Anyone heard of "Siemens S7-1515 SP PC Open Controller" ?

[Thomas_v2]

My only big worry at the moment is that to be online requires that you have a relatively performant connection. TIA seems to send a lot more data back and forth than STEP7 Classic. The entire online concept is quite different to STEP7 Classic.
My concern is that even if it works OK to be online when you are next to the PLC, what if you have a slow VPN connection to a distant site ? This is something we are using extensively. If this does not work good enough, it will be a big disadvantage.

The bad thing is, the bigger your program gets, the slower the onlineview-startup will be, and the more data is transferred. Because TIA downloads the full header information of the complete online program. Not the code, but this is still a lot of data going through the line. And next, if you want to make a change, you have to go offline, and when you want to go into online view again, this data is transferred again.

An option to disable this "compare always the complete program" would be a nice feature with default = off, who needs this? Step7/classic does only compare the timestamp and the block checksum of the single block you want to view. Siemens has modified the online performance to classic S7 with V13 SP1, so I hope Siemens will have an understanding and fix this some day.

 

[mk42]

An option to disable this "compare always the complete program" would be a nice feature with default = off, who needs this? Step7/classic does only compare the timestamp and the block checksum of the single block you want to view. Siemens has modified the online performance to classic S7 with V13 SP1, so I hope Siemens will have an understanding and fix this some day.

I think part of the trick is that I don't think S7 calculates checksums for individual blocks anymore, at least in the 1200/1500. It makes comparisons a pain, because it has to compare multiple time stamps and other header info for each block. Two identical blocks with different time stamps will register as different, but you can't find a single reason why in the code. I also hope this is improved, and checksums are added. Come on v14! It'd be great for security, too, to see the fw calculated checksum on the display.

I do agree with m_turk, Portal makes going back to Simatic Manager painful. With all its faults (crashes, freezes, bloat), I still like it better than the old stuff.

 

[JesperMP]

mk42, I will investigate the system clock for getting more precise cycle time info. Just because I am curious.

m_turk, yes that is the approximate list price for the version without bundled HMI.
As I see it, with the bundled HMI, you get a powerful PLC (like a 317), plus an industrially rugged PC for the HMI software plus licenses for Windows and the WinCC RT, all for less than half of what a traditional solution would cost.