#77 - Rockwell PLC firmware flashing

Flashing the PLC’s firmware is part of the routine of an automation engineer. Manufacturers are constantly updating their firmware, as part of continuous improvement but also to correct bugs and cyber security flaws.

Warning: the PLC may be damaged if the firmware upgrade (flashing) is not correctly done, therefore consult the manuals and the official distributor in case of questions.

An "out of the box" brand new Rockwell PLC typically comes with firmware version v1. The first steps are to configure the network settings of the new PLC:

• Connect a USB cable between the PLC (CPU) and the programming laptop. 
• Open RSLinx and click on RSWho button to scan the network.
• Find the USB connection in the scan tree, right click on the PLC and select “Module configuration”.
• On the “Port Configuration” tab select "Manually configure IP settings" and insert the IP, subnet mask, gateway and host name.

• The Network Status (NS) in the front of the PLC will flash green, meaning that the Ethernet card has an IP address, but no CIP communication has been established yet.

The second stage is to upgrade the firmware to the desired version. There are different ways to perform this that are quite similar. It can be done directly from the RSLogix/Studio 5000 software, or by using ControlFLASH or ControlFLASH Plus.

• From the RSLogix/Studio 5000, click on RSWho, select the PLC and click on "Update Firmware...".

• Notes: 
• The firmware files are stored on the path displayed above. "C:\Users\Public\Documents\RockwellAutomation\Firmware Kits"
• If the desired version is not available in the local computer, it is possible to download directly from the Rockwell website "Download center".
• The downloaded file is a .dmk file. However when the file is downloaded to the computer, the extension of the file may change to .zip. Just rename the file and change the extension from .zip to .dmk.
• If the error "Failed to validate the digital signature of the DMK file" occurs, it may be required to update the version of the ControlFLASH program to v15.03 or higher. 
• I measured the time it took me to upgrade one PLC firmware and the time was around 3 minutes and 50 seconds.