CP 5613 A2 Communication Setup: Resolving DP Master LED Faults After Hardware Replacement

A failed Siemens CP 5613 Profibus communications processor on an operator PC is a common field failure mode. Swapping it for the current CP 5613 A2 (or the fiber-optic variant CP 5614 A2) is the official migration path. The replacement is electrically and logically compatible, but the operator PC will not communicate with the PLC on the first boot unless three things line up: the SIMATIC NET device driver, the PG/PC interface assignment, and a valid DP Master database. When the green LED on the CP 5613 A2 flashes at a steady 1 Hz cadence, the card is signalling a diagnostic state, not a hardware defect in most cases. This reference explains the meaning of every LED state, the configuration steps that restore the link, the WinAC compatibility constraint, and the verification procedure to close the ticket.

1. Affected Hardware and Migration Scope

The CP 5613 and CP 5613 A2 are PCI Profibus communications processors from the SIMATIC NET PC card family. Both act as a DP Master class 1 or DP Slave on a Profibus segment, support 9.6 kbit/s through 12 Mbit/s, and are addressed from the host via the SIMATIC NET OPC / DP base / SAPI interface. The A2 revision moves the card to a newer PCI bridge silicon and ships with a refreshed firmware baseline, but the application-level interface is preserved.

The official migration statement from Siemens support is: Applications created with the CP 5613 or CP 5614 can be used with the CP 5613 A2 or CP 5614 A2 without changing the configuration or the user software, provided the PC-side runtime is on a supported SIMATIC NET version. This applies to WinCC flexible, WinCC (TIA Portal and classic), and S7 applications that use the CP as a DP or S7 communication path. Refer to the CP 5613 A2 / CP 5614 A2 operating instructions (PDF) for the binding installation sequence.

2. LED Diagnostic States on CP 5613 A2

Front-edge of the CP 5613 A2 carries a single bicolour LED (green / yellow). Its state maps directly to the firmware self-test and DP stack readiness and is the fastest first-pass diagnosis you have on the bench.

The symptom in the source ticket — application starts, no PLC communication, green LED flashing fast — corresponds to the DP Master – Bad database diagnostic. The card is alive, the firmware has booted, but the Profibus stack has not been handed a valid master database. This is a software / configuration fault, not a hardware fault. A new card pulled from a sealed bag will exhibit exactly this state on a fresh PC until the SIMATIC NET configuration tool is run.

3. Root Cause Tree

When the green LED flashes at 1 Hz on a CP 5613 A2, the host is presenting the card with a Profibus master stack that has not been initialised. The four dominant root causes, ranked by frequency, are:

1. SIMATIC NET device driver missing or wrong version. Without the SIMATIC NET CP 5613 A2 device driver, the card enumerates under Windows as a generic PCI device and the DP master service cannot bind to it.
2. PG/PC interface not assigned to CP 5613 A2 (PROFIBUS). Even if the driver is installed, Windows must be told which interface the SIMATIC NET runtime will use. This is configured in Set PG/PC Interface (classic) or in TIA Portal under Online & Diagnostics > PC interface.
3. DP master database missing or corrupt. The DP master needs a STEP 7 NCM/PCSIM database, a COM PROFIBUS database, or a WinCC-internal project that contains the slave I/O map. A bare WinCC restore without that database leaves the stack in the "bad database" state.
4. WinAC RTX / WinAC basis V4.0 used as the runtime. This is a hard incompatibility — see §7.

4. Prerequisites

• SIMATIC NET PC software DVD or install image, version matched to the WinCC version on the operator PC (e.g., SIMATIC NET V14 SP1 for WinCC V14 SP1).
• STEP 7 V5.5 / TIA Portal source project that contains the DP master database, or a backed-up *.ncm / *.sdf file from the original operator PC.
• Administrator rights on the operator PC (driver and service install).
• Profibus cable with bus terminators enabled only at the two physical ends of the segment.
• CP 5613 A2 properly seated in a 32-bit / 33 MHz (or 66 MHz) PCI slot. Avoid shared-PCI slots behind a PCI-to-PCI bridge where the card may negotiate to a lower bus width.

5. Step-by-Step: Bringing the CP 5613 A2 Up

5.1 Confirm hardware enumeration

1. Boot the operator PC, log in with administrator rights.
2. Open Device Manager and expand SIMATIC NET. You should see an entry CP 5613 A2 under the Network adapters or SIMATIC NET node with no yellow exclamation mark.
3. If the device shows up under Other devices as PCI Communications Controller, the SIMATIC NET driver is not installed. Right-click → Update Driver and point to the SIMATIC NET install media, or rerun SIMATIC NET Setup with the CP 5613 A2 / CP 5614 A2 feature selected.
4. Confirm the card's resources in Properties > Resources: the card should hold an IRQ and an I/O range; Resource conflict entries mean another PCI device is colliding and the slot must be changed.

