Nathan

MrPLC Member
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About Nathan

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    Curious Tinkerer

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  • Website URL http://notanotherindustrialblog.blogspot.com

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  • Gender Male
  • Location Naples, Italy
  • Country Korea - South
  • Interests Geeky things, skiing/snowboarding, waterskiing/wakeboarding, motorcycles. Boxing, Judo, PLCs, HMIs, networking, databases, etc...

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  1. Is it possible to have 100 Allen Bradley PLC with same IP address. And if so, how? and why they using it so?

    And if it is possible, how do we get those all 100 plc data's with same IP address into Ignition SCADA?

  2. Previous version of AdvancedHMI needed

    Archie doesn't have a copy for you? You might be able to pull a copy from a repository on SF. http://sourceforge.net/projects/advancedhmi/
  3. Pop-up messaging to other Non-HMI PCs on the LAN

    Raj - that's a good question: 1. Old versions of Windows would show "Windows Messanger" service messages. This is like the old "Winpopup.exe" program. Now you can get messages, but typically for things like forced reboots from an administrator. I doubt there's a simple HMI/SCADA hook into this. I would hesitate to execute external applications. 2. Most HMI/SCADA packages have robust alerting built in. This could be text messages, emails, etc. They usually write to a status table as well as a log table. A typical approach would be to have a banner flash on all operator terminal if there are any unacknowledged alarms, then stifle the flashing if any operator acknowledges it. 3. You could implement this in pretty much any HMI by having each station periodically check a central location. This could be a tag database or SQL database somewhere. In this case, a window opens, screen flashes, or something like that. This type of polled approach strikes me as a bit rough around the edges, but would work fine. Better to go with the recommended alerting/alarming that your SCADA package supports. Hope that helps,
  4. Version Control Software

    Check out GIT or Mercurial. I used to use CVS, then SVN (with TortoiseSVN as a Windows GUI). I haven't used GIT or Mercurial, but they're both supposed to be better than (supercede) SVN. Both are free, BTW http://importantshock.wordpress.com/2008/08/07/git-vs-mercurial/
  5. Intouch can do web base SCADA?

    Intouch will do "web based" to a limited extent. Ignition is probably what you're looking for as the leading commercial web based SCADA package.
  6. PLC/Scada recomendation

    You could use Ignition by Inductive Automation for the PC based control. Their "Panel Edition" is free and would work fine. The free OPC-UA server would probably work, depending on the PLC you end up going with. Good luck with the project! Post pics and keep us updated
  7. Great point Bob! You should design and maintain your system with this sort of overall mentality.
  8. MAC VS PC LAPTOP

    I'm not sure how well Rockwell software runs on a virtual machine. Do some searching on PLCTalk - I'm sure that I've seen the topic discussed multiple times there. I have a monster Alienware laptop and a Macbook Air. I don't use the Mac as often as I thought, primarily because I'm more used to (and I like) Windows 7. I do all my work on other OSes on VMware on the Alienware laptop since it has 16 gigs of RAM. I find that I rarely use my fairly modern desktop computer that's sitting right next to the laptop. I do have 2 complaints: My laptop is way too big to reasonably travel with and the proprietary video drivers on Dell/Alienware laptops is enough to irritate you since the manufacture reference drivers don't recognize the hardware and the vendor doesn't keep them current. In the end it comes down to personal preference. The new Mac Book Pros are sweet machines. As are many different PC laptops. Consider a solid state drive in either case!
  9. Dan's advice is good. To echo what's already been said - "sufficient security" is really about how much risk you're willing to assume. I wouldn't trust typical industrial vendors (PLC or SCADA) to be your only/strongest link. I think you're headed in the right direction by looking for a VPN appliance. Heck, Dan's product may be exactly what you're looking for. A few general tips: Don't make your system directly Internet accessible Do use a layered "defense in depth" approach Do use reasonable length passwords/keys without reusing/sharing them Do - keep your hardware and software reasonably up to date
  10. This may not help you all that much, but hopefully is useful for others reading this thread. USB barcode readers (wired or wireless) like Wasp readers are really easy to use. The computer sees the input sting just like it was typed on the keyboard, so you don't have to do any special handling scripts. The device includes a "programming card" where you scan barcodes to tell it how to behave. For example, you might want it to insert a tab, carrage return, or space after each scan. You might also want to enable or disable the audible beep. These are all settings that are "programmed" by scanning the applicable code on the card.
  11. Custom HMI App on an iPad or Tablet PC

    I've never heard of custom HMI apps on tablets written it .NET. Besides being a lot of work, there is no reason it couldn't be done. If I had to do that I would look hard at Windows tablets first. Android apps tend to be written in Java and iPad apps with Objective C with their respective SDKs. I believe there are projects to use .NET on both platforms, but that's just another layer to deal with. For a commercial applications, the Ignition Mobile module supports iPad and Android, and I think the Windows tablet (I'm not 100% sure on that one - it requires HTML 5 with the <canvas> element support). You'll be able to develop your HMI is orders of magnitude less time than custom programming it. This concept applies to other vendors as well as opposed to custom programming. If it's a school/fun project where you have a lot of time and no deadlines, I would start out by contacting Archie on PLCTalk to see if his free AdvancedHMI project could work on a tablet. Starting from scratch (or even your current WinCE app) may lead you to a significant can of worms. Either way, good luck!
  12. I recently read The Accidental Time Machine and the Forever War by Joe Haldeman. Both involved interesting and creative applications of physics concepts. They were quirky and deviated from the mainstream. I really enjoyed both.
  13. The scary thing is that the hacker community has been producing commoditized toolkits as of recent years. The tools, such as Metasploit, are an attack framework. The authors of the plugins are extremely smart and only have to write their code once. At that point any "script kiddie" can easily download and run it - no technical expertise required. How hard would it be for PHD computer security researches in a lab with PLC X to determine that it can be taken down with this specific type of malformed packet, or reprogrammed without the password? Maybe tough the first time, but dissemination is trivial. What about a SCADA/HMI package? The same thing applies. Once an attacker can run commands as a privileged user (which the process on your Windows SCADA computer is 99% likely to be) - game over. The solution - we're going to have to step up our security posture as a collaborative effort with IT. This involves all those "good practices" that you already know. You'll have to leverage their expertise in creating a strong "Defense in Depth" architecture. I make reference to these issues in my two most recent blog posts. I believe the days are numbered where us controls folk can claim that the system being up is too important and IT doesn't understand it so they shouldn't touch it. We're heading to a point where the availability of the system depends on them properly implementing and maintaining their piece of the puzzle as an enabler for us. This may feel a little uncomfortable initially, but is for the best in the long run.
  14. Unfortunately it's bound to get worse before it gets better. Here are a few more articles/blogs on it. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57327030-83/was-u.s-water-utility-hacked-last-week/ http://scadahacker.blogspot.com/2011/11/hackers-independently-attack-two.html http://www.tofinosecurity.com/blog/scada-security-breached-us-water-utilities
  15. plc to mysql

    As an update, going the software route, the Ignition "SQL Bridge Limited" can log from pretty much any PLC to pretty much any SQL database. It runs $950 (current price list). The free OPC-UA server is responsible for the connection - it currently supports: Allen Bradley, Siemens, and Modbus. For other vendors you would have to get a 3rd party OPC server. You can try it out with a free trial version to make sure it works first.