I think this is going to be a big problem for you, I don't recall that Siemens ever manufactured an L1 interface for a PC. I know there was on however, I don't think it was manufactured by 3com, but it was a manufacturer of this nature. I have a client who used this with Genesis but it was scrapped many years ago and most of the older personel at his plant have been replaced for one reason or another, I will however ask him some time today if he knows. This card will be at best an old ISA format, you are not likely to find a modern equivalent, you may be better off using a modern RS422 interface card and finding a developer to make you a driver.
Why you are looking namely "PC L1: card? In fact L1 is merely RS-485 hardware interface plus protocol, last could be software implemented. As I know, there is Intouch L1 driver for Windows. What you really need, is L1 PC driver plus RS232/485 converter.
SST sells, or used to sell the 5136-SI-ISA. I don't see it on their web site anymore, so the product may have been dropped. This may be the card you were referring to.
I agree with you, that the best solution may be an RS-485 card (or RS-232 with RS-485 converter) with a suitable driver. There may be a driver available from one of the usual suspects.
--
************************
Michael Griffin
London, Ont. Canada
************************
The card I had in mind was in fact the SST one, it is the only card I am aware of that was made for this purpose, it was a different era when these cards were in use, it was more or less accepted that PC's had to be restarted once every other day, I doubt if you could source a card like this that it would make you very happy.
I did check with my client, they have no longer got this equipment but he did confirm the manufacturer.
I'm planned use TopKapi SCADA therefore I'm looking for L1 PC card (http://www.areal.fr/protocols-E.html). I have Intouch but this SCADA too complicated. I need more simple and cheaper. Can someone suggest better SCADA?
99% of all SCADA applications consist of 3 functions,
1) Define a tag 2) Link up to the PLC 3) Use the tag to show color, movement or text.
In my opinion there is nothing at all complicated about this in InTouch and in fact it is a long chalk less complicated than most comparable systems, I would therefore advocate that you try solve your problems with InTouch as you already own it, as you can see, some of the cheaper systems nave huge problems with drivers and hardware, and if you are thinking of using a system that relies on an L1 interface which was stolen out of Noah's ark, then you really are moving in the wrong direction.
Rather bring us your InTouch problems and we will try to help you with them. You can contact me directly at donaldp(at)iasicc.co.za if you need InTouch help.
well i am having problems, i want to send data to a pc from a plc (S5-i00u). may you assist me with the code and also how that be easily done? i want to capture data from the plant and display it using vb on pc.