5.2 Assign the PG/PC interface

1. Launch Set PG/PC Interface from the SIMATIC NET program group (Windows: Start → SIMATIC → SIMATIC NET → Set PG/PC Interface).
2. In the Access Point of the Application dropdown select S7ONLINE (for STEP 7) or CP_L2_1 / CP5613A2.PROFIBUS.1 for direct DP master access.
3. In the Interface Parameter Assignment Used list pick CP 5613 A2 (PROFIBUS) and click Properties.
4. Configure the Profibus address (default 0 for the master), the highest station address on the bus (default 126), and the transmission rate. If the bus is run at 1.5 Mbit/s, leave it on Auto; otherwise pin the rate to the configured value to match the slaves.
5. Click OK, then OK again to commit.

5.3 Load the DP master database

1. Open SIMATIC NET Commissioning (or PC Station Configuration) from the SIMATIC NET program group.
2. Create a PC Station with a slot for the CP 5613 A2 in slot 3 (or whatever slot the wizard assigns).
3. Open Configuration > PROFIBUS and either import an existing STEP 7 NCM file (*.ncm) or build the DP database manually. Each slave is added with its GSD file path and its I/O slot mapping.
4. Save the configuration, then download it to the PC station. The download writes the database to the registry path used by the SIMATIC NET service.
5. Restart the SIMATIC NET Service (or simply reboot). The green LED transitions from 1 Hz flash to steady green once the master enters data exchange with the first slave.

5.4 Wire the WinCC project to the new interface

1. Open the restored WinCC project in WinCC Explorer.
2. In the Tag Management editor open the PROFIBUS channel driver and verify the connection name points to CP 5613 A2 (PROFIBUS). If it still points to CP 5613 the project will compile but no tags will update.
3. Recompile the WinCC project and activate the runtime.
4. Open a tag in the WinCC tag simulator and force a value — if the value reaches the PLC the connection is healthy.

6. Compatibility with WinCC Versions

7. The WinAC V4.0 Caveat

Siemens explicitly documents that with WinAC basis V4.0 and WinAC RTX V4.0 the CP 5613 / CP 5614 cannot be exchanged for the CP 5613 A2 / CP 5614 A2. The A2 cards use a different firmware handshake that the V4.0 WinAC SAPI driver does not implement. If the operator PC runs an older WinAC image, the green LED will not transition to steady green, no amount of driver re-installation will fix it, and the WinAC service may log the following events to the Windows Application log:

Event Source: SIMATIC WinAC
Event ID:     0x2001 (8193)
Description:  CP not found. Check SIMATIC NET installation
              and S7DOS version. CP 5613 A2 not supported
              by this version of WinAC.

The remediation is to upgrade WinAC to RTX 2010 SP1 or newer (or to RTX 2013 / 2016 depending on the plant standard), reinstall SIMATIC NET to the matching version, then re-attach the CP. There is no in-place fix; do not chase driver and registry changes in this state.

8. Verification Procedure

1. Confirm the green LED is steady on, not flashing.
2. Run SIMATIC NET Diagnostics → PROFIBUS → Bus Nodes. Every slave on the segment must appear with a green status. Red entries indicate address or baud rate mismatches.
3. Open the WinCC online tag control, force a digital output in the PLC, and confirm the value is read back. Repeat in the opposite direction.
4. Leave the bus under load for at least 30 minutes and re-check diagnostics. A latent wiring fault will show as a rising diagnostic event count over time.
5. Export the SIMATIC NET diagnostic snapshot and the Windows event log to the project archive as a commissioning record.

9. Troubleshooting Matrix

10. Field-Proven Pitfalls

• Backing up the WinCC project is not enough. The DP master database lives in the SIMATIC NET / PC Station configuration, not inside the WinCC archive. Without exporting the PC station configuration separately, the new PC has no database and the green LED will never clear the flash state.
• Bus termination switches. On a Profibus segment only the two physical ends are terminated. The operator PC is rarely a segment end, so its onboard termination switch must be OFF; otherwise the segment is doubly terminated at the operator end and reflections produce a constant stream of diagnostic events.
• PCI slot choice. The CP 5613 A2 needs 3.3 V PCI signalling on some Dell workstations. Pick a slot that is wired to the chipset directly, not behind a PCI bridge chip, otherwise the card enumerates but the bus master enable bit never gets set.
• Anti-virus on the operator PC. Real-time anti-virus scanning can stall the SIMATIC NET service long enough to drop the Profibus token. Whitelist the SIMATIC NET program directory if the bus shows periodic token-loss events.
• DP-V2 slaves with legacy database. If a slave is configured for DP-V2 but the master database is DP-V0, the slave is logged as a configuration error. The card itself stays in the steady-green state but no data exchange occurs. Re-import the slave GSD with the correct revision and recompile.

11. Related References

For deeper commissioning detail beyond the scope of this troubleshooting guide, consult the CP 5613 A2 / CP 5614 A2 operating instructions (PDF). For WinAC / SIMATIC NET version compatibility always cross-check the current entry on the Siemens Industry Online Support under the article number 6GK1 561-3AA01 (CP 5613 A2) and the matching SIMATIC NET version list for your WinCC release.

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