Problems activating RSLogix 500....

[Outrage]

.....with the new online activation service.

Hi All, Just purchassed RSLogix 500 and installed it on the PC. Followed the instructions to download and transfer the licence file to the laptop from the internet PC but the licence does not appear in the "current activations" tab so Logix will not work. Has anyone any ideas of the problem, my local support office is closed and i've got a machine stood broken!

The laptop is a stand-alone PC so chose the local-node locked option.

Cheers,

Lee

 

[Ken Roach]

There should have been an emergency activation diskette in your software box, too, so you could try that for tonight.

If I understand you correctly, you have two computers; the PC on which RSLogix is installed (a laptop) and another PC that is connected to the Internet.

The procedure for using the FT Activation Transfer Tool is well described in this document:

http://literature.rockwellautomation.com/idc/groups/literature/documents/fa/ft00-fa001_-en-e.pdf

It sounds like you might have accidentally used the Host ID of the Internet-connected PC instead of the Host ID of the laptop.

Are you running XP Professional SP2 ? I read recently about a fellow whose FT activation did not transfer correctly because he was running the (unsupported) XP Home operating system.

 

[Outrage]

There should have been an emergency activation diskette in your software box, too, so you could try that for tonight.

If I understand you correctly, you have two computers; the PC on which RSLogix is installed (a laptop) and another PC that is connected to the Internet.

The procedure for using the FT Activation Transfer Tool is well described in this document:

http://literature.rockwellautomation.com/idc/groups/literature/documents/fa/ft00-fa001_-en-e.pdf

It sounds like you might have accidentally used the Host ID of the Internet-connected PC instead of the Host ID of the laptop.

Are you running XP Professional SP2 ? I read recently about a fellow whose FT activation did not transfer correctly because he was running the (unsupported) XP Home operating system.

Hey Ken,

Thank's for the quick reply.

There was no diskette in the box, just the CD the licence paper work and a few pamphlets.

Reading the activation pamphlet for my situation having no internet access on the PC to which i'm installing RSLogix 500 which will be a stand-alone PC I have followed the instructions to the letter. The Host ID is definately the one off the Laptop. The pamphlet says:

"Follow the instructions to download and save the your activation file."

"Copy the activation file to the activation directory on your target computer. The default activation directory is ......"

This suggests that i can simply copy it from the USB stick that i saved it to (connected to the internet PC) to the laptops location but that doesn't appear to have worked.

The pamphlet goes on to describe the Activation transfer tool as being used to transfer licences to more than one non internet PC as it picks up the Host ID's of multiple PC's rather than committing them all to memory and this tool wasn't mentioned at all in any of the earlier steps.

I am running Windows XP (Proffesional) service pack 2.

By this time i've given up all hope of getting the machinery up and running tonight and am a bit pi**ed off that after getting the software couriered in record time i can't solve a simple problem. I never had any trouble with the Master disked versions.

Have you any other ideas ken?

Thanks,

Lee

 

[DUNK]

I am curious if Logix works on the "connected to the internet pc"? If so and not too much trouble take that PC to the machine for the time being.
Like Ken said and I thought as well, the packet should have had a Online Master Disk.
Do you have this processor on a network?
Does it have a ethernet connection?

 

[Outrage]

I am curious if Logix works on the "connected to the internet pc"? If so and not too much trouble take that PC to the machine for the time being.
Like Ken said and I thought as well, the packet should have had a Online Master Disk.
Do you have this processor on a network?
Does it have a ethernet connection?

Hi Dunk,

The internet PC is a networked "Office PC" and as such i don't have administrator rights to install the RSL500 software on it. Now i've downloaded the only licence from Rockwell to suit the laptop I don't have a free licence to configure for the office PC anyway. I just used this PC to download the licence file and transfer it to the programming PC (i've checked the documentation and you can do a copy/paste of the licence file without using the Transfer tool).

The processor is on the network (Ethernet) but has failed and in any case the office PC isn't on the same network.

Cheers Dunk,

Regards,

Lee

 

[Ken Roach]

I wish I had more direct experience with this, but all my software is still the master-disk activation. There was some talk about providing free Tech Support from whichever support center is in daylight for Activation issues, but I'm not sure what the status of that is. Did you try phoning the UK support office to see if there's an option for Activation support ?

As I understand it, once you've generated an activation key and have pasted, glued, nailed, or otherwise had it put into the activation key directory (C:\Program Files\Common Files\Rockwell\Activation ), it's going to show up in the "Current Activations" tab of the FactoryTalk Activation Tool.

