Falcons75

Upgrading L6 Series to L7 ControlLogix

5 posts in this topic

We have L61's and L63's and are looking at upgrading them to the L7 equivalent. Has anyone had any experience of this and any pitfalls to avoid?

Tech support have said that there might be issues with the comms cards resolved by updating their firmware.

Is the upgrade that simple?

We currently use Logix5000 at version 20.01 but are preparing to go to Studio5000 as part of the upgrade.

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What comms cards do you have in the chassis?  When we upgrade our L55s to v16, we have to also update the firmware of the Sercos modules (1756-MO8SE, I think).  We also generally flash the ENBT modules to the latest firmware.  It's a pretty straightforward process that we've never had issues with.

 

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I have had difficulties with motion instructions when moving from one processor and FW level and going to another.  I cannot recall the details of the FW level but I think it was 18 to 21.  I would suggest making a copy of your file, then opening that copy in Logix 5000.  Then open the controller properties and change the controller type and FW level.  Once the conversion is complete, you will be able to see if all of the code converted.   If you see 0 errors once the conversion is complete, you should be good.  IF USING MOTION commands, you may still have issues, but you will have to cautiously determine how you will validate the conversion.  On our system, it was obvious.  We couldn't run until we changed some code.  If I remember correctly, it just had to do with timing one of the commands.

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Since you're replacing the controllers, you can go online with the old processor and do an online save, uploading all tag values.  Then convert a copy of the project to the new version and download it to the new processor.  If it doesn't work for some reason and you don't have enough time to sort it out right away, just put the old processor back in the chassis and you're back running. 

It would be a good idea to do the same thing with any communication modules you need to flash to a new version.  Once you've proven the change and it all works, you now have spare comm modules.

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Thanks for the info, guys. We're using Asset Centre so we're fully backed up as it carries out checks on a daily basis.

The comms cards we have are ENBT/A and ENET/A. I'll keep a copy of the original code seperate just in case.

Luckily we don't have any motion controls sp I don't have to worry there.

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