4PP035.E300-36 or Automation Studio v1.3

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1

Hi everyone,

I’m reaching out because I’m stuck trying to connect to an old B&R panel and could really use some advice from people with more experience on legacy hardware.

Hardware: B&R Power Panel 35, model 4PP035.E300-K09 (manufactured around 2009). The panel was originally programmed using Automation Studio v1.3.

Current tool: I have Automation Studio 4.12 installed and I’m trying to connect to this panel with it.

Goal: I want to go online with the panel and view/retrieve the program currently running on it — I don’t have the original source project from AS 1.3.

Connection setup: The panel only has RS232 (IF1, DB9) and CAN — no Ethernet. I’m connecting through a USB-to-RS232 adapter (null-modem cable), with these settings in AS: COM12, 57600 baud, Even parity, 1000 ms timeout. After some initial trouble (Error 4808 – no connection available), I finally managed to establish communication with the panel.

The problem: When I use File → Open Project from Target, I get the message: “No valid Automation Studio project file!” — even though the actual communication with the panel is working fine.

Suspected cause: Either (a) the project sources were never saved onto the device when it was originally downloaded from AS 1.3 (this option is off by default), or (b) Automation Studio 4.12 is simply too new/incompatible with a project or AR generation that AS 1.3 targeted, so the read attempt fails for that reason.

Questions for the community:

  1. Can Automation Studio 4.12 even recognize/read a project that was originally downloaded from AS v1.3, or is that too big a generational gap?
  2. If not, which version of Automation Studio (maybe an intermediate one, like 2.x/3.x) would I need to properly connect to this panel and read/convert the project?
  3. Where can I legally download an older, compatible version of Automation Studio (v1.3 or similar) — is B&R still providing this, or do I need to contact local B&R support directly?
  4. Has anyone dealt with a similar jump (AS 1.3 → AS 4.x) on a Power Panel 4PP035 series unit, and know how to safely work around it?

Thanks a lot in advance for any help or pointers!

2

Hi @PatrykRy ,
Welcome to our B&R Community!

I have never used AS v1.3 but from download page you can download the hw upgrade for AS 2.x and 3.x, not for AS 4.x or AS 1.x

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Actually we have an hw upgrade for AS 4 (you have to login first on our website):

V4.0 HW Upgrade (4PP035.0300-K09) | B&R Industrial Automation

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Once you have installed that you can create your prj in AS 4.12

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Goal: I want to go online with the panel and view/retrieve the program currently running on it — I don’t have the original source project from AS 1.3.

If you don’t have the source code you can’t convert that to AS 2/3/4

Where can I legally download an older, compatible version of Automation Studio (v1.3 or similar) — is B&R still providing this, or do I need to contact local B&R support directly?

How to Obtain Older Versions of Automation Studio [ AS2 | AS2.7 | AS3.0 | AS4.x ] - Share Info & Ideas / How-To & Wikis - B&R Community

Ciao
Valerio

3

Thank you for the reply.

So if I understand you correctly, without the source code I still won’t be able to see under what condition the machine stops at a given step in the sequence — is that right?

Best regards.

4

yes, you understand it correctly.