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VIM1 Compatibility and Upgrade Questions

Hello All,

I have a couple of questions I am hoping someone can answer.

1. I am curious if anyone out there knows if a VIM1 (not VIM2) will work with a DeltaV V15 system?

We currently have it on a V14 system and it works fine. We have plans to upgrade to V15 online with the plant running. I was hoping to leave the VIM1 in place and change it out at our next outage. Some of these are Simplex so I do not want to risk an outage.

2. We do have a couple of redundant VIM1's. I am also curious if anyone knows if changing these to VIM2's can be done without losing communication to the end devices?

I appreciate any input!

• DeltaV #DCS
• DeltaV

knucklhead90

• 17 Jan 2025 2:32 PM
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4 Replies

• ApurvaPatel

  

  • 20 Jan 2025 7:51 AM

  DeltaV 15 not support VIM 1

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• Inocencio Perez

  

  • 20 Jan 2025 1:14 PM

  In reply to ApurvaPatel:

  As per Emerson information not even DeltaV 14, so who knows...? 

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• Andre Dicaire

  

  • 21 Jan 2025 9:05 PM

  In reply to Inocencio Perez:

  A VIM 1 will work with DeltaV v15. The VIM 1 is no longer available, and is no longer tested with DeltaV. But since the VIM emulates a serial card on the controller IO carriers, what is there to test?
  
  Note, this is my opinion and not an Emerson position. Let's take a scenario where Emerson makes a change to the IO localbus and to make that happen, they revise the Serial Card firmware. It is possible that at that point, the VIM1's emulated Serial Card is unable to work with that version of DeltaV. Emerson would update the VIM2 firmware as that is the supported VIM card. Any VIM1 cards would unfortunately stop working.
  
  In practice, Emerson has taken great pains in the past to ensure that new controller firmware works with existing IO cards and New cards. So it is extremely unlikely that we will see existing Serial cards made obsolete. That has not happened in v15.
  
  The challenge you may find is that if you use a VIM1, and have an issue, and call the GSC with a v15 system and a VIM1, they will not be in a position to try and reproduce the issue, especially if the VIM2 card works. If the issue exists with a VIM1 on a supported v13 system, that might get some attention, but support has ended for v13. If the issue exists with the VIM2 and v15, that will be investigated. Does a v13 system work after support is ended? yes.
  
  So back to will it work? yes. The v15 controller will detect a Serial Card on the prescribed slots emulated by the VIM. The controller is unaware the serial card is emulated. Why would it not work. It may not be supported, but it works.
  
  Is this a production system? A simulation system? Is this already running and you want to know if it will continue to run after upgrading to v15? It should work. Emerson is not saying the cards will not work. They are no long tested and are no longer supported. If you want a supported solution, you do need to keep current with your system.
  
  Note that if this VIM1 fails, you will receive a VIM2 if you order a replacement. You'll have to update the VIMNetExplorer and migrate the configuration of the VIM to install the VIM2. Consider how that will go if there is pressure to restore and now you have to learn something new about VIM2. Maybe updating to VIM2 is more prudent to do proactively?

  Andre Dicaire

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• knucklhead90

  

  • 9 Jan 2026 1:49 PM

  In reply to Andre Dicaire:

  I appreciate the information Andre! We have completed our upgrade and the VIM1 works fine as you said it would.
  
  One other question, do you know if it is possible to upgrade a redundant VIM1 (Ethernet/IP) setup to VIM2 without disrupting the communications?
  Similar to replacing a controller, upgrade the standby, switchover to the new standby, then upgrade the primary. (Knowing I would need to configure the VIM2's correctly during this process.)
  
  Thanks,
  Brian Knuckles

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