Siemens SIMATIC PG720P PG

Installed with:

• Windows 98 SE
• Simatic STEP 5 (with GRAPH 5)
• Simatic Manager
• COM Profibus (v3.3 and v5.1)
• Intel Pentium CPU (133MHz)
• 64MB RAM
• 64GB SSD (NVMe to 2.5" PATA / IDE adapter)
• Latest v4.08 BIOS from Siemens
• New CMOS / BIOS backup battery (fitted December 2023)

Has seen regular use for the previous 18 months whilst in my possession.

I can confirm through my use that the following ports / devices are working as expected :

• PCMCIA slots
• Flash memory card
• S5 Submodule / (E)EPROM
• COM1 (TTY / V24 port)
• Optical / CD-ROM drive
• Floppy drive (replaced December 2023 - Original was starting to experience read failures too often)

I haven't used / tested the parallel port, COM2 or the MPI port so can't comment on them.

The original 6.5GB HDD developed the 'click of death' and had to be replaced.

To avoid another inevitable failure with HDD of this age, I retrofitted a modern 64GB NVMe SSD stick using an NVMe to 2.5" PATA / IDE adapter.

Windows can see all 64GB.

The PG was supplied with 2 DIY programming cables when I purchased it:

• S5 TTY cable for use with most S5 processors / CP cards (25-pin to 15-pin) - tested OK
• S7 MPI cable - not tested

Unfortunately, the original keyboard was beyond repair (a common fault) so a PS/2 mouse and keyboard must be used (included in sale)

The cable between the PSU and the PG was damaged and had to be repaired (a new length of cable with the correct fitting has been soldered onto the end)

NOTE: As you can imagine with a product of this age, the 10.8V battery that allows these to run without mains power had probably failed long ago and had been removed (before my ownership), so is not included.

[28/06]

I have since tested the 9-pin Com2 port and confirm it works. I also tested the parallel port using an old parallel zip drive and could access the zip disk fine.