000 Standard version 30 on it. The controllers revision shows as 30.011 On our new computer, I figured I would download the latest version of Studio 5000 (currently 33) Of course now when I go to view the running controller. It tells me the firmware version is incompatible.

I've been reading through this thread. http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?t=124843

I never get a multi version download option. Maybe because it's not the professional version? I did download the version 30.02.02

I haven't installed it yet. How does this work? Do you have two ( or more) separate installations of Studio 5000 on your pc and you have to choose which to run or, do you have one Studio 5000 and you have to change the revision by right clicking the controller in the organizer and changing it's properties there?

Am I doing this the hard way? I'm open to anything easier. We do have a controller at revision 33 so I can't just uninstall that. At least I'd rather not. I could if that is the only choice. P.S. I have no virtual machine experience whatsoever.

 

[Nova5]

V30.X will work for V30.X Subversions don't matter for firmware, its just a bugfix in software.

When you open the logic file or connect to the processor to upload from it, logix will open the proper version of the application.

Each version will coexist together on the same machine. so not need to uninstall one for another.

 

[plvlce]

Do you have two ( or more) separate installations of Studio 5000 on your pc

Exactly. You need a separate installation for each firmware version you need to support (major version, minor revisions don't count).

Each major software version can only go online with the matching firmware level (with a minor hiccough in v20 & v21 that doesn't apply here).

and you have to choose which to run.

When you open the offline file (or upload from the controller), it will automatically open the appropriate software version assuming you have it installed.

If you don't want to deal with multiple versions, you can upgrade the firmware in your controllers to all be the same level as long as they support it.

 

[Rocguy]

Ahh I see. Thank you for nice clear answers. Now as I am going to install it. After hitting customize, I get some yellow highlighted items telling me a newer version is already installed. I assume I don't need to worry about those? Things like RSLinx Classic, Factory Talk Linx, Factory Talk Services Platform, and Factory Talk Activation Manager. I think I can always install those later if I need to.

 

[daba]

Yes, as each installer will always try to install the latest versions of the support software, you will always get those warnings if you try to install "earlier" releases of the platform.

Best not to "accept" over-writing any newer versions of any support software, they (cough) mostly are backwards compatible.

I detest the way Rockwell have gone with their software "revisions". IMHO Vxx should support all previous revisions, but those are separate installs. Installing older revisions can cause a few problems, and I've always "worked my way upwards", but having to install versions 10 to 30 can take a couple of days, there is so much each install just repeats stuff that it already has, like module profiles etc.

 

[Rocguy]

Is rolling a controller back to an earlier firmware straight forward? Just out of curiosity ?

 

[mylespetro]

Is rolling a controller back to an earlier firmware straight forward? Just out of curiosity ?

I haven't had any issues, although I've only done it maybe twice, and only one firmware revision backwards. I had installed processors with V24 because I thought that's what revision of Studio5000 the customer already had, but it turns out they had V23. Re-flashed the processors back to V23 without issue. I can perhaps see issues arising if you were to go from V32 to V21 or something like that, but one or two revision levels is probably fine.

Changing the program itself can be a little hit or miss, I tend to export the program as an .L5K file and change the "Major" revision items in there to the new revision and then import the project file into a new program. I think there's an option that pops up when you have a revision mismatch, but I can't remember if it offers the option to change the revision of the program or the controller.

 

[dmroeder]

Is rolling a controller back to an earlier firmware straight forward? Just out of curiosity ?

Flashing the firmware is trivial, you can go back and forth all day long

Changing the program is a different story. You have to use the L5K hack, though you don't change the major revision on the L5K, you change the line:

IE_VER := 2.23;

2.23 corresponds to v32. 2.22 = v31, 2.21= v30 and so on.

When you edit that value and then open the L5K to generate a new ACD, you have to pay attention to the version selection, you pick the version you want it to generate. All versions might be listed, but you must pick the version that matches the "IE_VER" you edited.

I find that the reliability of this is hit and miss. It seems to be less reliable as newer versions come out. The more complex the I/O tree is, the more likely this method is to fail. So sad.

 

[Operaghost]

Is rolling a controller back to an earlier firmware straight forward? Just out of curiosity ?

dmroeder mentions how to modify the L5k. Changing that IE_VER number is the all important change. The issue you tend to run into is when a newer controller uses a feature that the older controller does not support. And that is becoming more common as new versions add additional capabilities.

OG