Did you use the "Create Transfer Tool", or just type your Host ID from the laptop into the Activation Tool, installed and running on the Internet connected PC ?

 

[Outrage]

I wish I had more direct experience with this, but all my software is still the master-disk activation. There was some talk about providing free Tech Support from whichever support center is in daylight for Activation issues, but I'm not sure what the status of that is. Did you try phoning the UK support office to see if there's an option for Activation support ?

As I understand it, once you've generated an activation key and have pasted, glued, nailed, or otherwise had it put into the activation key directory (C:\Program Files\Common Files\Rockwell\Activation ), it's going to show up in the "Current Activations" tab of the FactoryTalk Activation Tool.

Did you use the "Create Transfer Tool", or just type your Host ID from the laptop into the Activation Tool, installed and running on the Internet connected PC ?

Hi Ken, I'll be ringing UK support later on today now when i've had time to get a few hours sleep at home (only 2 hours left of my night shift left now! )

I loaded up the Activation program on the laptop, used it to grab the Host Id which i then typed into the activation website along with my serial number and product code. It then let me download my licence which i copied to the location specified on the laptop to no avail.

Bring back Master disk activation!

Cheers,

Lee

 

[Ken Roach]

There's the thing; we were promised that Activation Keys, because they were just text files, would be impossible to damage or corrupt or lose. That was supposed to make them better than the obsolete floppy-disk easily-damaged-and-corrupted activations.

And then there turn out to be three utility programs, a website, and an Internet link involved.

I'm hoping that the FactoryTalk Activations will in fact turn out to be indestructible and reliable.

Too bad I'm not on night shift. It's dark, and I'm working, but I'm not on night shift.

 

[Hakutsuru]

Ken and Dunk, have you guys used Factory talk, or are you still using all master disks? They don't send any kind of emergency activation disk. If you can't get FT to work, you are out of luck. I have not had a FT activation go smooth yet. I've even had Rockwell insist I give them a credit card number before they would help me with one (that was the first one I ever attempted). Wound up hanging up on me that time. I could document some FT horror stories, but the point of all of them would be "Bring back master disks". If you have any choice whatsoever when you buy new Rockwell software, get a master disk.


-jeff

 

[OZEE]

I haven't had any problems with FT activation, but RSLinx is all I've activated that way so far.

The only problem has been with computers dying. When a computer dies with a FT activation on it, it is all kinds of fun to recover that activation for reuse.

Originally, I was tying the activation to the motherboard of our industrial computers running WonderWare (another long story as to why I was needing RSLinx instead of the DAS drivers, but we'll save that for another thread another day) instead of the harddrive... Which is most likely to fail, right? Well, I've had a round of problems with motherboards. Sent the computer back for warranty repair, they changed the mobo -- and Linx doesn't work anymore because the host has changed. But because the activation isn't being used by the appropriate host anymore, I can't get the old activation to release so I can rehost it. So it all has to be done over the phone with them emailing me a code to put in the proper folder.

Now I'm being told to use the HD as the activation host... doesn't make much sense to me either...

Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that RS has realized that most plant locations don't have internet available on the plant floor. Their online system would work great (I think...) if internet were available, but it isn't. So it takes several phone calls, several trips back and forth from the plant-floor to an office where you can get emails, ...

And I'm not sure I like the USB dongle idea, either. Seems way too vulnerable in a production environment.

 

[Bob O]

I have only had to use FT once and I didn't have internet on that machine, so they sent me a text file to place in a folder on the machine that need the activation and I was done.

My $0.02

 

[Outrage]

Result!

Turned out to be a problem with the text licence that i'd downloaded. the file extension had been b*lloxed up which is apparently a common issue if you read the knowledge base queries at Rockwell.

The problem is that windows displays the licence as:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxwwwwwwwwweeeeeeee.Lic

but if you open windows explorer click on tools menu, folder options, view tab and uncheck the "Hide extensions for known file types" and then have a look at the file properties again it now looks like:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxwwwwwwwwweeeeeeee.Lic.txt

just delete the additional .txt and bobs your unckle!

Bloody Windows - you wouldn't have got that with DOS

Thank's for your suggestions!

Cheers,

Lee

 

[Hakutsuru]

Ahh yeah, thats one of the first things I fix with any new computer. Can't stand that feature. Who cares if windows knows the file type, I can't tell what the heck it is just by looking at the silly icon!

We should start a movement to bring Dos back to the plant floor!


-jeff