S7-300 coms

[nserasmus 0]

HI, I would like to if it is possible to send to send some data from a S7-300 PLC to a desktop PC over a LAN without requiring additional software? Or what would be the bare minimum required? The PLC is being used to measure the production output on various lines & in different phases of production, the production manager now requested this information be available to him in his office.

[JesperMP 2]

It wont happen for free. What comms hardware do you have in the PLC ? What do you want to do with the data ? Does it have to be stored in a database, should it be trended, or viewed in a list format, or displayed as graphic picture of the production ? You will need some communication hardware in the PLC, communication hardware in the PC, software to make the connection from PLC to PC, and software to display the data on the PC. It could be: Ethernet card CP343-1 LEAN in the PLC, a standard ethernet port in the PC, Siemens Softnet Ethernet LEAN. There are so many possible softwares to display or log the data on the PC so you need to say more about what you want to achieve exactly.

[nserasmus 0]

Sorry, for the no response. Currently the only thing that we need to do is get the actual values dispayed - nothing fancy. These should be archived on a daily ( every 24hrs) basis. To be kept for a one year period. Currently there is no PLC we would be installing one for this job. In the meantime I am trying to convince our management to go for the start of a propper system, lying down an industrial ethernet backbone, and to start thinking of working towards a SCADA system. Thanks Nico

[JesperMP 2]

OK, it is a good idea to go for an ethernet enabled PLC from the outset. If you use a combination of ethernet and OPC you will get a potent system with much flexibility. You can go for a full SCADA system, or maybe a package that only does datalogging and viewing. For the latter I would go with Iconics trendworx. It logs data and displays it in trend or list format. It will log cyclically, on-change, or on-event. It is also reasonably priced.

[khekd 2]

Never say never, How much info are you trying to pass to the PC. Out of the ethernet CPs you can do AG_SEND and AG_RECV commands out of that port which is nothing more than data streaming a socketed message via TCP/IP. On the other end of your PC you would need some type of Windows Canister that can utilize WINSOCK to open up the socket of information that was sent out of the PLC. The other way is via MODBUS TCP. There is code you can get to talk MODBUS TCP out of the ethernet CPs and of course your PC would have to have the capabilites to talk this too.