Ok guys, looking to find out what my options are to be able to display some trends on a Workshop PC running Factory talk view/station.
We have a Bridging chassis in the workshop beside this PC with an ENBT, DH+/RIO and DH485 card in it. That is all working well and any of the Processors connected to it via Dh+ or Ethernet are browsable with RSlogix 500.

I have recently been using FTV ME station to run some extremely basic trends to help in the location of intermittent faults and it has been extremely successful. All the devices i have had to work with so far have been Ethernet connected...until now...

Large sections of our plant are connected via DH+ and while i can browse any of the DH+ devices while connected to the Comms rack i cannot set them up for use within FTV studio ( ie as an RSlinx Enterprise driver/ path). I gave Techconect a call and they confirmed that what i am attempting to do ( they referred to it as double browsing) is not supported by Rslinx Enterprise.. dead end..

I have been reading a bit about some Datalink protocol converters like these:
http://www.datalinkgateways.com/products_d...lus_profile.htm
http://www.datalinkgateways.com/products_dl7000.htm

If i understand them correctly i should be able to add one of those converters to the end of my DH+ network and use the Ethernet connection that i SHOULD be able to set up in FTV as an RSlinx Enterprise path.... or am i assuming too much...

Anyone got any idea if this will work, or even another solution ( that doesn't involved replacing all the processors with 5/05's)

RS-Linx Classic has no such problem. It's truly a protocol bridge. Load it without a license and you get the "Lite" (free) version which will support RS-Logix and let's you browse/run diagnostics on your network but you won't be able to use it to replace Enterprise (but you can run them side-by-side). If you want to get rid of Enterprise altogether, the minimum you need is the "OEM" version which supports an OPC server. The next upgrade (Gateway or Pro or whatever they are calling it these days) also allows you to interface to it remotely (from another PC). The next upgrade beyond Gateway is RS-AssetCentre which essentially includes a "buried" RS-Linx Gateway license as well as handling document control and PLC access controls.

When you look into those various "bridge" boxes, watch out! Some of them are protocol gateways and not true bridges, so you won't be able to browse across them like you can with a 1756 backplane. If you can find a KF-2 box (discontinued), there is another option. Use the serial port and connect it to a DF1/Ethernet protocol bridge such as the IAP sold by Digi or Lantronix. This solution is about the cheapest way that I've come up with to do what you are asking. If you only have a few PLC's though you can also go with either the Digi or Lantronix devices and upgrade your existing PLC's to Ethernet via the serial port. The speed will not be great (19.2kbps max) but it sure solves a lot of problems. By the way, the "NET ENI" device sold by AB is a Lantronix protocol bridge in reality that has been rebranded and a couple extra features were thrown in, but it costs twice as much.

Thanks Paul. I am not really all that familiar with the ins and out's of the various RSlinx versions. You saying that by going to a higher level such as OEM of Rslinx that i will be able to get rid of Enterprise altogether. Won't that bugger up Factory Talk View's ability to create paths to devices etc when creating runtime files for PV+ terminals etc? I had an issue with this a while back before i realised i NEEDED Enterprise installed to be able to set the paths. How would having OEM Rslinx change that?. The rest of the features you mention with the Higher versions of Linx are probably things i won't need, or probably can't even use as they are probably control logix specific ( and we have none of that unfortunately ).

Also using the serial solution's you mentioned will help in a couple of cases ( I already knew this as we are using a couple of Net-ENI's already and those ones i can set up the trends perfectly.) but some of the processors i want to log data from don't have a free serial port, generally they have been used for connection to PV or PV+ as RS485.

When you are in the "configuration" menu for the paths in FactoryTalk View, you're really not in RS-View ME at all. You're actually viewing the Enterprise window. In fact, it is very unfortunate that they called it RS-Linx because Enterprise and RS-Linx Classic are truly totally different applications. You can't really store/configure paths in the same way since obviously you're not accessing Enterprise if you run Classic. However, you were talking about a specific problem that RS-Linx Classic does not have. Other than the tenacity and tendency for Enterprise to secretly grab your serial ports and not let go without a fight, and resource conservation considerations, there's no reason not to leave both Classic and Enterprise running at the same time.

The more expensive features that I mentioned in RS-Linx are NOT Control Logix specific. They've been there since the PLC-3/5/SLC days. In fact there are some things about the Control Logix drivers that will drive you up the wall in RS-Linx Classic.

As to the free serial port problem...that's a real problem with the NET ENI's. The Digi One IAP implementation has 2 serial ports AND an Ethernet port. You could for instance put it in series with your existing serial device (it becomes a passthrough) and you then get remote access via Ethernet out the third port. Digi advertises this pretty heavily and puts it prominently on their web site. In fact I see no reason that you couldn't also use a second IAP bridged to the first one to use it as a port multiplexer (adding 2 additional serial ports), other than bandwidth considerations.

I have been able to track down some more information on the datalink units. The 7000 seems to be genuine bridge and doesn't use any virtual serial ports or anything special unlike the 4500DH+ and the Rep assures me that it should do what i want. 30 Day moneyback guarantee so if it doesn't then can always return it. That unit looks like it might be the way to go, now just got to get someone to pay for it......