GE's latest - what do I watch for?

[bartolim 0]

I have been working and expanding a GE-based system for a number of years (8PLCs, 15 HMIs, networked). We started out with Logicmaster and Cimplicity 4... gradually migrating to ME 5.5 and PE 6.1. It has remained there for a number of years, but now it's time to upgrade again (we have GlobalCare). I have been talked into PE 8.0, but ME5.9 scares me due to the number of horror stories, even on the GE support forum. Anyone out there have pointers or words of wisdom (or caution)? I'm obviously not a newbie at this, but this is a big move, and I want to avoid big surprises. Thanks in advance!

[KP_EENG 0]

I face the same situation because I cannot afford to have buggy software jeopordize my ability to get a machine up and running in a timely manner. That is the reason that I typically stay 6 months to a year behind the latest software rev. Currently, I am running Proficy ME 5.8 and have noticed no real issues; in fact, some of the issues that I had with ME 5.7 have been fixed. I just switched to ME 5.8 at the end of last year and, eventhough I do have Global Care, I will probably wait six months or so after the release of ME 5.9 before I upgrade. Then, once I do upgrade, I will only upgrade one PC until I have proven out the latest release. I do this with all of my software, including Crimson, RSLogix and others. Regards Ken

[paulengr 44]

PE 7.5 is very stable and has a lot of nice new things. The only 6.1->7.5 conversion problem I recall was that it caused some disruption with some legacy code that was so old that it took quite a while to find and remove it all. Everything still worked but we kept getting annoying Windows screens and error warning stuff popping up every so often. The nastiest one (manipulating pmdriver directly) was a holdover from PE 4.1 days that I was just never aware of buried in about half the screens. Haven't touched PE 8.0. Just converted to 7.5 last fall. The only other ugly surprise is that they changed their minds again on how to handle "mouse debouncing", which causes problems if you implement "momentary push buttons" by setting a "1" on mouse down, then a "0" on mouse up. It causes buttons to "stick". A recent hot fix gives you the ability to turn it off or on. In reality the best way to do this is to only turn it ON in the HMI and only turn it OFF in the PLC. This elimintes the problem completely. No comment about ME because I have little experience. What experience I do have is enough to make me swear off using ME altogether. Red Lion and PV+ panels are far easier to use. Edited 3 May 2009 by paulengr

[Wulfgar 5]

I'm using ME 5.9 SP1 and I would have to say it's one of the buggiest programming packages I've ever used. I feel like we paid to be a beta tester for this Proficy ME. GE seems to be very slow at addressing known bugs as well. My previous post about scrambling of tags in the ladder when uploading has still not been fixed. Not sure how 5.9 compares to previous versions though as this is the first GE project I've worked on.

[bartolim 0]

All good information... thanks. I was already pretty much figuring on going with ME 5.8, and GE has already sent me out a stack of disks for 5.9; they will be exchanged for 5.8. I will wait awhile to let them get another SP or two built before moving ahead. As for PE 8.0; I am determined to push ahead, as it offers several perks that 7.5 does not... an enhanced graphics engine, and built-in support for redundant ethernet connections and subnets. Or at least so I have been told.