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Chris Elston

GE Charges for 5.5 Upgrade while your in SUPPORT!?!?

27 posts in this topic

Gosh dang it, I am so freaking mad I could punch a wall. I've always had good things to say about GE, but I drew the lines in the sand today. I bought Proficy Machine Edition version 5.0 software a few months back for thousands of dollars. Next, an engineer sent me a sample modbus program that was written in Proficy Machine Edition 5.5. So I thought I could just login to GE and download the 5.5 service pack and upgrade my 5.0 and away I go...WRONG!!!!! Even though I paid thousands of dollars for support this year, ontop of the 5.0 software, I am not entitled to the 5.5 upgrade. I have to purchase the 5.5 upgrade. What in the heck is the deal with that. Upon futher checking, one of my engineering colleagues found in the Proficy Global Care TOS: Listen to this: What a waste of support money this year. I won't be re-newing. Generally we purchase "support" contracts to support the software engineers, but in the case, it's purely a waste of money... After looking at this, I doubt I need version 5.5 anyway. I think 5.0 will do what I need. What's the big deal with version 5.5? What can it do that 5.0 can't?

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That fine print will get you every time! It does make their support program rather worthless. Come to think of it.......I don't believe that I have personally ever come across a program that worked that way. Rockwell and many others have always allowed me to upgrade as long as I was in support. Oh well.....thanks for the warning!!!!!!!!

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I now have to RETRACT this post, because of some bad information I got. First my GE supplier said I would have to pay for this, now the story has changed. I am getting it for free. Golly gee....I wish they would make up their mind..... I should have it tomorrow.

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The power of persuasion from the wrath of Chakorules. Don't let the penguin avatar fool your

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Who was it that initially told you that you had to buy the upgrade? If it was your distributor, then you might want to start shopping for a new one. I got my v5.0 upgraded to v5.5 with no hassle whatsoever earlier this year. All I had to do was to give them my Globalcare CSN number.

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It was my GE distributor, but later he apologized he was wrong. I do want to find a new GE supplier...it's been a struggle with current one. I PM'ed RussB, I didn't know if they still do or not. MI is close to Indiana.

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I got my version 5.5 upgrade today. Works like a champ and I didn't have to pay a DIME FOR IT, just like I'd expect...thanks GE! -

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You must have scared them when you told them you ratted them out on line. LOL, GE has been great to us. We slowly made the change to Cimplicity/Proficy but now are totaly going with CLX. GE was not happy.

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They can't compete against CLX. I thought about going to work for GE a few years back.....glad I stuck with Rockwell.........

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Obvously you have not looked into the RX3i, you're right it does not compete, it is way ahead of CLX.

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I guess that explains the 70% market share Rockwell has. At least where i'm at.........Actually to be perfectly honest the playing field has become pretty flat with regard to PLC's in general. The diffirentiator anymore is how well you are supported by your distributor and the manufacturer.

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Easy guys, I didn't mean for this to turn into a product bashing session. I left this post "live" because the events are true. Since the orginal post, I got what I needed from GE, plus I made some new GE friends. Thanks for your opinions in both Rockwell and GE, and your right, it does depend on your support, that's why I made the choice to find a new suppiler.

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Whats a distributor? I'm lucky, GE Supply has a warehouse/office literally 10 minutes away. I deal directly with them, no hassle, no middle man. Distributors call me all the time and I ask them can you get me parts for X price the next day or even the same day if needed. Most of them can't. Chris I suggest you just move your shop to the Naperville, IL area, there is a nice industrial park building up right around the GE Supply warehouse.

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As a former employee of an independent GE Fanuc distributor I feel the need to reply. Greg, the fact is that GE Supply is a distributor. Just like the independents. They buy their PLC components from GE Fanuc just like the independents. They pay the same price as the independents. If they are willing to offer your company a better discount than another distributor, that's their choice, and not because they are a subsidiary of GE. So don't think that by purchasing your GE or GE Fanuc products from GE Supply you're getting something unavailable anywhere else. This is not intended to disparage any GE Supply outlet or any of their employees. There are many excellent Automation Specialists employed by many GE Supply locations. There are also some clunkers. The same is true for the independent distributors.

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I love using GE as well as Allen Bradley products. They both have things I like and do not like. I my humble opinion GE array move is the most single useful function in any ones software package. I am curious about what Russ mentioned though. The biggest winner for the CLX was the user defined stuff. We have many parts of our programs that are the same in every PLC. We have been able to save lost of development time with this function. Its sort of like one program fits all. Does the RX3i have this capability.

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Yes, UserDefinedFunctionBlocks, the RX3i has it all, including the ability to store descriptions and with its Pentium PIII and 10Meg of RAM there is generally room to include your CAD files in the upload. Look it up on the net, you may be impressed. www.gefanuc.comI did not mean to bash anyone or any product, but I wanted to correct a miss-conception. All PLC/PAC manufacturers have thier strong points and weak points. That is why I think that companies should not limit thier controlls to one supplier. By doing this they may "get the best available by thier supplier, but they may not have the best for thier project."

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If I'm not wrong v5.5 added native support for Modbus TCP as both a sever and a client.

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I don't know what you are looking for, but I'll give you what I got. I haven't gotten a chance yet to try it, I keep having something come up in my work day messing me up from my R & D time.... Modbus_TCP_channels.zip

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Steve, I understand that they are a distributor I was just being sarcastic. Basically all my post was saying is that I am geographically lucky to be close to GE Supply Warehouse with excellent people who are always more than willing to help me out when I have a problem. I guess I'm just glad that I can go through them rather than somebody else.

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It is a Modbus TCP client using COMM_REQs, thanks! Helped me understand why I could get my example to work correctly.

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Blind squirrel found a nut! Your welcome!

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I am sure that Jay A and the boys would welcome a migration Chako over to Omron

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Guess GE SUPPLY isn't my distributor anymore. Rexel buys GE SUPPLY $2.5 Billion in annual revenue and they sell it for $725 Million??? Edited by glaverty

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This indicates that there is not much margin in the electrical distribution business. Doesn't that make you feel bad for 'beating up' your sales agent for better pricing.

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Tears are running down my face....

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