Series 90-30 communication

[kandkarma]

Hi, I'm a new member on the forum and I have a question about a GE Fanuc PLC, 90-30 series. I've been away from control/PLC work for several years and I have no experience with the GE Fanuc series. I'm trying to figure out the best way to communicate with a group of 90-30 series PLCs. I have eight 90-30s and each one already has a Horner HE693RTU900 or 940, not for sure which but the card has an RS232 port and RS485 port and another port which looks like an Ethernet port but is labeled RTU, it might be a modem port. When reading through some of the documentation for the card it says the only difference between the two is that the 940 has a modem connection so the bottom port probably is a modem connection. Any way, the Horner card is already connected to our Building Management (SCADA) system via the RS 485 port. I have several questions and I was hoping someone on the forum might be able to answer them. What I want from the PLC is about 4-6 Analog I/O points. I would like to connect the PLC's to a small SCADA with capability of approximately 100 tags. The questions: 1) As I understand it, I can only communicate with the Horner card on one port at a time, is this true? I think there can only be one master in the 485 communication network and since the Horner card is already connected to our building safety system, I'm assuming he's got to be the master, right?? 2) I have another available slot in the rack, should I go with another Horner card or should I install an Ethernet controller card? 3) Or would it be possible to communicate with the PLC through the RS232 port, port 1 on the CPU 363 module? 4) The CPU module is currently connected to an HMI Quick Panel Jr. via the RS485 port, port 2, on the CPU module, would this prevent me from communicating with it on port 1, in other words, can only one of these two ports be active? And, if I am able to communicate with it on port 1, can I communicate to a SCADA via a Serial to Ethernet converter? 5) What would be a good, simple, fairly cheap SCADA product to use? I need to be able to store data to the hard drive at a decent rate but it doesn't have to blaze. I would like it to have real time trending and historical trending functionality. It doesn't really need to have any graphics functionality other than charting/trending. It would also be nice to be able to access the historical data over our Intranet although this is not absolutely necessary. I worked with Intellutions DMACS products several years ago so maybe I should go with a low end version of one of their products??? Any help and any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Kelly

[Steve Bailey]

The two serial ports on the CPU363 are independent of each other, so you can use both of them simultaneously. You can't use the RS232 port to connect a single SCADA master to all eight PLCs over a daisy-chained connecttion. However, if the QuickPanel is close enough to the PLC, consider changing it to RS232, thus freeing the RS485 port on each CPU363 for a multi-drop connection to the new SCADA. Any SCADA that has a GE Fanuc SNP or SNPX driver should be suitable. The SCADA has to have the ability to configure tags associated with addresses in eight different PLCs. If you're already famliar with Intellutions products, they're as good a choice as any, plus GE Fanuc now owns them. Ethernet communications would also be an option if you install an IC693CMM321 module in the spare slot. The ethernet/serial converter is also an option, but personally, if I were going to run cat5 cable to eight PLCs, I'd rather have an ethernet port on the PLC rahter than convert to serial. I don't know for sure about the restrictions on port usage in the Horner module. Their website is http://www.heapg.com