NetMatt

(I work for MDT disclaimer ) Yes, this could be a good way to get notified of some changes in a Rockwell PLC, and if stored in a register, you could possibly use a OPC tag to monitor this for real time changes.  It is a good starting point if you have no change detection or tracking. The problem we have heard from customers on "it changed" only notification is it becomes noisy to the point of being ignored.  I like the goal/idea of #5 in that list, and support it, but it is only a small part of a larger solution needed. Software developers store their code in a change repository (i.e. GIT, SVN, etc) for a reason, and PLC developers should do the same.  It allows for traceability, collaboration, communication, context and recovery, which all contribute to a more secure environment.  Without context and additional data (i.e. what changed, why the change was made, who made the change, when was the change made, etc) it is not going to provide the information needed to make a judgement call needed to ignore, accept, approve or cause alarm. In the end, (of course) I recommend a system like MDT or Auvesy provides for a complete automation tracking solution!    

Hey Bob, here you go, see page 46 or 47 or so for the Audit value. Logix 5000 Controllers Information and Status Programming Manual (Publication 1756-PM015K-EN-P) (rockwellautomation.com)

The word is that Siemens will be replacing Simatic Manager / Step 7 with a new 'modular' package at the end of the year or early next year, but I can't find anything on the web about it? Has anyone heard any news, or seen anything about it?

For the pass-through, it is nice to create a shortcut to it as well, but I think the new RSLinx 2.52 may not be supporting shortcuts for pass-thru anymore? At least a customer of ours failed after upgrade to 2.52 from 2.51 and had to go back due to this. I believe Rockwell told him a technote is pending. Anyone have any info on this? Losing shortcuts may be a bad thing for a lot of people, though I don't know the whole story yet?

If you can't do it, buy it. This move by Rockwell makes sense to me, but in a lot of these cases, you lose a lot of the key players from the company you bought. Then you have a shell of the original company, since a lot of folk are not interested in being number 1,238,910 of the corporate machine, or don't like the unknown risk of finding out that there are already 10 product managers, and they don't need 11. (though the benefits are probably real good!) ...and that's before they can even really integrate the product, as well. I am not sure Wonderware should be all that worried...if you've ever used a Rockwell HMI/MES solution, which you figured should be good due to the Datasweep purchase in 05. (cheers for their PLC's though !)

I found the answer today. Ends up that as long as you dont say "yes" to a conversion dialog on opening, then it will be fine. If you say yes, and convert up, then your stuck with a newer rev only. Thats a pretty good design in my opinion

If I make a project in PL7 3.4, and then a peer uses PL7 4.5 to upload/change/download it...will there be any problems with me trying to modify/upload it in 3.4 again? Anyone know? Thanks!

What are the options for a "Monitor Only" mode for RS5k? I have seen: 1) Service Edition, which means purchasing 2) FactoryTalk Security, I believe can implement some View Only or Maintain mode Seems starting with V16.03 option #2 is installed with RS5k, so does this mean I get all those nice view/maintain options free ( ), or grey-ed out, and I need to purchase something else to actually configure them per user? Thanks!

I have 2 questions: 1) Is there a way to remotely query from SCADA/VB/etc... a CS1 PLC to see when it was last modified? 2) Also, having a project that has 3 PLC's(i.e. one connected via Ethernet, and the others connected to it via FLNet) is there a way to upload from all 3 PLC's at once, instead of switching to each one? Seems like there should be an "Upload Project" command to get all programs/PLC's within a project? Thanks Matt