Communicating to AB PLCs via Ethernet TCP Open

R

Thread Starter

Ryan Ladd

I am trying to find out if Allen Bradley supports TCP Open like the Ethernet modules for the TSX Premium and Quantum.

We have a requirement to communicate to Allen Bradley over Ethernet TCP/IP. I realize they use Ethernet/IP and am hoping we can use the TCP Sockets to extract information out of the PLC for use in a TSX Premium PLC.

Any ideas or comments are greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Ryan Ladd.
 
S
Allen-Bradley themselves do not make a module like this, however Prosoft "www.prosoft-technology.com":http://www.prosoft-technology.com does offer a module that sits in an allen-bradley rack and communicates modbus tcp/ip which is a protocol supported by the Schneider Electric PLCs you mentioned. The Part Numbers are:

MVI56-MNET for Control Logix
MVI71-MNET for PLC
MVI46-MNET for SLC

The other solution is to use a gateway, standalone device that talks both Ethernet/IP and Modbus TCP/IP and uses a common register space to exchange data.

This is especially good if more than 1 AB must exchange data with more than 1 Schneider PLC. The web site is: "www.prolinxgateways.com":http://www.prolinxgateways.com and the series you are interested in is the 4201 model.

If you need more info just email me, [email protected]
 
> I am trying to find out if Allen Bradley supports TCP Open like the
> Ethernet modules for the TSX Premium and Quantum.

Nope - Natively, AB supports Ethernet/IP (with heavy customizations) and CSP - the older DF1 protocol wrapped up within TCP/IP.

> We have a requirement to communicate to Allen Bradley over Ethernet
> TCP/IP. I realize they use Ethernet/IP and am hoping we can use the TCP
> Sockets to extract information out of the PLC for use in a TSX Premium
> PLC.

About the only way to do that is to put a "translator" in between the devices in question. Something that will read the data from the OpenModbus devices and write it to the AB, then read the appropriate data from the AB and write it to the OpenModbus devices.

If you have any C programmers on hand, you could easily write your own translator. There are libraries you can obtain (including the CELL library which I wrote) that allow you to talk with AB's Ethernet/IP equipment. Of course, the OpenModbus stuff is already well documented (and several libraries already exist to facilitate communications).

If you don't have a C programmer on hand but would like to approach this solution, please feel free to contact me offlist and we can discuss it further.

--
Ron Gage - Owner, Linux Network Services - Saginaw, Michigan - 989-274-8088
Your one-stop source for Reliable, Secure and Affordable Networking Solutions
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L
Actually, I'm very familir with Ethernet/IP, but am quite sure one cannot open a raw TCP socket in an AB PLC. One option may be to place a standard Device Server (basically a CEV 174 type device but with raw tunneling firmware instead of Modbus) onto the AB PLC's serial port. Then you can use MSG blocks or any other common paradigm to push or pull data from the AB PLC.

But I'd like to know more about what you call "TCP Open" - is this just a raw socket? Any web site discussing this?

I've been wondering when such ovbious "tools" would start to enter the PLC world - for decades now they've allows raw ASCII/serial comms, but
not aimed at sockets.

regards

Lynn August Linse, Senior IA Application Engineer
15353 Barranca Parkway, Lantronix Inc, Irvine CA 92618
[email protected] www.lantronix.com
Tel: (949)300-6337 Fax: (949)453-7152
 
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