Citect/OPC server communication with PLC via GPRS

[justwhy2003 0]

Ive made communications between a Mitsubishi FX3G and Citect 7.10 via a GPRS modem. On the FX3G I have connected a FX3G-232-BD and connected that to my GPRS modem (Insys) via a standard modem cable. This connects to receiving software that creates a Virtual com port in my laptop that I have connected to Citect. To test the communications I made a lamp and a number in Citect and connected them to M0 and a register in the PLC, set M0 and placed value 40 in the register. The graphics are showing up on Citect with no dots but the lamp flashes on and off and the value in the number display changes from 0 to 1 and back again, Ive seen it at 40 maybe once or twice. Is there something I can configure in Citect to control the way information is transferred i.e. polling rates, I have my communications set at 19200, 7 data bits, even parity, 1 stop bit. Eventually I would like to purchase OPC software to interface with and generate an SQL data base based on the data transferred from the PLC but at the moment I'm testing the comms/concept with Citect only. Justin Edited 15 Mar 2011 by justwhy2003

[Wassim 0]

Hi Justin, For your OPC Solution, here an OPC server for Mitsubishi to connect your Mitsubishi PLCs to. And to log your data into the database, there is a product called OPC Client for ODBC. You can point it to the OPC server, select your database and table you wanna store the data in, and you start archiving data there. Hope this helps. Cheers, Wassim Daoud Global Solutions Architect www.MatrikonOPC.com

[BobB 58]

Contact Citect - they did miles of this in Ozz, including dial out to PLCs, at Olympic Dam. Over 1 million I/O I am told and the SCADA system has update times about 2 seconds. Pretty impressive.

[justwhy2003 0]

I have since had some technical help from INSYS and we are pretty sure that PLC communications with at least GX developer via the seriel modem is not very good and is to do with timing. I have been looking into using an ethernet based solution that sets up the modem at the PLC side as a VPN client and I have downloaded an Open VPN server in my receiving computer. I have made communications between the two and can connect my internal network to an IP address that is connected to the remote modem with good results. I now need to get my hands on a PLC with an ethernet port and I should beable to make good communications via the GPRS network :D