Profibus communication problems with WinCC v6.0 and Step7 after windows crash

[DarrenG]

Hi all,

I will try and give as much info as possible to begin with but I am a graduate thrown in at the deep end so bear with me please.

Upon restarting one of the old HMI's in one of the plants there was a windows error that was preventing it from booting up properly, some issue with the system folder so we set it off for repair. When we got it back WinCC and the Automaton Licence Manager would not open. It seemed like the files for these programs were deleted from the same system folder that was causing windows not to load. I reinstalled WinCC, Simatic Net and the Automation Licence Manager and they're running fine now but when I go to run time in WinCC I am not getting any communication to the field devices.

I installed WinCC v6.0, Simatic Net 2005 Edition + HF1 and Automation Licence Manager v2.0 I believe (not sure if this is the correct version of Simatic Net I should have installed, there is a disc with "Hotfix 11 to Simatic Net 07/2001 + SP5" and "Hotfix 6 to Simatic Net 11/2003" too which I did not install). In the "Set PG-PC Interface" CP_L2_1 is pointing to CP5613_CP5614(Profibus) as is S7Online, the access point is currently set to S7Online.

I rang Siemens twice for some advice but they only asked me to check the PG-PC interface and said this version was no longer supported so could not help me further without an engineer calling out.

I have added screen shots of some of the profibus property windows in case this sheds more light on the potential issue. My problem is that I've never troubleshooted a connection issue before so this is all new to me. In Uni the focus was on desiging graphics, ladder logic etc so any help is greatly appreciated.

In the Station Configuration Editor it is showing as being offline and the only station showing is on line 125 "Station manager", should there be anything else in here?

Thanks in advance,

Darren

 

[DarrenG]

Just in case it's a compatibility issue here is what is installed on the HMI.

 

[Thomas_v2]

Is the Profibus CP properly detected and installed in windows? I would check the Windows device manager for any abnormalities (exclamation or question mark).

 

[DarrenG]

Yes it seems to be running fine anyway.

 

[Thomas_v2]

Do you have access to the Step7 project with the plc you want to get access to?
Then check the DP network settings, like baudrate, station address etc.

Also it's possible to use MPI instead of Profibus DP with your type of CP, it uses the same cable type. But probably then someone would have choosen a cheaper type of CP.
I which tree in WinCC do you have the WinCC tags? MPI or Profibus?

 

[DarrenG]

Thanks for your help Thomas.

Sorry, at the moment I'm having issues opening the project in WinCC, it was hanging on deactivate at the alarm logging runtime stage at 44% so I've spent the last hour trying to find a solution for this but I think it's solved. It is on activate now so hopefully it will open soon and I can resume solving the original problem. I changed the access point from S7Online to CP_L2_1 to see if that made a difference so just waiting on it to finish loading, that was hours ago though.

I'll check if I can open the project in S7, where in Step7 would I find the network settings?

I will try using MPI once I get the project running and see if that makes a difference. I think the two HMI's in that plant are 17/18 years old so after I make a change it takes ages for the project to close and reopen.

I appreciate the help!

Oh and the tags are under Profibus.

 

[Thomas_v2]

I'll check if I can open the project in S7, where in Step7 would I find the network settings?

The easiest way to get an overview is using the NetPro tool.
When you've opened the project, in the SIMATIC Manager menu "Extras" something like configure network. Then the program NetPro will start.

There you'll see an overview of the Plcs and the networks inside the project.
If you doubleclick onto a network line, you'll get the network parameters.
In the list at the bottom, you'll see all partners which are attached to the selected network.

Is there a PC-Station in the Step7 project, or even a WinCC OS station?

 

[DarrenG]

OK so I tried opening the Simatic Manager and NetPro and nothing happened, double clicked and it just didn't open. I asked and even though the programs are there, they're not used on this machine. Whether they worked or not before the crash I don't know and I don't think I will find out either as these HMI's are usually avoided, hence why the newbie is tasked with fixing them. The S7 licence is on the operational HMI and the WinCC licence on this one so I'm going to have to wait until the plant is not running in order to check what the network settings are. This won't be until next week so I'll have to wait.

