Siemens S7-1200 Firmware Update

The S7-1200 series are compact PLC’s from Siemens that can be directly connected to an Ethernet network. Being compact and affordable it perfectly suits for home automation projects.

A big drawback of the original firmware (V1) is the lack of an integrated webserver, certainly the fact that it’s impossible to download a program in run and that all data blocks return to the initial values after a download.

These problems are solved when upgrading the S7-1200 PLC firmware to V2.1.2. To do this update a 24MB Siemens memory card is required. Compared to the PLC this is an expensive little piece that will only be used for updating the firmware of the S7-1200 PLC. Unfortunately there is no way around this. You absolutely need this memory card to update the firmware!

Before updating the firmware be sure you update your installation of TIA portal to the latest version and Service Pack. You can find some updates on the Siemens support website:

http://support.automation.siemens.com/WW/view/en/28919804/

Download the latest Firmware for you PLC (for me it is the 1212C) from the Siemens website:

http://support.automation.siemens.com/WW/view/en/38710101/

After downloading the firmware execute the file to extract the firmware to the empty memory card. A folder “FWUPDATE.S7S” and a file “S7_JOB.S7S” are extracted to the root folder of the memory card.

Now we’re prepared for the actual firmware upgrade of the S7-1200 PLC. The following steps are required to perform this update:

1. Insert the memory card in the PLC. The status goes to stop. And the  maintenance LED blinks.
2. Power cycle the PLC. After this the firmware is copied to the internal memory. The RUN/STOP alternates between green and orange.
3. When the copying process is done the LEDS will look like this: RUN/STOP LED is orange, maintenance LED blinks.
4. Remove the Memory Card from the  PLC and again do a power cycle to load the new firmware.
5. With the upgrade to version 2.0.3 my PLC didn’t go to run by itself, use TIA portal to get the PLC back in RUN mode when necessary. After the upgrade the firmware version 2.1.2 the PLC went to RUN.
6. Enjoy the new features!

This would be the ideal world, of course some problems occurred during the upgrade:

The installation of TIA Portal V11 SP1 failed. This problem could not be solved by reinstalling TIA Portal V11 but only by reinstalling Windows! With a fresh image of Windows the installation of TIA Portal V11, SP1 and Update 2 succeeded.

After updating TIA Portal and the firmware I had some major issues with the PLC. The internal memory got corrupted giving an error “Internal load memory is corrupt (delete in TIA Portal or with program card)” and I got an error saying “Internal system error (error code: 0×800011210000008d) - Please contact SIMATIC customer support.“. A complete factory reset solved these problems (but downgraded the firmware back to V1.0). So upgrading again… Some research told me this problem could be related to the use of PID controllers (I’m using them for the heat control of my home). This problem should not occur when ‘all blocks’ are downloaded after a software change. An other source speaks about having the PID block only in run when the PLC itself is in RUN mode. In all the other cases the PID controlled should be in reset mode.

Before installing Firmware version 2.1.2 I upgraded to version 2.0.3. When I tried to create user webpages this error occurred:

Conslusion: The firmware update of the S7-1200 PLC introduces a lot of new features but also some issues. If you’re happy with your old firmware don’t upgrade. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!