Siemens OP77B Trouble in TIA Portal

[Tim James]

I am completely unfamiliar with Siemens programming but I have been asked to become familiar with it. I have a new copy of TIA Portal V11 SP2 Update 5, Step 7 V11 SP2, WinCC Basic V11 SP2, and WinCC Flexible 2008 SP3. I am working with a 314-CPU Controller and a OP77B HMI.

So here's my problem. I have an old TIA portal project that was for this setup. However, it seems it was made with WinCC Comfort so whenever I try and open it, I am politely told I will need to install Comfort in order to work with the HMI aspects of the project. (I was still able to edit the PLC program and download to the controller just fine).

Since I don't have a copy of comfort, I tried to develop an HMI project in flexible which seemed to work fine. But as soon as I try to migrate it into TIA portal I get an error stating 'the device is not supported in this version, please use a current version'. I specifically updated the TIA portal to update 5 so I could migrate flexible HMI projects into it, but now it appears that although flexible will support a OP77B, portal still will not.

Since my PLC program is already running well in Portal, all I am trying to do is incorporate an HMI program into the same project but this is beginning to seem impossible without Comfort installed. When I try to add an HMI device in Portal I am limited to a handful of basic panels. It seems like having flexible does nothing for me as far as portal goes.

Is my only option to just write the HMI program completely outside of Portal, in WinCC flexible? I'll miss out on all those 'integration' features and Ill have to manually map all my tags over, but this may be my only option at this point.

Any advice would be appreciated. And by the way, I was able to update the OS of the OP77B through flexible, not that it matters at this point.

[Mike_RH]

Tim,
The OP77B is supported by TIA Portal V11, but not with the Basic license level. You will have to upgrade your license level. I *think* the next level is "Comfort. The Basic license is only good for the basic panels.

[Tim James]

Yes, that is what it looks like from my end as well. But I shouldn't have any problem developing an HMI application in WinCC flexible and having it communicate with the controller (which I am programming using portal) correct? As long as I map my tags correctly I am hoping this will work. In other words, because my portal project does not have an HMI now (as I will delete the HMI from the project) this will not prevent a separately programmed HMI from communicating with the controller assuming the basic communication is configured correctly and tag addresses are good? Thanks for the help.

[Mike_RH]

Tim,
Yes, you can develop the HMI app in Flex and the PLC in Portal.
The simulators will all play nice together as well.

[Tim James]

Excellent, thanks for the help Mike.