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xunilbama

AB MicroLogix 1200/1400 to GE MDS 9710/9810 Radio Communication

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Good Morning, 

 My name is Joseph Rhodes, I work as an electronic technician for the City of Tuscaloosa at the wastewater treatment plant. I work to keep the plant up and running as well as 64 lift stations spread out around Tuscaloosa, Alabama. A majority of our lift stations utilize Verizon Cell Modems, RV50s to be exact. It's rather easy connecting remotely to these lift stations as I can configure a driver as an ethernet / ip driver then associate an IP of that lift station (ex. 10.181.3.104 is lift station 104, 10.181.3.105 is lift station 105, etc). However, for the lift stations that do not utilize cell modems. We use GE MDS 9710 and 9810 radios. It is these lift stations that I have yet to figure out a way to connect remotely to the LS RTU PLC. All of our lift stations use Allen Bradley MicroLogix 1200s or 1400s. These lift stations that use the MDS radios communicate information to water tanks then that information is sent back through other channels. I was wondering is there a way to associate these lift stations on RSLinx that use GE MDS radios ? 

 

Edited by xunilbama

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Those appear to be serial data radios.  Presumably hooked to the serial port on the MicroLogix?  You'd have to disconnect what is currently on your end of the connection to permit your laptop to connect (phyiscally).  There's no way to share such a connection, generally.

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@pturmel I was hoping to be able to remote into these PLCs that use GE MDS radios to communicate information back and forth, but I have not been able to find a work around other than throwing in some Verizon RV50 cell modems. I was hoping there was a way to do so, but my answer seems to be already answered by you and a few others I've spoke to as well.

 

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From your post and what I have been able to read from MR. Google I deduce the following layout:

Site Type A - aka a  Lift Station - Micrologix 1200/1400 PLC and GE 9710/9810 Radio.

Site Type B - aka a Water Tank Site - Some non-decript computing device and a GE 9710/9810 Radio.

The Micrologix sends serial data through the radio to the Non-descript Computing device serial port.

You might be able to install RSlinx on the Non_Descript Computing device and use an RS-232 driver to reach the Micrologix over the radios.

Only problem is its RSLinx or Serial Data for tank not both, but RSlinx could be configured to serve the data to the tanK logic .

Lots of Work and Lots of Risk to take when the proven Cellular modem approach is known to work.

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