Adding MP 277 6AV6 643 to TIA Portal V15 Hardware Catalog

Problem Statement

The Siemens Multi Panel MP 277 6AV6 643-... is not present in the TIA Portal V15 hardware catalog. Engineers searching for the device in the HMI device tree only see the related variant 6AV6 645-... and conclude that the older Multi Panel has been dropped. In most cases, the device is not missing from TIA Portal — it is missing from the installed engineering software edition.

Two root causes are typical:

• The installed TIA Portal V15 setup contains only the WinCC Basic engineering component. Multi Panels such as the MP 277 are not licensed or shipped with WinCC Basic and therefore do not appear in the hardware catalog.
• The required Hardware Support Package (HSP) for legacy Multi Panels was not installed on top of the engineering system.

Root Cause Analysis

TIA Portal distributes WinCC engineering capability in three escalating editions:

If a workstation only carries the Step 7 V15 + WinCC Basic install, the HMI device tree in Add new device > HMI stops at the Basic Panel family. The Multi Panel branch is empty because the catalog data for MP 177, MP 277, and MP 377 is only delivered with the WinCC Advanced / Professional installation media or as a separately installed HSP.

Prerequisites

• TIA Portal V15 (or V15.1) installed with administrative rights on the engineering PC.
• Original TIA Portal V15 installation media or the official download package from Siemens Industry Online Support.
• Valid license key for WinCC Advanced or WinCC Professional (Comfort / Professional floating license or single license).
• Available disk space: approximately 6–10 GB free for the full WinCC Advanced / Professional install on top of an existing Step 7 V15 + WinCC Basic setup.
• If the existing install is TIA Portal V14, see the section "Migrating from V14 to V15" below before proceeding.

Solution A — Install the WinCC Advanced / Professional Component

This is the recommended fix for a workstation that has only the Step 7 V15 + WinCC Basic portion installed.

1. Close TIA Portal completely (also exit the TIA Administrator and any running TIA services such as S7TraceSrv, ALM, and License Server).
2. Insert the TIA Portal V15 installation media or mount the SIMATIC_TIA_Portal_V15.iso image.
3. Run Start.exe as administrator. The TIA Portal V15 setup detects the existing installation and offers a Modify / Update workflow.
4. In the product selection dialog, enable the WinCC Advanced (or WinCC Professional) check box. Do not uncheck the existing Step 7 and WinCC Basic components unless a clean install is intended.
5. Accept the license agreement and the EULA for WinCC Advanced. The setup copies the catalog data for the Multi Panel family into the TIA Portal installation under %ProgramFiles%\Siemens\Automation\Portal V15\Data\Hmi.
6. Restart the engineering PC after the setup completes. The Automation License Manager should display the WinCC Advanced license as valid.
7. Launch TIA Portal V15 and open the project (or create a new one). Open the project tree, double-click Add new device, switch to HMI, and verify that the folder Multi Panel is now visible with the entry MP 277 6AV6 643-....

Solution B — Install a Hardware Support Package (HSP)

If the WinCC Advanced / Professional component is already installed and the MP 277 6AV6 643 entry is still missing, install the relevant HSP. HSPs add new modules, devices, and catalog data to an existing TIA Portal installation without requiring a full upgrade.

1. Open TIA Portal V15 and choose Options > Support Packages. The "Hardware Support Packages" dialog opens.
2. Click Install from file system and select the .hsp file. Siemens distributes the Multi Panel catalog updates as HSPxxxx_TIA_Portal_V15_HMI.zip packages (for example, the HMI HSP for TIA Portal V15 series, e.g. HSP0233 for legacy HMI catalog extensions).
3. Confirm the installation path. TIA Portal copies the new catalog data to the corresponding subdirectory and updates the device master file.
4. Restart TIA Portal. The MP 277 6AV6 643 entry should now appear under HMI > Multi Panel > MP 277.

Background and download links for HSPs are documented in the Siemens knowledge article Support Packages for the hardware catalog in the TIA Portal (HSP).

