SINAMICS Startdrive is a tool for configuring, commissioning, and diagnosing the SINAMICS family of drives and is integrated into the TIA Portal.

SINAMICS Startdrive can be used to implement drive applications involving the following drives:

• SINAMICS G120
• SINAMICS G120C
• SINAMICS G120D
• SINAMICS G120P
• SINAMICS G110M

The SINAMICS Startdrive commissioning tool has been optimized with regard to user friendliness and consistent use of the TIA Portal benefits of a common working environment for PLC, HMI and drives.

Performance features

Efficient commissioning with easy configuration and powerful tools:

• High degree of usability thanks to task-d navigation through the engineering workflow
  • Hardware configuration
  • Parameterization
  • Commissioning
  • Diagnostics
• Time-saving and guided step-by-step commissioning
• User-friendly graphic function view for all drive functions
• List of drive parameters structured according to functions
• Easy integration of SIMOTICS motors
• Integrated control panel for direct operation of the drive from the TIA Portal
• Powerful realtime trace for commissioning and drive diagnostics
• Intuitive and efficient drive diagnostics through automatic display of messages
• Context-sensitive online help, e.g. for drive messages
• Integrated detailed drive diagnostic functions
  • Control/status words
  • Parameter status
  • Operating conditions
  • Communication states
• Simple configuration for drive-end Safety Integrated and the drive-internal basic positioning function (EPos)
• Graphic configuration of drive-internal free function blocks (FFB)
• Online work on the drive
  • Without previous creation of an offline project
  • With the new SINAMICS firmware without the need to perform a tool update.
  • Available online functions without project: Commissioning with wizard and control panel, full parameter access with graphic function view and structured parameter list with complete drive diagnostics

Integration of SINAMICS drives with SIMATIC in the TIA Portal

The software packages d on the TIA Portal are harmonized with each other and offer important benefits. The TIA Portal enables simple integration of SINAMICS drives in your automation solution:

• Reduction in the familiarization overhead thanks to cross-tool uniformity of the operator inputs
• Device configuration and network connection of the drives in the TIA Portal-wide configuration/network editor
• Device access to the drives via the PLC across network boundaries (dataset routing)
• Automatic comparison between converters/inverters and SIMATIC S7 PLC
• Reduction of standstill times through the integration of inverter messages in the SIMATIC S7 system diagnostics:
  • The drive messages are part of the SIMATIC S7 system diagnostics without previous configuration
  • The drive messages are therefore automatically available as plain text in the TIA Portal, the web server of the SIMATIC S7 PLC and the HMI
• Time savings thanks to simple and guided configuration of the drives for operation with SIMATIC S7 Motion Control
• Short familiarization time for SIMATIC STEP 7 users due to common use of editors. Realtime trace and the drive control panel are identical to the editors in STEP 7
• Reuse of the drive configuration and parameterization is possible with the assistance of the TIA Portal library
• Standard TIA Portal functions for converters/inverters, e.g. Undo, Redo
• Block library supplied for easy integration of SINAMICS drives into the user programs of the SIMATIC S7‑300, S7‑400, S7‑1200, S7‑1500
• Shared project storage for all devices in the project

Supported drives

Integration of the SINAMICS drives into the TIA Portal is carried out in steps. The following drives can be configured in SINAMICS Startdrive:

• SINAMICS G120
• SINAMICS G120C
• SINAMICS G120D
• SINAMICS G120P
• SINAMICS G110M

All of the available Control Units from SINAMICS Firmware V4.4 are supported for these devices (including PROFINET, PROFIBUS, Safety Integrated). All combinable Power Modules up to 400 kW can be configured.

Installation versions

SINAMICS Startdrive can be installed as an optional package to SIMATIC STEP 7 or as a stand-alone application (without SIMATIC STEP 7).

Requirements for the installation

The following table shows the minimum hardware and software requirements that must be met for installation:

Hardware/software	Requirement
Processor	Intel Core i3-6100U, 2.3 GHz
RAM	4 GB
Hard disk	S-ATA with at least 8 GB available memory
Network	From 100 Mbit
Screen resolution	1024 × 768
Operating systems	Windows 7 (64-bit) Windows 7 Professional SP1 Windows 7 Enterprise SP1 Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 Windows 8.1 (64-bit): Windows 8.1 Professional Windows 8.1 Enterprise Windows 10 (64-bit): Windows 10 Professional Version 1607 Windows 10 Enterprise Version 1607 Windows 10 Enterprise 2016 LTSB Windows 10 Enterprise 2015 LTSB Windows Server (64-bit) Windows Server 2008 R2 StdE SP1 (full installation) Windows Server 2012 R2 StdE (full installation) Windows Server 2016 Standard (full installation)

Recommended PC hardware

The following table shows the recommended hardware for the operation of SINAMICS Startdrive.

Hardware	Recommendation
Computer	As of SIMATIC FIELD PG M5 Advanced (or comparable PC)
Processor	Intel Core i5-6440EQ (up to 3.4 GHz)
RAM	16 GB or more (32 GB for large projects)
Hard disk	SSD with at least 50 GB available memory
Screen resolution	15.6"' Full HD display (1920 × 1080 or larger)

Compatibility with other products

• SINAMICS Startdrive can be installed alongside STARTER
• SINAMICS Startdrive V14 SP1 operates with STEP 7 Basic/Professional V14 SP1 and WinCC V14 SP1 in a work
• SINAMICS Startdrive V14 SP1 can be installed on a computer alongside other versions of Startdrive, STEP 7, STEP 7 V5.4 or V5.5, STEP 7 Micro/WIN, WinCC flexible (2008 and above) and WinCC (V7.0 SP2 and above)

Supported virtualization platforms

SINAMICS Startdrive can be installed in a virtual machine. For this purpose, one of the following virtualization platforms in the specified version or a newer version can be used:

• VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) 6.0
• VMware Workstation 12.5
• VMware P 12.5
• Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2016

The following operating systems can host these virtualization platforms:

• Windows 7 Professional/Ultimate/Enterprise (64-bit)
• Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit)
• Windows Server 2012 R2 (64-bit)
• Windows 8.1 Professional/Enterprise (64-bit)
• Windows 10 Professional/Enterprise (64-bit)

You can use the following guest operating systems to install SINAMICS Startdrive within the selected virtualization platform:

• Windows 7 Professional/Ultimate/ Enterprise (64-bit)
• Windows 8.1 Professional/Enterprise (64-bit)

Supported security programs

The following security programs are compatible with SINAMICS Startdrive V14 SP1:

• Virus scanners:
  • Symantec Endpoint Protection 12.1
  • Trend Micro Office Scan Corporate Edition 11.0
  • McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 8.8
  • Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2016
  • Windows Defender (Windows version 8.1 and above)
  • Qihoo "360 Safe Guard" 9.7
• Encryption software:
  • Microsoft Bitlocker
• Host-d Intrusion Detection System:
  • McAfee Application Control 6.2.0