I just looked at the S7ubTskb and I have the following:

Testing registration... Key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SIEMENS\AUTSW\Global\SharedPath
< OK
Comparing registration with path... C:\Siemens\Common\Sqlany
Path in AUTOEXEC.BAT does not match registry.
< Not OK
Testing SET SQLANY in AUTOEXEC.BAT...
SET SQLANY
< Not OK
Testing path for SQL Anywhere DLL... dbl50t.dll
< Not OK
Testing path for SQL Anywhere DLL... wl50ent.dll
< Not OK
Searching for S7ubtoox...< OK
Installed Protocols..
NetBios installed
TCPIP installed
< OK
Testing Winsock DLL...Found Winsock Version 2
< OK
Testing ODBC configuration...< OK

I'm just wondering if any one those 'Not OK's' would be a problem. I can reinstall the S7 package if I have to but I'm not sure if it's always been like this or not.

It's home time and I won't be back until Tuesday with New Years so thank you very much for your help today and enjoy the weekend, at least I have some bit of detective work done anyway! I'll post an update when I get back.

 

[Thomas_v2]

Did you use the Simatic manager on the same machine where WinCC is installed on? It seems that after the windows crash there are more files corrupted.
I'd recommend to reinstall it completely (Windows and WinCC), but with this old systems I know it's not easy to find the old software versions to reinstall all correct.

If it's allowed for you to upload the Step7 project, then I or anyone else with Simatic Manager can open the project and check the DP settings for you. Maybe this is the only problem, and after fixing this it works.

 

[adfox]

Have You selected interface for wincc channel ?

 

[DarrenG]

Thomas, yes I tried opening Simatic Manager on the same machine that WinCC is installed on, the machine that's causing issues, but it wouldn't open. I also tried opening "NetPro" and "LAD, STL, FBD - Programming S7 Blocks" which are part of the S7 package too and they wouldn't open either. The crash may have affected these too but I didn't use it before the crash and my boss doesn't seem to know whether it worked before the crash or not or whether it was just not used. I think I'll reinstall this after I check the connection settings. I might have to do a complete reinstall of the OS but as you said I'm not sure if there's a Windows 2000 disc lying around the office somewhere. I feel like we've made good progress though so to have to reinstall everything would be a shame. I don't think my boss is in today but once I see him I'll ask if I can upload the project so someone can check the settings.

I managed to get the project opened anyway at least to see if the changed I made in the PG-PC interface made any difference. I encountered a new problem Friday where it was hanging on Deactivate at the alarm logging stage at 44%. To solve this I created a new project, ran it and then stopped it, then opened and ran the original project. Once I got to the Activate part it was also hanging at about 55% at the alarm logging stage. To rectify this I went to Alarm Logging (after stopping runtime of the test project and before starting runtime of the original) and reset the message archive. Hopefully this will be of benefit to someone in the future as it was driving me insane.

Adfox thanks for the help, I have attached pictures of my settings, I think they're OK are they?

 

[adfox]

Your both connections have the same address, is that ok ?

 

[DarrenG]

Hi folks, apologies for the delay in replying I was out sick for a few days. I eventually solved this, the plant was down for a day so I checked the settings of the operational screen and copied the profibus settings to the second screen. This didn't work initially but what I changed first was:

In my original post I have a screen shot showing bus statistics having 65535 bus errors.
These errors went to 0 once I changed, under "properties - Cp5613_5614 Profibus" Address from 0 to 2, transmission rate from 1.5Mbps to 187.5kbps and profile from universal (DP/FMS) to DP. I knew I was on the right track at this stage but it was still not communicating.

Next I went to the PG-PC interface and changed S7Online to MPI(WinCC) which pointed to CP_5613_5614. S7Online was also pointing to this but MPI was the option selected. Ran the program and it was communicating.

Thank you to thomas and adfox for your help, and if anyone has any questions about it please dont hesitate to contact me and I will try return the help I have received.