Summary
Highlights
The video starts by highlighting the common scenario where a PLC program might be lost or accidentally deleted from a PC. It emphasizes the difficulty of recovering complete programs with older PLCs, where an upload from the physical PLC would result in a working program but with lost comments, variable names, and other critical information.
For newer Siemens PLCs (1200s and 1500s), the backup process is much more comprehensive. The presenter demonstrates starting with an empty TIA Portal project and connecting to a physical PLC that already has a program downloaded to it.
To perform the backup, navigate to 'Online' in the TIA Portal menu, then select 'Upload device as new station (hardware and software)'. The system will search for connected PLCs. Once the correct PLC is identified, click 'Upload' to transfer the complete program from the PLC to the TIA Portal project.
After the upload, the video demonstrates that the backup includes: the correct PLC name, complete device configuration (including IP addresses and clock memory), all PLC tags with names, addresses, data types, and comments, and all program blocks with their structures, network titles, and comments. This ensures a complete and usable backup.
The presenter reinforces that if the PLC program on the PC is lost, it can be fully restored from the physical PLC, as long as the desired program is still running on it. It's noted that only the currently loaded program state exists on the PLC. The video also clarifies that current values in the PLC's working memory are not uploaded as part of the project backup, but there are other methods for backing those up.