Your First S7-1200 Program in TIA Portal and PLCSIM (Video)

This TIA Portal tutorial for beginners takes you from an empty project to a working S7-1200 program running in PLCSIM: create the project, add the CPU, write one rung, download it to the simulator and test it. You need Siemens' TIA Portal trial, which includes PLCSIM, and about an hour. No PLC hardware.

In this lesson by ControlByte Automation, you see a TIA Portal project created and a first program written. It is one of the lessons in our Siemens TIA Portal in Three Hours course, in the module on your first project and hardware configuration. Follow along, then check your work against these steps. The written steps are ours, so small details may differ from the video depending on your TIA Portal version.

Before you start

• TIA Portal V17 or later with S7-PLCSIM, from Siemens' free 21-day trial. The trial download includes both.
• A 64-bit Windows 10 or 11 PC. Siemens lists 8 GB of RAM as the minimum and recommends 16 GB.
• About an hour: twenty minutes for the build, the rest for testing and breaking things on purpose.

1. Create the project

Open TIA Portal. In the portal view, choose Create new project, give it a name and a folder, and click Create. TIA_Free_Practice is the name our course uses, and you will keep adding to the same project, so pick a folder you will find again.

2. Add the S7-1200 CPU

Choose Configure a device, then Add new device. Under Controllers, open SIMATIC S7-1200, then CPU, and pick a CPU 1214C DC/DC/DC. If you own a real PLC, match the order number printed on it; if not, use the CPU our course uses. Click Add. TIA Portal switches to the project view and opens the device configuration.

Select the CPU, open its properties, and under the PROFINET interface set the IP address to 192.168.0.1. Save the project.

3. Name your tags

In the project tree, open PLC tags and the default tag table. Add three tags:

Naming tags first means your rungs read as words rather than addresses, which is what the next person to maintain your program needs.

4. Write the first rung

Open Program blocks and double-click Main [OB1]. In Network 1, place a normally open contact and set it to Start_PB, then a coil at the end of the rung set to Motor_Run. That is the whole program: while Start_PB is on, Motor_Run is on. Give the network a title such as "Motor run". Comments are not optional in real work.

Stop_PB is for the next step, when you add a seal-in and a stop button.

5. Compile

Right-click the PLC in the project tree and choose Compile, then hardware and software. The Info pane at the bottom lists errors and warnings. An error stops the download, so fix every one; a warning is worth reading.

6. Download to PLCSIM

Select the PLC and click Start simulation on the toolbar. PLCSIM opens, and TIA Portal shows the download dialog. Choose PLCSIM as the interface, search for devices, select the simulated CPU and click Load. When the download finishes, choose to start the module so the simulated CPU goes to RUN.

7. Test it

Back in the editor, switch Monitoring on. Solid green lines show where the rung carries power; blue dashed lines show where it does not.

Now change the input. In PLCSIM, switch to the project view, create a SIM table, add I0.0 and tick its box to switch it on. Motor_Run turns on and the rung goes green. Untick it and the output drops, because there is no seal-in yet. That is correct for this program, not a fault.

Take a screenshot of the powered rung. That is your first working PLC program.

When it does not work

Read the Info pane first; TIA Portal usually says what it did not like. Most first-program problems are one of these:

Three small experiments

Before moving on, change one thing at a time and predict the result before you test it:

1. Swap the contact type. Replace the normally open Start_PB contact with a normally closed one, download, and watch the output run with the input off and stop with it on.
2. Put two contacts in series. Add Stop_PB after Start_PB. Now both inputs must be on for the output to run: that is AND logic in ladder form.
3. Put two contacts in parallel. Move Stop_PB onto a branch below Start_PB. Now either input runs the output: that is OR logic.

Each experiment takes a couple of minutes, and each one teaches you more than rewatching a lesson.

Next: make it hold

A start button you have to hold down is not much use. The next step is the seal-in: a contact from Motor_Run in parallel with Start_PB, and Stop_PB in series with both. The full Siemens TIA Portal course covers it in the module on latching, holding and interlocks, and the S7-1200 tutorial series gives you a second angle on the same basics.

Keep going free

Siemens TIA Portal in Three Hours is the quick route, and Siemens TIA Portal is the full 22-module course. Both are free in full, with notes, practice tasks and a final assessment. If you pass and want a certificate, it is optional and costs from US$2.99 for a beginner course; checkout shows your price. It is an EDWartens Certificate of Completion with a verification code, not a Siemens qualification.

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