Siemens S7 to GE Rx3i communications

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Thread Starter

Jeff Idsinga

Hello to anyone who will provide two cents. I must establish Siemens S7-300 communications with a GE Rx3i PLC (PACSystem) and am carefully considering which way to go. I can go Profibus DP as a last ditch, but would much rather have an Ethernet solution since network infrastructure is already in both panels. I would value any opinions or advice on how to proceed with this matter.

Siemens S7 has a 317 DP CPU and CP 343-1 Lean ethernet card. GE Rx3i has native support for MBTCP and GE SRTP and EGD protocols in its ethernet card (and I have a Profibus master card for it if needed).

S7 is provided by OEM and I will not be able to access or modify code therein--memory map is all I have. My knowledge of Siemens ethernet application-level protocols is lacking, but it appears I would have to access code to either load the Siemens MBTCP driver or move Profinet data around, so I think those options are out. Can I do anything else to communicate with the S7 that doesn't require access to the program?

OPC? Industrial Ethernet? Gateway?

Thanks in advance to anyone who responds.

Jeff Idsinga
Senior Control Systems Specialist
Maverick Technologies
 
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Fred Loveless

The CP341-1 and CP341-1 Advanced can be configured to do Modbus TCP master and slave. The Lean card does not have that ability. You would still have to do some programming in the PLC to get it to work. Your other option is to get some communications drivers and a software bridge to move the data between the 2 devices. You could use Kepware's OPC server running their Siemens Ethernet and GE Ethernet drivers and their LinkMaster to do the bridging.

Fred Loveless
Application Engineer
Kepware Technologies
http://www.kepware.com
 
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