PG or not PG

Kataeb

Member
K
Join Date
Jan 2007
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www.livelovelebanon.com
Posts
636
do we have to use a (Siemens) Field PG to commission the automation and drives ? can we just work on cheaper simple laptops ? what are the advantages of each ? thank you for your opinions !
 
You can use a regular laptop instead of a field PG.
Field PGs are more rugged than regular laptops.
But IMO the extra price is not justifiable, especially if you only occasionally need to use the laptop constantly in the field.
Get a good quality laptop though, and SSD is a must.
 
I don't use a Siemens PG, just a standard laptop. Used it in plenty of dirty/dusty environments and it is still running well 2 years down the line.

I 2nd Jesper, the extra cost of the Siemens machine is not worth it. I would rather break 2/3 standard laptops every couple of years than have a working 6year old PG! Perhaps I don't work in the environments to justify it though, but I work onboard ships a fair bit and I think that's a pretty tough location for a laptop.
 
Our rep usually says, if you need a laptop and the software then a Field PG isn't bad value.

If you already have the software, it represents poor value.

That said we use Lenovo P50s laptops and everything is on its own VM and backed up weekly to a widi passport.

No hassle, no downtime in an emergency and with regular backups, risk free programming.

If your halfway across the world and your laptop breaks, crashes is fubar, buy one and be up and running in about 30 minutes.
 
I have a m4 pg and, I think it just depends on your situation.

The reason we paid the premium for a PG is we are still trying to support S5 hardware. We can work with everything from S5, up to the newest hardware.

If this is not a consideration for you then, I would not spend the pile of money it costs. Its nice to have the real deal serial port, but I don't think its a deal breaker.
 
For S5, I would get one of the USB adapters from f.ex. Deltalogic or IBH.
Then you can work with a modern laptop with STEP5 in a VM.
(of course, that is just temporary, because you should upgrade your S5 plants ASAP ... amen).
 
I too have a M4 PG, for us it works well since corporate issued laptops are a struggle, 32 bit machines with corporate bloat. Corporate IT seems to exist to make our jobs more difficult here. If you need the software AND a capable machine AND can afford it I recommend it, I've had no issues since I switched over. TIA v.13 saw many crashes on my company laptop, on the M4 with 16gig of RAM it runs well.

Rich
 
I keep a cattle prod in my top drawer just in case I catch the corporate IT guy trying to sneak up on my laptop
 
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