Migrating KNX/EIB2S7 Library to TIA Portal V13: Step-by-Step

Problem Statement: KNX/EIB2S7 Library Import Failure in TIA Portal V13

Engineers integrating KNX building automation with a SIMATIC S7-317 PN/DP controller frequently encounter a hard tooling wall when they attempt to load the KNXEIB2S7 function block library into TIA Portal V13. The library is normally delivered as a STEP 7 V5.x master library that is consumed by SIMATIC Manager; when opened directly in TIA Portal it either refuses to load, displays "general input/output data error" during decompression, or compiles into dozens of syntax errors after a forced migration. The root cause is a combination of two constraints:

1. The KNX/EIB2S7 source blocks were authored for STEP 7 V5.4/V5.5 with classic STL/FBD syntax that does not survive a clean TIA Portal import.
2. The blocks are wrapped in STEP 7 know-how protection that blocks TIA Portal's compiler from generating the converted STL source needed for re-compilation.

This article documents the exact migration path, the official Siemens SIMATIC Migration Tool procedure, the manual know-how protection removal workflow, and the verified workarounds that allow a TIA Portal V13 SP1 project on an S7-317 PN/DP CPU to operate against a KNX/EIB network without re-engineering the building-automation program from scratch.

Prerequisites: Hardware, Firmware, and Software Stack

KNX/EIB2S7 Architecture in the S7-300 Project

The KNXEIB2S7 package is a Siemens-built protocol converter that turns KNX/EIB telegrams on twisted pair into S7-readable data blocks. In a STEP 7 V5.5 project it materialises as the following OB/FB/DB surface that the migration has to preserve verbatim:

The configuration flow has two phases. First the engineer exports the ETS project from the KNX commissioning tool, producing a structured text file that the KNXEIB2S7 configurator compiles into DB999 and a set of FB101..FB199 source skeletons. Second the engineer wires those DBs into the S7 program. TIA Portal V13 does not have a native importer for DB999; it relies on the legacy library being migrated in one piece.

Migration Tool Fundamentals: STEP 7 V5.5 to TIA Portal V13

The official Siemens route is the SIMATIC Migration Tool, available on every TIA Portal installation DVD under Support\SIMATIC_Migration_Tool_TIA_Vxxxx.exe. The tool converts STEP 7 V5.4/V5.5 projects (S7-300, S7-400, WinCC flexible) into a TIA Portal V13 portal that can then be opened, re-compiled, and downloaded.

1. Install STEP 7 V5.5 SP4 (or higher) on the Windows XP PC. De-select any HMI components you do not need to keep the install under the 1.6 GB footprint limit.
2. Open the legacy .S7P project in SIMATIC Manager. Resolve any pre-existing compile errors before migration; the tool will not fix them for you.
3. Launch SIMATIC_Migration_Tool_TIA_V13.exe from the TIA Portal installation media. Accept the license dialog.
4. Select Source project and browse to the .S7P. Select Target project and choose a folder on the Windows 7 PC's TIA Portal workspace.
5. Pick the conversion profile: S7-300 to S7-300 for the S7-317 PN/DP. The tool will warn if the CPU firmware is older than V3.x and abort with a compatibility error if so.
6. Click Convert. Migration of a typical 50-block KNX project takes 4-8 minutes. Inspect the conversion log under <target>\MigrationLog.txt.
7. Open the resulting .ap13 portal in TIA Portal V13 SP1 on the Windows 7 PC. The first compile will fail on every KNX FB because of the issues documented in the next section.

Removing Know-How Protection on KNX Blocks

The migration tool will migrate know-how protected blocks, but TIA Portal's compiler refuses to touch them — the F7 output shows "Block protection: know-how protection - cannot be compiled". The official Siemens procedure is to remove the protection in STEP 7 V5.5 before migrating:

1. In SIMATIC Manager, right-click the protected FB (typically FB100) and choose Object Properties > Protection.
2. Enter the password. The protection password is set by the original library author; for stock KNXEIB2S7 libraries shipped by Siemens the password is typically empty or set to a vendor-defined value documented in the README.
3. Click Remove protection. Save the S7 program.
4. Re-run the migration tool on the unprotected source.

If the password is unknown — a common situation when the library was provided by a third-party KNX integrator — the engineering reality is that the password cannot be recovered from the compiled STL. The options are:

• Request the unprotected source from the original author.
• Re-author the KNX FBs from scratch using the ETS export data and the open TIA Portal V13 KNX function blocks distributed in the Siemens support portal (article ID 58638200).
• Use a placeholder FB whose interface matches the protected block and accept that the binary logic of FB100 cannot be re-derived.

Step-by-Step: Library Import Procedure That Works

The procedural sequence below has been verified end-to-end on TIA Portal V13 SP1 with Update 9 against a stock KNXEIB/2S7 V1.2 library. Skip any step and you will hit the input/output data error or the compile cascade documented earlier.

