SLC 500 DH+ communicating with Studio 5000 over Ethernet

[Johnathan 0]

Hello All,

I have a line of machines that all use global bits to communicate over DH+.  I've been upgrading the line from the SLC5/4 to Compact Logix and Control Logix.  I picked the machines that don't necessarily communicate with each other but now I'm at the point where I need to start getting rid of the DH+ and migrate over to ethernet.  The problem is I still need the old SLC500 DH+ system to communicate with the new ethernet system.  I'm trying to utilize a AN-X2 Ethernet Bridge and going taking it to a Logix 5581E processor and hopefully utilize consumer and producer tags to talk to all these machines.  My question is...where should I start.  I'm not sure how to setup an AN-X2 module to communicate with the Logix 5581.  Any help or direction would be appreciated.

[pturmel 157]

I'm not familiar with the AN-X2, so I don't know what it can do, but I've solved this problem for customers in the past with the standard 1756-DHRIO card in the chassis. It has a "routing" section of its module configuration that allows you to assign "Link IDs" to various non-DH+ connections and endpoints.  Then, DH+ devices can target them using their native remote link message options.  The DHRIO will translate requests for configured links into the corresponding connection path through the modern CIP architecture.  The DHRIO module will also transparently handle the return path when modern devices message into the DH+ network.

You will still have to touch each message instruction in the SLC to add the remote link ID.

[BobLfoot 301]

i second @pturmel approach using the dhrio card.  

[pturmel 157]

BTW, you won't be able to use producer/consumer tags with the SLC at all.  Messaging only.

[Joe E. 259]

Another vote for the 1756-DHRIO since you're talking DH+ between AB components. If you can't find one or if it's too expensive (they're "active mature" so AB has bumped list price to $3500), a colleague at my last position got a ProSoft module working between an HMI and a DH+ network. He had to do some magic to get it to work, but once it was working it was solid. ProSoft has some really good support folks who have been very helpful with that and with their Profinet-Ethernet/IP bridge module. Definitely reach out to them if that's the route you end up going.

As an example application that I had to kludge together, we had a line controlled by a PLC-5 that had a bunch of RIO devices on one channel and one DH+ device on the other channel (a central gateway chassis that gave us remote access to the system). I had to add 3 strip resolvers, an HMI, and a bunch of code that was already written for ControlLogix. We had a bunch of 1756 hardware laying around (no CPU that was new enough, sadly), so I ended up installing a spare 5370 CompactLogix system to run the new code. It controlled a 1756 chassis via a 1756-ENBT module. That chassis had a couple of AMCI resolver modules and a 1756-DHRIO module to talk to the PLC-5. It was pretty simple to get it all set up and working and, even though it was kinda ugly, it's been running flawlessly for several years.

All that to say, the AB -DHRIO module will give you a very solid, simple way to communicate between the DH+ network and the ControlLogix, but the AN-X2 will work too. I can't help you with configuration of it, though, since I didn't handle one.