PM8000 downgrade to 001.000.057

[Marcos_Augusto]

A customer has reported a problem when trying to downgrade the 001.003.000 PM8000 FW to 001.000.057.

When doing this he got the attached screen.

I just found a PM8000Signature.cer file, but I am not sure if this file is related to the described issue and how to proceed to succeed on downgrading the PM8000 FW.

Just in case, the purposes of downgrading the meter are two:

1) The customer has many other PM8000 fw 001.000.057 units in the same substation and would like to keep all of them in the same firmware version.

2) According to him, the IEC61850 communication when using firmwares 001.002.0014 and 001.003.000 did not work as expected.

[Robert_Lee]

Unfortunately all ION firmware now contain a new cyber-security feature where the firmware must now be digitally signed to be accepted for upgrade (this is to prevent sending firmware which has been modified).  As such ION Setup will no longer allow the downgrading of this type of firmware (even circumventing the software block would still have the error of downloading the entire firmware file only for the device to reject it at the end).

Since the problem is not related to the newer firmware, the best course of action is to first attempt to determine why the newer firmware is not properly functioning with IEC61850 rather than attempting to use older firmware.  I would suggest opening up an incident with Tech Support so they can investigate what the issue is that is preventing the newer firmware from communicating properly on IEC61850.

[Marcos_Augusto]

Hi, Robert.

Firstly, thanks for your comments and clarification.

I totally agree with you on not downgrading the firmware.

Actually, I have tested version 001.003.001 with Matrikon OPC IEC61850 Server by myself and it is working fine. The problem reported by the customer is kind of compatibility issue with PACIS system.

I have been notified about this issue only last week, but the problem is far older and the customer has no more time for tests or whatever. They are more likely to change the whole system protocol to DNP3, instead. It is gonna be a lot of work, but probably faster than digging the PACIS compatibility problem.

I just tried to downgrade from 001.003.001 to 001.002.014 right now and it worked fine. No error messages at all.

Anyhow, I could not do the same from 001.001.014 to 001.000.057.

Thanks.

[Sanjeet_Sahota]

Hi Marcos,

Digging into my e-mail history, we also faced a similar scenario on PACis HMI and the ION8650.  The protocol implementations are nearly identical between platforms and we had faced a similar issue with PACis.  I suggest you sync up with Novianti and Parlindungan Sitorus out of India for what their resolution was for a similar problem they faced.   They may have found a work around that could be implemented for the PM8000.

Regards,

Sanjeet

[Marcos_Augusto]

That's great! Will check with them.

Thank you very much, Sanjeet.