M
This option appears Greek to me for several reasons. I am unable to thoroughly conceive of the impact that a device such as the Lantronics DR1 will have in my specific, albeit usual, application/scenario. Given the following:
3 Mitsubihi A series PLC's
3 TI 505/545 PLC's
1 Allen Bradley PLC 5/25 PLC
2 SLC 150's
1 Micrologix 1000
2 Unico VS Drive control racks
3 Motorola Arcnetted STD Bus racks
several discrete VS drives
1 very antiquated 6800 CPU driven rack with TTL I/O
I can hook to the Mitsubishi's and the TI's by way of Ehternet, but must purchase cards. I can hook serally now. Either case requires divers/OPC servers, but less significant is the serial option. The AB will need a new CPU and sidecar module to speak Ehternet. The others? well let's just say I'll have to pray about that.
For now, I know that serial connectivity is a must in some cases. RS232 and 485 will most ceratinly be employed at varying junctures. This tells me that no matter how fast I want the Ethernet connectivity to make my PLC's talk to me, I will be bottlenecked because my HMI will have to slow down(<10Mbps)for the serial devices.
My thought is that instead of Ethernet Cards, the Mits's, TI's and AB's could probably be packaging the serial data via encapsulation devices such as the Lantronics DR1 during the bottlenecked period. Then, the data can be subsequently accessed without significantly reducing the overall loop time of the HMI.
Bottom line: Is it worth spending $15K on cards and drivers in this case. I'm going to be slowed down anyway, so why not hook everything such that I am stuffing all the time rather than stuff and pump. You tell me. Is it worth $15k to pump occassionally?
3 Mitsubihi A series PLC's
3 TI 505/545 PLC's
1 Allen Bradley PLC 5/25 PLC
2 SLC 150's
1 Micrologix 1000
2 Unico VS Drive control racks
3 Motorola Arcnetted STD Bus racks
several discrete VS drives
1 very antiquated 6800 CPU driven rack with TTL I/O
I can hook to the Mitsubishi's and the TI's by way of Ehternet, but must purchase cards. I can hook serally now. Either case requires divers/OPC servers, but less significant is the serial option. The AB will need a new CPU and sidecar module to speak Ehternet. The others? well let's just say I'll have to pray about that.
For now, I know that serial connectivity is a must in some cases. RS232 and 485 will most ceratinly be employed at varying junctures. This tells me that no matter how fast I want the Ethernet connectivity to make my PLC's talk to me, I will be bottlenecked because my HMI will have to slow down(<10Mbps)for the serial devices.
My thought is that instead of Ethernet Cards, the Mits's, TI's and AB's could probably be packaging the serial data via encapsulation devices such as the Lantronics DR1 during the bottlenecked period. Then, the data can be subsequently accessed without significantly reducing the overall loop time of the HMI.
Bottom line: Is it worth spending $15K on cards and drivers in this case. I'm going to be slowed down anyway, so why not hook everything such that I am stuffing all the time rather than stuff and pump. You tell me. Is it worth $15k to pump occassionally?