tbarmer Posted September 10, 2012 Report Posted September 10, 2012 Hi all I'm new on the forum this is my first post. I am looking at a way of communicating with a number of existing PLC's via ethernet without buying lots of comms cards. I have found some serial to ethernet converters that loook like they will do the job particularly for allen bradley. I am a little unsure of the protocols for step 5 and 7 on the serial port. Has anyone done anything like this before? Or does anyone have a little more information on what protocols are used by step 5 and 7, so that I know what drivers I will need for the converters? I have come across a RS232 - TTY converter but am a little unsure of exactly what it is doing. any help on this subject would be much appreciated Regards Tom Quote
Groo Posted September 11, 2012 Report Posted September 11, 2012 (edited) I'm no expert, but we tend to use combinations of Autosol and Digi equipment, such as digi one. But these have not been with Siemens. I know red lion and Black Box make a number of converters too. Edited September 11, 2012 by Groo Quote
Moggie Posted September 12, 2012 Report Posted September 12, 2012 Siemens S5 PLC's have a 15pin "D" connector - this is a TTY interface (not RS232) Siemens S7 PLC's have a MPI or profibus interface. Connecting these to Ethernet can be relative easy by using 3rd party interfaces such as these - http://www.process-informatik.de/produkte/s5-lan?=en_ http://www.process-informatik.de/produkte/s7-lan?=en_ There are many other makes available - and they all allow programming over via ethernet Quote
Joe E. Posted September 14, 2012 Report Posted September 14, 2012 I have used one of these: http://www.ibhsoftec.com/epages/63444704.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/63444704/Products/20266 The device itself keeps its IP address, so you can move it from machine to machine with no problems if you're using it for programming. For a Red Lion HMI, I just tell it that it's talking to an S7-300 over Ethernet and give it the IP address of the IBH unit. In Simatic Manager, it's a little more complicated since you have to set the PG/PC interface to the correct IBH driver, but that also works reasonably well for me. It's less seamless than adding an Ethernet port, but it's also cheaper. Since we only have a few S7-300s that don't have built in Ethernet, I'm probably going to end up getting Ethernet expansion cards for them since they're a lot simpler for the maintenance guys to deal with at 3AM. Quote
FilterWolf Posted September 26, 2012 Report Posted September 26, 2012 (edited) an S7 processor without an ethernet port is like having a bicycle without tires. I'll never know why Siemens even bothered making the 315-2 dp what a waste of silicon Edited September 26, 2012 by FilterWolf Quote
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