Connecting 4 PLCS to One PC and CX-supervisor

[Msobh 0]

Hello,

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to join your awesome community. I am pretty much a beginner in using more than one PLC so please bare with me. This is my problem so far,

I have four C1JM PLCS with no Ethernet port built into them BUT I also have four serial to Ethernet converters (MOXA NPORT 5110) and a switch. I want to make a small control room so that I can control all of the PLCS from a single PC using CX-Supervisor. My problem is that i don't know how to make a network between the four PLCS and the PC and how to configure them on CX-Programmer and CX-Supervisor so that i can control all the four PLCS from one PC. 

Your help will be much appreciated. Thank you in advance and have a nice day :)

[gclshortt 51]

What are the exact model numbers of the C1JM PLCs?
What kind of ports do you have available?

You have two basic choices, serial (RS485 / RS422 ) or Ethernet (RJ45).
Serial communications:
The unit number of the PLC serial will determine the address on the network. (Make sure that they are all different numbers. Default is 00)
This is a master / slave communication only. Only one device can be communicating on the network at a time.

Ethernet Communications:
The IP address will determine the address on the network.
Multiple communications can happen at the same time. Information can be shared between the controllers.

http://www.ia.omron.com/products/category/automation-systems/programmable-controllers/cj1/cpu-bus-units/index.html

Start off by connecting one of the units up and testing communication using cx-programmer. You will then see if your converters will work or not. 

Regards,
Garry

[Msobh 0]

Hello Mr Garry,

The PLCS are CJ1M/CPU13, They have no built-in Ethernet port only Serial RS232 port. So the only ports that are available are the Serial RS232 ports.

As I said I have four Serial to Ethernet Converters  (MOXA NPORT 5110) I want to know how to connect them all together and configure the CX-supervisor so I can control all the PLCS.

Thank you for your reply and have a nice day.

Edited 4 Mar 2018 by Msobh

[innoaloe 59]

I had no experience with NPort. As you mentioned it is a Serial-Ethernet converter, but the question is, will the converter acknowledged by the PC as a Serial Port, or just as another Ethernet Device? Like is there any Drivers which allows a Virtual Serial Port to be shown up on your Device Manager for every converter you connected or not (just like USB-Serial converter)?

I am asking this because Omron have different protocols to be used on Ethernet (FINS/UDP or FINS/TCP) and Serial Port (Hostlink). CX-Supervisor must recognize that your computer have a Serial Port (virtual or real doesn't matter) in order to use Hostlink protocol to communicate with the PLC. We cannot use the FINS/UDP or FINS/TCP protocols and hoping that it will be converted on the PLCs end without issues, since in Omron case the ethernet protocols package are different with the serial one.

If, as I said, you can register each converter as a Virtual Serial Port in your PC, then the connection should be straight-forward. Just use the "Add Device" tool in CX-Supervisor and choose correct PLC type to connect to which COM port

[Msobh 0]

Hello Mr Innoaloe,

Actually there is a way to do a virtual serial port and send the data through the ethernet port on the pc the moxa nport server then will unpack the packet and transparently send it to the appropriate serial device , I will try what you just said hoping that it will work.

Thank you for your reply, It was very helpful. Have a nice day.