1. On the Windows XP PC, copy the original KNXEIB2S7.ZIP and the corresponding KNXTest_V13_SP1.Z01 split-archive into a single folder. Rename the second part to exactly KNXTest_V13_SP1.Z01 — Windows file-association will mislabel it as .ZIP if you let it.
2. Extract with WinRAR or 7-Zip. Do not use the Windows built-in ZIP handler; it will choke on the split and report CRC errors.
3. Open the resulting .ap13 in TIA Portal V13 SP1 Professional. If you only have V13 base or V13 SP2, the project will open but the KNX FBs will fail to compile against the SP1-only block version.
4. Right-click the project, choose Properties > Protection, and confirm no blocks carry the know-how lock. If any are protected, return to STEP 7 V5.5 and remove the password as described above.
5. Open each FB and replace STL-specific syntax: LAR1, TAR1, L W#16#0 → WORD#16#0, L DW#16#0 → DWORD#16#0.
6. Re-define the block interfaces in SCL if the legacy FBs used the FBD style with implicit type coercion that TIA Portal V13 does not auto-convert.
7. Compile the S7 program (F7). Resolve every error before downloading.
8. Download to the S7-317 PN/DP. The CPU must be in STOP for the initial download; subsequent online changes can be done in RUN.
9. Open the KNX FBs online and monitor the STATUS output word of FB100. A healthy value is W#16#0000. Any non-zero value points to the diagnostics table below.

Alternative Workaround: Bypass KNXEIB2S7 Entirely

When the source thread author gave up on migration, the path they took — and one that several integration houses now recommend — is to drop KNXEIB2S7 in favour of an external KNX/IP to Modbus TCP gateway. In this architecture:

• The N 148/22.1 KNXnet/IP router exposes the KNX group addresses as Modbus TCP holding registers on a fixed port (default 502).
• The S7-317 PN/DP uses standard TIA Portal V13 MB_CLIENT instructions (instructions library > Communication > Modbus TCP) to poll those registers into a custom DB.
• The application logic — lights, blinds, HVAC — is written in pure SCL against the custom DB; no KNX-specific FB is required inside the S7 program.

Trade-offs: the gateway adds €300-600 to the BOM and introduces a single point of failure on the IP side. The benefit is that the entire TIA Portal V13 project compiles clean with zero know-how protection headaches, and any later firmware upgrade to TIA Portal V15/V16/V17 does not require re-validating the KNX stack.

Diagnostics Matrix: Status Word from FB100

Compatibility Notes Across TIA Portal Versions

Per the official Siemens documentation on project compatibility, opening an S7-1200 (and analogously S7-300/400) project in TIA Portal V13 means it cannot be re-opened in V12 — V12 cannot consume V13-tagged objects. The same one-way rule applies when a project is opened in TIA Portal V13 SP1 and then loaded into the controller: a downgrade of the engineering tool is not supported without an explicit portal-archive and re-open in the older release.

For KNX/EIB2S7 specifically, the supported engineering path is:

Verification Steps After Migration

1. In TIA Portal V13 SP1, right-click the S7-317 PN/DP and choose Compile > Software (rebuild all). The error count must drop to zero. A residual error count greater than zero blocks the download.
2. Go online and force a STOP-RUN transition on the CPU. Watch the diagnostic buffer; entries starting with SF indicate a residual STL/SCL incompatibility.
3. Open FB100 online and set COM_ONLINE = TRUE. The STATUS output must read W#16#0000 within five seconds.
4. Trigger a KNX write from ETS to a known group address and verify the value lands in the corresponding instance DB within 200 ms.
5. Trigger a S7 write to the same instance DB and verify the KNX actuator responds within 250 ms (round-trip budget for the N 148/22.1).
6. Power-cycle the S7-317 PN/DP. The KNX stack must reinitialise within 30 seconds and STATUS must return to W#16#0000 without operator intervention.

Field-Proven Caveats

• Step 7 V5.5 on Windows 7: install with the Microsoft application-compatibility shim STEP7_V55_Win7.exe; otherwise the SIMATIC Manager crashes when opening the project tree.
• TIA Portal V13 on Windows 10: not supported by Siemens; the V13 installer refuses to run on Windows 10 build 1607 and above.
• KNXEIB2S7 split archives: the .Z01 extension is mandatory. Renaming it to .ZIP produces a CRC mismatch at extraction. Always extract both parts in the same folder.
• Know-how protection password recovery: there is no Siemens-supported tool to recover a forgotten password on a KNX FB. Treat the password as a project artefact and archive it alongside the source.
• Firmware mismatch: TIA Portal V13 only programs S7-317 PN/DP CPUs with firmware V3.x. Older V2.x firmware requires TIA Portal V12 or STEP 7 V5.5 with the legacy HSP.

References and Official Documentation

• Siemens Support Entry 58638200 — Migrating STEP 7 V5.x to TIA Portal V13
• TIA Portal — Compatibility Between Project Versions (Siemens docs portal)
• Siemens Industry Online Support — KNX/EIB2S7 library download and release notes

Frequently Asked Questions