Where does MPI fit in?

C
> Thanks for your response, just one thing, I am not going
> to interface 150 PLC's on my clients plant to a Linux
> machine on serial, the PLC's are Siemens S5's and S7's
> as I try damn hard not to work on anything else, so the
> only way to do this is via 150 serial interface ports, that's
> not for me, which is why the debate was about Linux
> talking S7 functions on industrial ethernet. For this a
> product called Softnet is required on the "unix" side, the
> product costs a fair bit of money, and I can't justify
> buying to play with, my client won't use linux because
> he accords it the importance of pornographic spam as
> it is available as freeware on the internet and therefore
> I reach an impasse where I find it a little difficult to
> convince the client of the Linux route as I can't show
> him anything special to make him change his mind.

Hi Don

If you have luxury of an all Siemens world, it doesn't make any sense. If you have to make a robot, a CNC machine, a plc, and an ethernet network somehow come together to become a cell, serial is about all you've got in common. And the Linux box in the middle becomes special because it's a lot easier to write or at least fake
those protocols on an Open Source platform than on any of the others. Linux is designed to connect to other stuff, I'm convinced the other stuff is designed to make it as difficult as possible to integrate across product lines. In a perfect world, I would have a high speed network that would work with all this stuff and I
wouldn't even consider serial. In the meantime, it works for me. And since the uptime exceeds the PLC's I'm using no one complains. And the pornographic spam keeps the operators interested :^).

> As regards the Linux PLC, I wish you good luck with
> this one I am sure it will make many people happy to
> go this route, it is however not an option for me, I
> intend to retire in the next 8 years at 50, it is a life
> long ambition to travel from Cape (as in Cape Town,
> South Africa) to Cairo by 4 x 4 and I cannot convince
> myself, try as I might, that the linux PLC will produce the
> 24 hour/7 days a week reliability that the PLC's I deal
> with do already. By the time this has been achieved I
> intend to be too old and tired to learn new tricks. My
> interest in Linux stems from the convenience of a Unix
> networking environement, and the stability of the core
> for industrial HMI applications - not control.

Well, I hope you can manage to retire at 45 so that 4x4 doesn't shake you apart. But from what I've done so far, if your PC doesn't match your PLC's in reliability, you're using the wrong OS. Or maybe I'm using the wrong PLC's. It's only a few years to 50 for me, but I'd like to make the automation world a better place before I retire. No one should have to go through this kind of
grief just to make things work together.

regards

cww
 
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Siegfried Wessler

Hello, I just found this message board using google search engine. Since the topic looks interesting, I'd like to ask for an address to read everything in a newsgroup or so. I couldn't find any link to it. Thanks. Siegfried.
 
J

Jennifer Powell

> I just found this message board using google search engine. Since the topic looks interesting, I'd like to ask for an address to read everything in a newsgroup or so. I couldn't find any link to it. < Hello Siegfried, We also offer the Automation List, which will allow you to receive postings by e-mail. Just e-mail [email protected] to sign up. It's listed elsewhere on this site; sorry you didn't see it! Sincerely, Jennifer Powell List Moderator & Editor
 
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