Shahpour here from RealPars.
I'm here with Pamela from Siemens.
And she is going to share with us
a new feature of S7-1200 PLCs that is going to be released on December.
Can you explain a little bit about that,
elaborate what is this new feature and what we can do with that?
Yeah, of course. Well, we have so many new features that are coming in December.
Actually what is coming is the firmware 4.4
and with this gives us more possibilities for communication.
For example we have MQTT,
in order to have communications with the cloud,
with different kinds of cloud.
MindSphere for example or other third-party clouds, it's possible
and also we have OPC UA server,
support of these new communication features.
So, what I understand is that with the new update that we receive on December,
we are going to be able to connect the S7-1200 PLCs to the cloud as well.
Before that, like right now,
S7-1200 PLCs, you cannot connect them to the cloud, right?
Yeah, No. Right now, it's not possible
but if our customers have version of PLCs that are from the 4, 4.0, 4.1, they can be updated.
And if you have a CPU version 4, you said, 4.0, yeah 4.0,
you need to upgrade it to 4.4, right?
Exactly.
Upgrade it
and then that's what makes you able to connect your PLC to the cloud as well
and also you mentioned that there are different ways of
upgrading your firmware for your CPU.
Can you probably mention that in the video as well?
Yeah, of course. We have different methods.
For example, the easy one is just to download the file and paste it here.
Copy and paste it in the memory card.
- Yes, which is here.
Insert the memory card in the CPU…
We don't have a memory card here yet, right?
You can just download it and just copy it on the memory card and put it in here
and you need to put it here for 5 seconds
and then you're done and the CPU has been upgraded.
And then…
You also mention about OPC UA,
the new feature when you upgrade this S7-1200
to version 4.4,
it's going to be able to communicate with OPC UA as well.
Ok, so, this is also a new feature,
with the old CPUs of S7-1200 you won't be able to communicate over OPC UA
but with this new update you will be able to do that
and she also mentioned in our conversation that
this OPC UA makes you able to connect with other
control systems in other factories, right?
This is the advantage of using OPC UA.
Can you elaborate that a little bit? - Yes, sure.
OPC UA is a machine to machine communication
and actually this comes from this new wave
of digitalization, the industry 4.0.
So, this is why not only Siemens but all the brands are trying to
communicate with this protocol
because that means we are going to be able to communicate our devices
with other third-party devices.
So, for example if we have…
in our factory for example,
if we have Siemens and then in another factory you have ABB or you have Rockwell,
you will be able to…
if the controllers are able to communicate over OPC UA
these to factories will be able to talk to each other, right? -Exactly.
Ok, Perfect.
Is there anything else that we can learn from this setup here you think?
Well, this CPU is for basic application, is the basic controller,
but that doesn’t mean that doesn't have a lot of features,
because at the features that we are showing right here
are the technological functions that come included with the CPU.
We have in the inputs for example, high-speed counters,
PTOs, PWMs.
We also have specific library to add PIDs for example
and it's really easy.
We just have to set the setpoint and set the maximum… - PID controllers.
- and minimum values and that's it.
That is specific to S7-1200 or other CPUs?
No, all of our controllers can do this.
Ok, perfect.
Thank you very much for sharing the knowledge with us and the viewers.
My pleasure.