VisiLogic Programming Software

Unitronics constantly upgrade all of their software which falls into three distinct areas, the Visilogic programming software, the PLC operating system and the software utilities.  ...See More In broad terms it is safe to upgrade the Visilogic programming software at any time, the newer versions are backward compatible with the PLC OS and the user should not experience any issues with their application program in most scenarios.

This FULL programming Software is very powerful and Included in the price of any Unitronics PLC unit.

Unless there are specific features or fixes that the user needs it is not recommended to upgrade the PLC operating system on a production machine, if the user is starting a new project then it is appropriate to make sure the latest OS is used.  The new PLC operating systems are downloaded via Visilogic, which checks to make sure that any OS upgrades are compatible with the Visilogic version number performing the upgrade.  PLC OS upgrades should always be made via the PLC Port 1 over a serial link and not via TCPIP.  When a PLC OS is upgraded the process does not overwrite the existing application program which will run when the upgrade is complete.

It is possible at some point that new features in a later release of software might prevent a PLC program from being compiled and downloaded, however, this would need the addition of new PLC functions not present in the existing OS.  Some OS changes have resulted in PLC operation being different (by default) to the previous version, however, these changes can normally be reversed by turning on a designated System bit (SB).  If the user has any doubts then it is possible to check what upgrades and fixes have been made to the various versions, Unitronics publish version change data which can be found on their website.

It is also possible to have several versions of the Visilogic programming software on one PC and then switch between the versions, there is a utility program called the Visilogic Version Swapper to help with this.

The user should carefully consider the consequences of upgrading each software utility depending on the utility function as these vary from simple data table uploads to taking remote control of a plant. New versions should not be tested on production machines.

As with all things, good practice requires strong version control and risk analysis before upgrading software, make sure you do not run Beta software on production machines and if in doubt - We are happy to help you out!

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Need Help with Programming VisiLogic?

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