[Q] Studio 5000 Versions

[xunilbama 0]

Good Morning, 

My name is Joseph Rhodes and I was as an electronics technician with the City of Tuscaloosa. I have a few questions regarding licenses and versions of Studio 5000 software. I've got a bit more experience with RSLogix 5 and RSLogix 500 software due to our plant having some older PLCs as well as the lift stations having the 1200/1400 series PLCs. My former colleague retired about 2 years ago taking with him experience. He did leave me with a vast amount of files he had collected over the years. One of these files is the RSLogix 5000 Activation Certificate. I have activated the 5000 license on my laptop. The pdf currently states that we have a concurrent license type that is a permanent life time license. The version of this license is 24.00.00. My question(s) lie in...If our integrator uses a RSLogix 5000 version that is higher than can I still open and make changes to a program even though I have version 24.00.00 ? I'm not exactly sure how old 24.00.00 is and I do know that our integrator has been using higher versions. I can not seem to open this RSLogix 5000 ACD file via Studio 5000 because it keeps giving me an internal initialization error 307. I'm not sure if the integrator sent a bad copy or if there's something happening on my end. 

[TimWilborne 108]

Hi Joseph.  The major revision must match meaning if you have 24 and your integrator uses 32, you will not be able to connect to the PLC.  Also, if you have version 36, you still will not be able to connect to the PLC.  Since you have a license, you can download new versions as long as you have a support contract and it is probably worth it because it gives you 8 to 5 support, Monday through Friday.

[xunilbama 0]

I'm actually in the process of un-installing the version of Studio 5000 I have on my laptop. When I go to Rockwell Automation downloads. The only option I ever have in downloading is version 24.00.00. I see the other versions, but it never lets me download anything other than 24.00.00. I suppose the support contract has a deadline and to my knowledge. We have surpassed that deadline, so we no longer have that support. One of the reasons for my question(s) is because I'm at the tail end of an installation of an InSite PT2/ST2 system that will measure the amount of dissolved oxygen and total suspended solids in our aeration basins. That area has a CompactLogix and I need to be able to modify the program so that it can read and write the information from the InSite system back to our SCADA system. 

[ElectronGuru 82]

Each version of RS5000 / Studio5000 software is sold separately. While you can purchase "packaged" licenses similar to bundling cable TV channels, it can get very expensive to own multiple version licenses of Rockwell controller software. For the time being, if you only have V24 license, you will only be allowed to download V24. And as @TimWilborne said above, you will only be able to get online with Control- or CompactLogix controllers that are flashed to V24.

Rockwell / Windows supports simultaneously hosting multiple versions on one laptop, so there's no need to uninstall one revision to accommodate another. While you can have multiple versions of RS5000 (V20 and below) and Studio5000 (V21 and above) on a single laptop, this is the only Rockwell software I'm aware of that does this. For instance, ff you were to go from FactoryTalk View Studio V10 to V12, the install would remove all signs of the lower version. They make it very easy to go up, and almost impossible to go down. To go up you pay, download, and install; to go down you'd have to completely uninstall the newer and do a clean install of the older. When deciding to upgrade from existing FTME/SE, CCW, etc, assess your needs carefully, and read the user reviews of people who've already been using it.

For what you've described, I'd talk to the integrator and figure out what revisions they're using and what direction they're going in the near (and far) future to get on the same page. Then take a company-wide inventory of all your Logix controllers and their firmware revisions. Take all this info to your local Rockwell distributor and figure out what "bundle(s)" of Rockwell software would best suit your long term needs. 

Hope this helps. 

[Joe E. 259]

To clarify what's been said above, with a warning that the latest RA licenses may not work the same way since they're really pushing subscriptions:
At my last place, we had lifetime licenses originally purchased at v10 or so that were still active and in use to active up to v30 or v32 when I left. Others were bought around v20 or v24 and could also be configured to activate back to v10 and up to whatever was current. The only additional cost wasn't an additional license, but an annual support contract that lets you download the installer files for other versions. It's a similar situation where I am now. Our annual contract is substantially less than another lifetime license of the software.

I use virtual machines for all of my automation software. Right now, I'm using a Win10 VM with versions 24 and 28-34 installed. I have an older Win7 VM with versions 10-16, 18-21, v24, 28, 30-32. I also have an XP VM with v10-16 and 18-20. I rarely use either of the older VMs any more since most of our stuff here is in the newer versions.

 

[ElectronGuru 82]

@Joe E. around then end 2018 or 2019 (I don't remember exactly) Rockwell announced that they were going to subscription-only and the crazy thing was, the announced annual rates were as much as the one-time lifetime licenses. So if you you were a mom-and-pop injection mold company making plastic widgets and had paid $4K for V24 years ago, a $6K upgrade to V32 would cost you that much per year. (Obviously these are not exact numbers but you get the idea). The customers lost their minds and I've never seen Rockwell walk something back that fast before or since. Within a few months of the first announcement they made another, saying that now subscriptions were optional.

For government, integrators, and larger companies the subscriptions can make a lot of sense because while they do cost more dollars, the amount bang-for-buck is significantly higher, as well. Having a service contract with a 24/7 hotline can be worth its weight in gold. But a lot of our customers still prefer the lifetime license one-time cost knowing they only use one or two versions and upgrade maybe every other decade. There is no one-size-fits-all so as I said above, my advice is always take a thorough inventory of where you and your partners are at, where you want to go, and talk to a distributor about options. But the hardest part will always be getting management to cough up the funds.

[Joe E. 259]

The last license we bought was when I started here in early 2020 and subscription was an option. We went with lifetime. Interestingly our self-support online TechConnect is way less than the license was. I don't remember the subscription prices being nearly as high as a lifetime one, though. Their pricing has always been a little....schizophrenic on some things though.

[xunilbama 0]

I really appreciate everyone's input and it's helped me greatly in understanding what I was asking. For now, I can't even seem to get a working copy of the software installed on my laptop. It keeps triggering this error message saying something like internal initialization error 307. I've even tried creating a new program out of thin error to see if I were still going to get the issue and sure enough I did. I'm thinking I could of had a corrupted download of the software. I've been rather too busy to really dig into it, but hope to this morning. Once again, thank you all.. 

[pturmel 160]

A lot of the older Rockwell software versions won't run on Win10/11 without some of the newer patches.  Try installing on Win7.