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agrosse

Multiple PLC's

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Hello all! I'm going to be integrating a conveyor style machine that will consist of 3 separate cells, each with their own PLC (317 PN/DP) driving them. On the conveyor I will have an RFID reader/writer at each individual station reading/writing to a tag on a pallet that rides on the conveyor. My big question here is I'm going to need to share some information between all of the PLC's, what is the best route of messaging in Siemens? Thanks in advance!

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You have to use Function blocks in your programming to access the network you are connecting the Siemens PLCS with - You can then transfer data in a client to client type mode. Edited by Rod_Hackney

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sfc14 & sfc15 look at the library and help for detail

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The easiest method if you have Profibus, is to make one the Master and the other the slaves. You can do this if you don't have other items such as I/O on the Profibus. I recently did a project with 17 PLC's and 3 HMI's all on the same Profibus, 1 PLC was master and all interlocks went through the Master. The advantage of this is the fact that all interconnection signals are treated as I/O, so no FB's are required. The disadvantage being that all signals need go through the Master, so bar codes would be read by the Master and sent to the Slave.

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The 317 PN/DP also supports Industrial Ethernet, so you can have the PLCs pass data back and forth directly via Ethernet. Or.. you could use a Prosoft PLX31 gateway that would do everything for you. The pros of the gateway is that you don't have to touch your ladder/code in the PLCs. Obviously, the con is the added cost of the gateway. These gateways are about as easy as it gets in terms of configuration. This link is to the Modbus TCP to Siemens Industrial Ethernet gateway. In your case, you simply wouldn't use the Modbus TCP driver.. but it's there if you ever need it. http://www.prosoft-technology.com/Products/Gateways/Modbus-TCP-IP/Modbus-TCP-IP-to-Siemens-Industrial-Ethernet-Gateway

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