Verifying the Device is Available

1. Open the project in TIA Portal V15.
2. In the project tree, double-click Add new device.
3. In the Add new device dialog, select the HMI node on the left.
4. Open the Multi Panel folder and confirm that the MP 277 product line is listed.
5. Expand MP 277. The article numbers starting with 6AV6 643-... must be present alongside the 6AV6 645-... family. If both ranges are listed, the catalog update was successful.
6. Select the matching article number for the physical unit, click OK, and confirm that the device view opens without warnings.

Migrating from TIA Portal V14 to V15 with an MP 277 Project

Engineers who previously worked on the MP 277 in TIA Portal V14 should be aware of the install-package changes introduced in V15:

When upgrading a V14 install to V15, the upgrade setup preserves previously installed components but does not automatically add components that were not originally selected. If a V14 workstation carried only Step 7 V14 + WinCC Basic (no WinCC Advanced / Professional), the upgrade to V15 must include the Modify step described in "Solution A".

The official TIA Portal V14 download and media overview is documented at TIA Portal V14 download overview (Siemens ID 109740228).

Configuring the MP 277 6AV6 643 Once Added

1. After inserting the MP 277 6AV6 643 into the project, open the device view and double-click the PROFINET interface X1 (or X2, depending on the article number) to assign the IP address, subnet mask, and PROFINET device name.
2. Open the Connections editor and add an HMI connection to the S7 controller (S7-300 / S7-400 / S7-1200 / S7-1500 depending on the project). Use SIMATIC S7 300/400 or SIMATIC S7 1200/1500 as appropriate.
3. Configure screen hierarchy, tags, and alarms in the standard WinCC editors. The MP 277 supports the full WinCC Advanced (Comfort) tag set, including Area pointers, Schedulers, Recipes, and Logs.
4. Build the project (Project > Compile all > Software (rebuild all)). Resolve any catalog warnings related to unsupported objects in the Output window.
5. Download the WinCC project to the MP 277 via Ethernet using the Online > Download to device workflow. The MP 277 must be in Transfer mode (start the panel and acknowledge the transfer prompt, or set the configuration mode in the Control Panel).

Notes on V15 Discontinued HMI Support

Engineers should be aware of the official Siemens statement on discontinued HMI support in TIA Portal. The release notes for WinCC Basic / Advanced / Professional document that the following HMI devices are no longer supported as of TIA Portal V15:

• WinAC MP 177, WinAC MP 277, WinAC MP 377 (soft-PLC based on Multi Panel hardware — not the same article number as the standard MP 277 6AV6 643).
• Panels of the OP and TP 70 series (for example OP 7, OP 17, TP 070, TP 170A, TP 170B).
• Panels of the 170 series (OP 170B, TP 170B, OP 170A, TP 170A) configured in legacy ProTool / WinCC flexible projects that have not been migrated to TIA Portal.

The standard MP 277 6AV6 643 Multi Panel is not on this discontinued list. It remains configurable in TIA Portal V15, V15.1, V16, V17, and later as long as the WinCC Advanced / Professional component is installed. The official Siemens documentation is in the WinCC release notes, available at Notes on HMI devices — WinCC.

Troubleshooting Matrix

Field-Proven Caveats

• The 6AV6 643 family covers several firmware revisions. When migrating from a ProTool or WinCC flexible project, confirm the firmware on the rating plate and select the matching catalog entry; mixing firmwares can cause the panel to refuse the download with error 230 001 "Firmware version not supported".
• If a V13 / V14 project is opened in TIA Portal V15, TIA Portal performs an automatic project upgrade. Before saving, accept any prompts to install additional HSPs and confirm that the MP 277 6AV6 643 entry remains valid for the upgraded target.
• WinCC Basic cannot open a project that contains an MP 277 device. The error message is typically "The project contains devices that are not supported by the installed product". Install WinCC Advanced / Professional before opening such a project.
• Do not assume the catalog number 6AV6 645 is a substitute for 6AV6 643. The 6AV6 645 family is a later Multi Panel revision with different firmware and a different PROFINET stack; it is not a drop-in replacement.