BX-DM1-36 will not accept runtime edit

[Controls Guy]

A weird thing happened to my partner last week.   He had a slight mod to a program that he needed to update at four locations, with PLCs from about 3/18 to 11/19.   He had an updated version of the program but when he went online, the PLC would only allow a program mode edit.   I thought maybe he had a program that was different enough from the original that it needed a program mode download, so I suggested he do an online project and upload the existing program, make the slight change, and write to PLC.   The program uploaded OK, but the DMD still insisted on a program mode download after the edit, which baffled me.   If he's just adding a contact to a program he just uploaded, why would it not accept a run-mode download?

[BobO]

A weird thing happened to my partner last week.   He had a slight mod to a program that he needed to update at four locations, with PLCs from about 3/18 to 11/19.   He had an updated version of the program but when he went online, the PLC would only allow a program mode edit.   I thought maybe he had a program that was different enough from the original that it needed a program mode download, so I suggested he do an online project and upload the existing program, make the slight change, and write to PLC.   The program uploaded OK, but the DMD still insisted on a program mode download after the edit, which baffled me.   If he's just adding a contact to a program he just uploaded, why would it not accept a run-mode download?

Had the program been touched with 2.9 yet? There are often SysConfig changes that occur following a software upgrade.

[Controls Guy]

Yes, he's running 2.9.1

[Controls Guy]

So that will affect an online upload, even before saving as a disk project?

[franji1]

If the project in the PLC was an older Do-more Technology (DmT) version than the Designer software.  Definitely major versions (first two tuples) will do that, e.g. 2.8.x to 2.9.x.  Sometimes even an incremental bump (e.g. an adjusted anomaly to the System Configuration, 2.6.1 to 2.6.2).

The work around - run the Designer Do-more Technology version that matches the one in the PLC.  This is one of the main reasons we install our versions in parallel - not everyone wants the "latest and greatest".

FYI, we don't necessarily bump DmT at every Designer update (e.g. 2.9.1 to 2.9.2, DmT is 2.9 for both).  But we MUST bump Designer (and firmware) when DmT is bumped!

Although sometimes we do make changes that are "additive" to the System Configuration that "adjust" the System Configuration, but does not cause a DmT bump because they are "backward compatible".  This may also have been the original cause of what you are describing.

[BobO]

So that will affect an online upload, even before saving as a disk project?

The first time you load a project with a newer version of DmD, whether disk or PLC, the SysConfig *might* get upgraded. Watch the S/P/D indications on the status line. The color tells you which things are out of date. If it persists after the initial time, there might be something amiss in the SysConfig encode/decode.

[Controls Guy]

The first time you load a project with a newer version of DmD, whether disk or PLC, the SysConfig *might* get upgraded. Watch the S/P/D indications on the status line. The color tells you which things are out of date. If it persists after the initial time, there might be something amiss in the SysConfig encode/decode.

I don't think there's any ongoing issue that I know of, just would have been a good case to be able to do a non-process-stopping edit.  I'm sure it's fine now, he just waited till the process could take a 10-second break.