Obtaining RSLogix and RSM Lake for Free

Welcome back to the Automation Minute. My name is Sean Tierney and this week on the show I'm going to show you how you can get RSLogix and RSM Lake completely free of charge here in the summer, late summer of 2024. Now before we get to that, if you do enjoy this series or enjoy this video and get something out of it, please give me a like, a sub, and a share. That's the best way to grow the channel and find new viewers as well as find new vendors to come on my shows. So with that, let's go over to the computer here. And I will put my glasses on here. And what we're going to do is we're going to start out at ab.com. So let me type that in. And that is the quickest way to get to Rockwell Automation. And we're going to search for here on the downloads. Well, there's a couple different ways you can search for it. We typically would search for the MicroLogix 1100, but you can also search for RSLogix Micro Starter Lite or just Starter Lite. Let me try Starter Lite here. Okay, and then you can see it comes up. We don't want the Chinese version unless you speak Chinese. I don't, so I'm going to choose the English version. And then you can see here when I go to downloads, it's going to show me the micrologics anyway. So I typically would tell people in the past to use 1763, you know, dash L for the search. Now I want to talk to you a minute about why we're doing this. Really, why would you want to get a copy of RSLogix? Micro starter light. That's a mouthful, isn't it? Well, it's the only free version of RS Logix that Rockwell gives away and has been given away for decades, really, if you think about it. And if you learn how to use RS Logix micro starter light, you're going to be good with most features of the Micro Logix. You're going to be good with most features of the Slick 500 PLC5. Now, I'm not going to lie to you. the i o addressing is a little different between those different models but that aside the basic ladder logic programming is the same and so if you want to learn the basics and you want to do it with a free copy this is the way to do it now you may be saying sean i remember a few years ago you did a video just like this yes and earlier this year rockwell had removed the download kind of made my cut my students uh you know a little upset that they couldn't get it anymore well for whatever reason it's back And so I wanted to show you how you can get it today here in the late summer of 2024 if you want to play around with and learn how to use RSLogix Micro Starter Lite. And this goes very well with my courses on the MicroLogix, on the Slick 500, and the PLC5. The software for the Slick 500 and PLC5 is very expensive. So if you're learning at home, self-paced, and you're taking one of those courses, you'll find a lesson just like this in those courses. explaining the value of getting this free copy of software right from Rockwell Automation. So with that said, let's go back over to the computer. And here, we're going to go ahead and click on Downloads. Okay. Now, you need to be logged into Rockwell's website with a free account. You don't have to have a TechConnect, but you do have to log in first with your own account. You have to register with Rockwell. Want to do this totally on your own? Use your last name as your company name. Every person in the United States has the right to do business using just their name. They don't have to incorporate it. They don't have to make a company. You can do business as Joe Smith Plumbing and just have checks written out to Joe Smith. You don't need to actually create a company, an LLC, a sole proprietorship, you know, whatever. You can do business using your name. So you can use your last name if you want as your company name if you prefer to. and you can do that too when you if you ever have to call rockwell and buy something from them but with that said let's go back to the computer here and you can see on the downloads because i searched on starter light and choose the rslogix micro starter light it's only showing me version 10 and 11. those are the only two versions where this download will be found so i'm going to go ahead and look for downloads for version 10 okay and here it's saying hey this is this is obsolete you know you shouldn't be using this on a new project but we're going to say request unlock and we're going to say hey i'm using an existing system and i'm going to type that in and maybe that existing system is your computer and you're learning at home but in any case let me go ahead and request an unlock and you can see my unlock was approved i've accepted the warning that i'm not using this on a brand new application and i'm going to continue the downloads okay so you're going to see a lot of stuff here a lot more than you would have saw if you would have chose the latest firmware for the micrologix 1100 but i'm going to come down to the bottom and work my way up i'm going to start with iris links classic light for micrologix then i'm going to also include irislogix emulate 500 and then i'm going to scroll up here and look for RSLogix Micro Starter Lite without RSLynx, because I selected it below. And the reason RSLynx Classic is separate is it's over 500 megabytes, okay? Pretty big. So let's go ahead and click on Downloads, and we'll go ahead and download now. Okay, I can accept the license agreement. and now i get this exe that wants to download i'm going to go ahead and download it i think i went to my desktop i'm going to run it and this is an automated download manager i used to not use this but it's gotten really good over the years so i'm just going to let it go ahead and do its thing and because well it's going pretty fast even rs links classic light is going really fast now if you don't have rs links classic light you can use pretty much any version that's 2.57 or greater so don't feel like you have if you had iris links classic light already installed on your computer as a newer version that you would have to uninstall it you don't okay just keep that in mind and uh here you'll see you can see i've downloaded other stuff for previous episodes but here you can see under micrologix i have microlight and i have iris links light and then under emulate 500 i have rslogix emulate 500 and you can see it there all the install files so at this point You now have a free copy of RSLogix, you know, and the emulator that goes with it. And in this week's edition of the Automation Show for Members, I'm going to show how to use it for the first time. And I'm also going to show how to use debug files, which is a really cool way, if you don't have a physical PLC, it's a really cool way to simulate your process. Now, I want to say one more thing before we end this episode. RSLogix MicroStarter Lite only works with two models of MicroLogix, the 1000 and the 1100. Now the 1100 is better because it has ethernet. If you get the 1000, you're going to have to get a USB to serial converter. If you want to buy a copy, it used to be about $200 to get RSLogix Micro that did everything, every MicroLogix out there. But like I said, for whatever reason, RSLogix 500 and RSLogix 5 are very, very expensive, much more so than they were. you know 15 20 years ago so you probably won't be able to get a copy of that unless you can get a copy from work and of course like i've always said in my previous videos you can actually request i saw this was earlier this year you could still request a 30-day temporary activation for iris logics whatever version you want and studio 5000 for that matter so instead of handing out demo cds like we used to do back in the 90s today Rockwell has an email system where they can email you a 30-day license, but don't request it until you're ready to use it. Because that one time 30-day license starts when the email arrives in your inbox. So be careful about that. I'm constantly telling students, don't request your 30-day trial until you're ready to spend time to complete all the labs in the course. So with that, that's it for this episode of the Automation Minute. If you're a member, check out the new edition of the Automation Show for Members where I'll go through. i actually write a simple program and show you how to use debug files but for now i want to wish you all good health and happiness and until next time my friends peace

