how can i communicate plc with dcs? Type of our dcs is procontrol and we use allen bradley plc in other process. we want to display some signal of plc in hmi via dcs.

can we use visual basic for that?

we can communicate with the server(vms operating system) with vb and server can communicate with dcs by the help of ipb (inter plant bus).

another thing,

can we communicate plc with pc (operating system windows 2000 or windows xp)? we have a database sql 2000 and we want to insert some plc signals in the database(in string format). can we do that?

 

Allen-Bradley came with RSLInx which has DDE server. You can add new topic in RSLinx then your DCS can read the signal in RSLInx DDE via ethernet communication. same method to read PLC signal in PC (e.g. Office spreadsheet).

 

Check out Automated Solutions website for software components (ActiveX Controls and .NET Components) that allow you to communicate with A-B PLCs using VB, VB.NET, Visual Studio.NET, etc.

A-B Ethernet ActiveX Control:

http://automatedsolutions.com/products/abtcpip.asp

A-B Ethernet Driver for .NET:

http://automatedsolutions.com/products/dotnet/ascomm/

-Mark
http://automatedsolutions.com

 

> Allen-Bradley came with RSLInx which has DDE server. You can add new topic in RSLinx then your DCS can read the signal in RSLInx DDE via ethernet communication. same method to read PLC signal in PC (e.g. Office spreadsheet). <

can you explain it clearly.. i am a beginner and i can't get clearly the procedure to communicate between a plc and dcs.. i need to convert the text output of rockwell plc to the inputs (functional block) of DCS..

 

Hello there,

To answer the first question:

To communicate between your PLC and DCS, you can use any of the suggested solutions above, or use an easy way like OPC. OPC is like LEGO, so you can use this product here to connect to your Allen Bradley PLC:

http://www.matrikonopc.com/opc-drivers/299/base-driver-details.aspx

What's the protocol that your DCS is using? You can search here for an OPC server for it:

http://www.matrikonopc.com/opc-drivers/index.aspx

After you download and configure it use this product: to bridge data between your DCS and PLC:
http://www.matrikonopc.com/products/opc-data-management/opc-data-manager.aspx

If you are new to OPC, then visit here as it would give you a good start:

http://www.matrikonopc.com/resources/opc-tutorials.aspx

To answer your second question:
You won't need to use VB or any programming language to do this.

To answer the third question:
When you configure your Allen Bradley OPC Server then you will be able to communicate between your PLC and you PC. To connect to your database and insert the data, then you use this product:
http://www.matrikonopc.com/products/opc-archiving/opc-client-for-odbc.aspx

Let me know how it went. I look forward to hearing from you

Wassim Daoud
Global Solutions Architect
www.MatrikonOPC.com