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tbarmer

serial to ethernet

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Hi all I'm new on the forum this is my first post. I am looking at a way of communicating with a number of existing PLC's via ethernet without buying lots of comms cards. I have found some serial to ethernet converters that loook like they will do the job particularly for allen bradley. I am a little unsure of the protocols for step 5 and 7 on the serial port. Has anyone done anything like this before? Or does anyone have a little more information on what protocols are used by step 5 and 7, so that I know what drivers I will need for the converters? I have come across a RS232 - TTY converter but am a little unsure of exactly what it is doing. any help on this subject would be much appreciated Regards Tom

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I'm no expert, but we tend to use combinations of Autosol and Digi equipment, such as digi one. But these have not been with Siemens. I know red lion and Black Box make a number of converters too. Edited by Groo

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Siemens S5 PLC's have a 15pin "D" connector - this is a TTY interface (not RS232) Siemens S7 PLC's have a MPI or profibus interface. Connecting these to Ethernet can be relative easy by using 3rd party interfaces such as these - http://www.process-informatik.de/produkte/s5-lan?=en_ http://www.process-informatik.de/produkte/s7-lan?=en_ There are many other makes available - and they all allow programming over via ethernet

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I have used one of these: http://www.ibhsoftec.com/epages/63444704.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/63444704/Products/20266 The device itself keeps its IP address, so you can move it from machine to machine with no problems if you're using it for programming. For a Red Lion HMI, I just tell it that it's talking to an S7-300 over Ethernet and give it the IP address of the IBH unit. In Simatic Manager, it's a little more complicated since you have to set the PG/PC interface to the correct IBH driver, but that also works reasonably well for me. It's less seamless than adding an Ethernet port, but it's also cheaper. Since we only have a few S7-300s that don't have built in Ethernet, I'm probably going to end up getting Ethernet expansion cards for them since they're a lot simpler for the maintenance guys to deal with at 3AM.

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an S7 processor without an ethernet port is like having a bicycle without tires. I'll never know why Siemens even bothered making the 315-2 dp what a waste of silicon Edited by FilterWolf

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