Networking FX2n

[ecclesk 0]

I have three plant rooms on a site, each has an FX2n with an E-200 HMI controlling large refrigeration equipment. I would like to have all three plant rooms networked to my workshop (50m to plant room 1, 100m to plant room 2 & 150m to plant room 3) so i could monitor via a HMI or PC, temperatures, if machines are on/off, and all the options on the plant room HMI's. Also i would like to be able to remote monitor temperatures & settings etc from home by dialing in using a laptop, and if possible would like to recieve a text message when an alarm activates, and send a text to site requesting a text back to give me coldstore temperatures. I'm a refrigeration/electrical engineer by trade, i have dabbled with the FX2n to change timers and basic stuff, I'm currently doing a basic programming course to learn a bit more. I wont be doing the job myself, i would like to know what the best options are for when i get someone in to price the job as understand there are many differnt ways to network these PLC's PC or HMI in the workshop? What type of network? Any advice would be greatly appriciated.

[panic mode 246]

You can use 485 network, it's multidrop and can be very long. FX2N has 485 port, this is why they sell you SC09 cable. I would leave main port free for troubleshooting and fit each FX2N with 485 board (mounts on front of the unit) since these things are cheap (some $50-60 or so).

[Colin Carpenter 10]

There are indeed numerous ways to do it. As stated, cheap 485 cards are good and very easy to set up, though limited if you want to transfer large numbers of data registers. If you do, then you would need to write multiplexing routines in the software to do so. Gotta feeling data registers are limited to 10 unless you get a bit smart with the software. CCLink modules aren't too dear, can transfer more data registers and work without problem in my experience. Not sure if E200s will accept ethernet expansion cards, but if they do, then you can set up an HMI ethernet network which works fine if wired correctly. PC or HMI? Depends on what you really, really want the monitoring system to do. Think very carefully ...... real time only, historical analysis, report writing capability, graphing functions etc. What do you *really* want it to do? For SCADA option, maybe check out www.tascomp.com for their Prodigy SCADA software. It's reasonably priced, excellent tech support, and works like a charm with Mitsubishis. (PS I have no connection with them ..... but a very good experience when installing their SCADA package)

[Crossbow 295]

E200 does not support expansion cards. I would recommend the CC-Link option myself. Connect an FX2N-16CCL-M master to the PLC closest to the PC and FX2N-32CCL slaves to the others. Then if you're not already using a comm board on the PLC, consider the FX2NC-ENET-ADP and FX2N-CNV-BD to connect the PLC closest to the PC to Ethernet so you can talk to it from the PC. This is much cheaper than a CC-Link board for your PC. Not sure where to direct you for the text messaging end of it. But if your PC has a modem, you could always consider using PCAnywhere to access it from a remote computer. Another option would be to replace the PLC closest to the workshop with an FX3U, and use it's new FX3U-ENET module. This module allows for the sending of emails. I can send an email to my cell phone and it comes in as a text message. As long as it has access to a mail server, it would allow you to configure emails from the PLC to send to your cell phone. Not sure about incoming messages yet though. Haven't worked with the FX3U-ENET yet.