Hello Everyone!I want to ask about firmware upgrade for controller and IO card. Is there any references how long a controller or IO card firmware upgrade take time? When i do simulate it in my office it's vary from 3 - 5 minnutes as per card. Please kindly share your experiences in the real plant upgade project. FYI, i do upgrade from DV 9.3 to 11.3.1.
Thanks,
Candra
For project estimating purposes, MD Controllers (Redundant pair) takes about 10 minutes each controller, with some time in between for synchronization, simplex takes longer as you need to download the config after upgrade.
IO cards are about 5 minutes, but Fieldbus cards are about 30 minutes.
It's time consuming sitting at the console performing manual firmware upgrades of IO, especially if you have redundant IO and you request confirmation before switching. I'd recommend using the automatic switchover option, providing your plant will allow.
In reply to AdrianOffield:
Thanks, Adrian!
Then, if we use serial cards connected to PLC, (some of them are programable serial card from Mynah). Is there any issues firmware-upgrading this type of serial card?
In reply to candra tri ap:
we had a redundancy issues after the firmware upgrade (VIMs were configured as redundant). If you have redundat VIMs i suggest to do the full test of switchover after the upgrade.
In reply to marko.dragojevic:
I agree with AdrianOffield. Fieldbus H1 cards take a long time to upgrade. Every other IO card and controllers can be done in less than 10 minutes each.
Are you doing the upgrade with the process completely down?
We had some "inconveniences" while doing the controller switchover during the upgrade process. I strongly recommend you take all the precautionary measures possible if you require a seamless transition.
Good Luck
when deltav firmware upgrade ，should we plan to stop production?
In reply to Leo He:
Our experience was that during the controller switchover, certain parameters were not transfered to the new controller (the upgraded controller), and there were some process consecuences. (i.e. and interlock was activated) This is really depended on your module configuration (interlock logic, overall complexity of the logic, etc), but my recomendation is that if you can't stop production during that controller and IO card switchovers, you should take all the precausionary meassures to ensure the minimum impact.
Hope this help.
In reply to Josue Lopez:
Thanks. it is wonderful. I need to read the onlinebook well.
The amount of time taken varies from Analog I/O (takes more time) to discrete I/O (takes less time). Fieldbus cards take quite long (could be twice as long as Analog I/O cards). Your assumption of about 3-5 minutes per card seems like a reasonable number for an average estimate.
In reply to Kris Chandrashekar:
My facility is almost completely Fieldbus. When I upgrade the H1 cards it usually takes 18 - 20 minutes per card. I usually upgrade the cards offline because my process is continuous and cannot be shutdown. I place a spare card into an empty slot on the backplane and upgrade the firm ware of the card. Then I swap out the newly upgraded card with a H1 card in service. I only loose minimal communication then while the system recognizes the new card, ~ 20 - 30 seconds.
In reply to mikesteiger:
Very thanks for Adrian, Kris, Josue, Marko, Leo and Mike.. thanks for the advices.
Our plant completely shutdown so no need to worry about the proccess. But the shutdown window rather short so we need to plot the upgrade time precisely. Also we not use fieldbus device, only common HART, serial card and some redundant i/o card.