So with that, let's go over to the computer here. And I will put my glasses on here. And what we're going to do is we're going to start out at ab.com. So let me type that in. And that is the quickest way to get to Rockwell Automation.

And we're going to search for here on the downloads. Well, there's a couple different ways you can search for it. We typically would search for the MicroLogix 1100, but you can also search for RSLogix Micro Starter Lite or just Starter Lite.

Let me try Starter Lite here. Okay, and then you can see it comes up. We don't want the Chinese version unless you speak Chinese.

I don't, so I'm going to choose the English version. And then you can see here when I go to downloads, it's going to show me the micrologics anyway. So I typically would tell people in the past to use 1763, you know, dash L for the search. Now I want to talk to you a minute about why we're doing this. Really, why would you want to get a copy of RSLogix?

Micro starter light. That's a mouthful, isn't it? Well, it's the only free version of RS Logix that Rockwell gives away and has been given away for decades, really, if you think about it. And if you learn how to use RS Logix micro starter light, you're going to be good with most features of the Micro Logix.

You're going to be good with most features of the Slick 500 PLC5. Now, I'm not going to lie to you. the i o addressing is a little different between those different models but that aside the basic ladder logic programming is the same and so if you want to learn the basics and you want to do it with a free copy this is the way to do it now you may be saying sean i remember a few years ago you did a video just like this yes and earlier this year rockwell had removed the download kind of made my cut my students uh you know a little upset that they couldn't get it anymore well for whatever reason it's back And so I wanted to show you how you can get it today here in the late summer of 2024 if you want to play around with and learn how to use RSLogix Micro Starter Lite. And this goes very well with my courses on the MicroLogix, on the Slick 500, and the PLC5. The software for the Slick 500 and PLC5 is very expensive.

So if you're learning at home, self-paced, and you're taking one of those courses, you'll find a lesson just like this in those courses. explaining the value of getting this free copy of software right from Rockwell Automation. So with that said, let's go back over to the computer.

