IO_Rack

RSLogix5000, Codemeter & Studio 5000

11 posts in this topic

As with most of you with TechConnect contracts, you may have noticed that RSLogix5000/Studio 5000 license upgraded at some point to where it is no longer valid to activate any version 20.04.02 or older. At least this is what I was told after I was unable to open one of our v19 projects. 

I work in a regulated environment and will be forced to purchase the 'Legacy' license to support our validated equipment containing these older versions. 

In the meantime, I'm exploring upgrading the firmware on a spare 1769-L32E/A from v19 to v20.05 as this was our other option versus purchasing the legacy license. I've found several issues with this.

1)  I'm only able to download firmware V20.019 for the L32E. Did I miss something? Or did I get bad information?

2)  I attempt to obtain a Studio 5000 V20.05 and it's not available. It is available (and I have it installed) on RSLogix5000 but it will not open for me. I'm assuming since I don't have a legacy license yet... but this version is supposed to be supported by Codemeter. How do I upgrade my L32E without a legacy license?

Again, I don't have a current need to upgrade but I just want to know how in case I do in the future. I can get these questions answered by Rockwell but I wanted to run this by the forums to see what other companies are doing. Upgrading the firmwares or purchasing a legacy license? What about integrators? Does the legacy license come with a ToolKit? I welcome your feedback.

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Haven't run into this yet but I do appreciate the heads up.

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On question 1: I just checked PCDC and found that the 1769-L32E/A controller does not appear to be compatible with V20.05. The available FWs listed are 20.011 through 20.014, 20.018 & 20.019. 

On question 2: If you can't open a project from a version of studio that is installed on your computer, I can only imagine that you don't have a valid activation for that version, or maybe you're trying to create/open a project for which that version is not compatible. 

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I remember having to jump through some hoops and contact their tech support, but we were able to have the codemeter license activate our older versions back to v11 or v13. That was at my previous site. Some of those licenses were bought before the CodeMeter thing but at least one was after.

As a test, I just created a new project using a 1756-L55 processor in v13 and didn't have any activation issues. I also created a v19.11 project with an L32E.

I'm using a license we just bought this past February. I don't remember if I jumped through the same hoops this time, but I may have. I had a LOT of hoops to jump through when I started here, so I likely don't remember all of them.

Can you share your v19 project here? Maybe there's something else going on...

To see the exact version of the project, open the *.ACD file in notepad. The very beginning of the file is a version history in plain text. Scroll down to the end of the history to see the most recent software version.

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18 hours ago, ElectronGuru said:

On question 1: I just checked PCDC and found that the 1769-L32E/A controller does not appear to be compatible with V20.05. The available FWs listed are 20.011 through 20.014, 20.018 & 20.019. 

On question 2: If you can't open a project from a version of studio that is installed on your computer, I can only imagine that you don't have a valid activation for that version, or maybe you're trying to create/open a project for which that version is not compatible. 

The 20.05 is the software version, the others you mentioned are the processor firmware.

You should be able to use software version 20.05 to go online with PLC firmware version 20.

 

Alan.

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20 hours ago, ElectronGuru said:

On question 1: I just checked PCDC and found that the 1769-L32E/A controller does not appear to be compatible with V20.05.

So then, I did get bad information (or my assumption) about the controller. I still have an issue because I can't open RSLogix5000 at all. Even if I want to create a new project of version 20.05 with a compatible controller. I don't know that I need to now but I do want to get this ironed out.

 

20 hours ago, Joe E. said:

I'm using a license we just bought this past February. I don't remember if I jumped through the same hoops this time, but I may have. I had a LOT of hoops to jump through when I started here, so I likely don't remember all of them.

Joe E., What type of license do you have? Standard, Professional, ToolKit? I actually received a temporary legacy license from tech support but it has since expired. The only difference I saw in FactoryTalk Activation Manager was my current license showed Product Version 33 and the loaner license showed Product Version n/a.

2 hours ago, alan_505 said:

You should be able to use software version 20.05 to go online with PLC firmware version 20.

Ah! you are correct. That completely eluded me as I was focusing on Software versions rather than Firmware versions. Now I just need to get my Software version 20.05 to open...

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We're using standard licenses (9324-RLD300ENE). In my Activation Manager, all of the licenses have "n/a"  in the "Product Version" column.

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5 minutes ago, Joe E. said:

We're using standard licenses (9324-RLD300ENE). In my Activation Manager, all of the licenses have "n/a"  in the "Product Version" column.

Do you have a TechConnect contract?

I find it interesting that my TechConnect keeps me automatically upgraded and shows a version number. Where one that is version locked does not.... but then Rockwell is usually counter-intuitive. :shrug:

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We do have Tech Connect. Their activation system is one thing I really don't like about them.

I do remember having to get in touch with them to get it activated properly, but don't remember exactly how it worked out.

I found this KB article (access level: Everyone) that seems to say that you need toolkit to activate older versions, but that's not the case for us. We don't have toolkit licenses, but I'm able to support older versions.
Weird...

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Yes, that article explains pretty much what I was told. 

I was able to open v20. I had to dig into the C:\Program Files (x86)\Rockwell Software\RSLogix 5000\ENU\v20\Bin directory to do it. I'm assuming the Loader or Launcher was trying to load an older version when I clicked on the RSLogix5000 icon.

I'm still unable to upgrade my v19 project. 

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I wonder if they've changed something this year to not let that work any more.

If you double-click on the v19 ACD file, it should prompt you to upgrade it as it's opening. You can then select whatever version you want (from among those you have installed). If you can, I would go to at least v24 since I think that's the first version that lets you download all of the documentation to the PLC.

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