And here, we're going to go ahead and click on Downloads. Okay. Now, you need to be logged into Rockwell's website with a free account. You don't have to have a TechConnect, but you do have to log in first with your own account.

You have to register with Rockwell. Want to do this totally on your own? Use your last name as your company name. Every person in the United States has the right to do business using just their name.

They don't have to incorporate it. They don't have to make a company. You can do business as Joe Smith Plumbing and just have checks written out to Joe Smith.

You don't need to actually create a company, an LLC, a sole proprietorship, you know, whatever. You can do business using your name. So you can use your last name if you want as your company name if you prefer to. and you can do that too when you if you ever have to call rockwell and buy something from them but with that said let's go back to the computer here and you can see on the downloads because i searched on starter light and choose the rslogix micro starter light it's only showing me version 10 and 11. those are the only two versions where this download will be found so i'm going to go ahead and look for downloads for version 10 okay and here it's saying hey this is this is obsolete you know you shouldn't be using this on a new project but we're going to say request unlock and we're going to say hey i'm using an existing system and i'm going to type that in and maybe that existing system is your computer and you're learning at home but in any case let me go ahead and request an unlock and you can see my unlock was approved i've accepted the warning that i'm not using this on a brand new application and i'm going to continue the downloads okay so you're going to see a lot of stuff here a lot more than you would have saw if you would have chose the latest firmware for the micrologix 1100 but i'm going to come down to the bottom and work my way up i'm going to start with iris links classic light for micrologix then i'm going to also include irislogix emulate 500 and then i'm going to scroll up here and look for RSLogix Micro Starter Lite without RSLynx, because I selected it below.

And the reason RSLynx Classic is separate is it's over 500 megabytes, okay? Pretty big. So let's go ahead and click on Downloads, and we'll go ahead and download now. Okay, I can accept the license agreement. and now i get this exe that wants to download i'm going to go ahead and download it i think i went to my desktop i'm going to run it and this is an automated download manager i used to not use this but it's gotten really good over the years so i'm just going to let it go ahead and do its thing and because well it's going pretty fast even rs links classic light is going really fast now if you don't have rs links classic light you can use pretty much any version that's 2.57 or greater so don't feel like you have if you had iris links classic light already installed on your computer as a newer version that you would have to uninstall it you don't okay just keep that in mind and uh here you'll see you can see i've downloaded other stuff for previous episodes but here you can see under micrologix i have microlight and i have iris links light and then under emulate 500 i have rslogix emulate 500 and you can see it there all the install files so at this point You now have a free copy of RSLogix, you know, and the emulator that goes with it.

And in this week's edition of the Automation Show for Members, I'm going to show how to use it for the first time. And I'm also going to show how to use debug files, which is a really cool way, if you don't have a physical PLC, it's a really cool way to simulate your process. Now, I want to say one more thing before we end this episode. RSLogix MicroStarter Lite only works with two models of MicroLogix, the 1000 and the 1100. Now the 1100 is better because it has ethernet.

If you get the 1000, you're going to have to get a USB to serial converter. If you want to buy a copy, it used to be about $200 to get RSLogix Micro that did everything, every MicroLogix out there. But like I said, for whatever reason, RSLogix 500 and RSLogix 5 are very, very expensive, much more so than they were.

you know 15 20 years ago so you probably won't be able to get a copy of that unless you can get a copy from work and of course like i've always said in my previous videos you can actually request i saw this was earlier this year you could still request a 30-day temporary activation for iris logics whatever version you want and studio 5000 for that matter so instead of handing out demo cds like we used to do back in the 90s today Rockwell has an email system where they can email you a 30-day license, but don't request it until you're ready to use it. Because that one time 30-day license starts when the email arrives in your inbox. So be careful about that. I'm constantly telling students, don't request your 30-day trial until you're ready to spend time to complete all the labs in the course.

So with that, that's it for this episode of the Automation Minute. If you're a member, check out the new edition of the Automation Show for Members where I'll go through. i actually write a simple program and show you how to use debug files but for now i want to wish you all good health and happiness and until next time my friends peace

Transcript for:Obtaining RSLogix and RSM Lake for Free

Transcript for:
Obtaining RSLogix and RSM Lake for Free