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morten285

Connection to a remote well

7 posts in this topic

Hello Everyone

I am new on this forum. As an electrician in Denmark, I have just gotten a fountain to maintain. The control cabinet and pumps are all underground in a couple of wells.  

There are a lot of monitoring and time is spend / wasted lifting the heavy manhole covers and driving to and from the wells. I would like to install a plc to monitor the few settings I really need.

Are there some with experience of how and what type of equipment?  I am considering a siemens LOGO with a communications module and just buy a sim card. 

Is it better to use prepaid 2G, 3G or 4G or only data sim card?  Also with or without pin code?

It is not possible to establish a wired communication connection but the wells have of course 230 V mains and is very close to a phone tower.

Yours faithfully

Morten Lund

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Morten - Welcome to MRPLC.com.

20 years ago placing a PLC on a Cellular or Cable Modem and giving it a URL was "state of the art".

Doing that now, even though it can still be done is a recipe to be hacked.

I'd recommend you look at a cellular VPN device and make the PLC part of your Plant/Office LAN.

Devices from Rockwell Automation and Phoenix Contact come to mind.

https://www.rockwellautomation.com/en-us/products/hardware/allen-bradley/network-security-and-infrastructure/ethernet-networks/stratix-4300-remote-access-router.html

https://www.phoenixcontact.com/en-us/products/industrial-communication/industrial-routers-and-cybersecurity

Now as for PLC Siemens LOGO will prove a fine choice, also would Rockwell Auitomation Micro 850/870 and the Automation Direct Productivity series.

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Many cell providers can provide a SIM that is automagically on a private VPN.  You would need software/setup from that provider to connect to the VPN from your office, but the devices themselves would "just work".  Highly recommended for non-professionals (networking professionals, that is).

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20 hours ago, BobLfoot said:

 

 

 

21 hours ago, BobLfoot said:

Thank you for fast and sincere reply. 

I was planing on only using sms messages for data transfer. A bit of a hazzle with special codes for commands etc. but also simple.  As this is a voluntary project I finanse with private hard earned and taxed money, it is maybe overkill with the equipment you mentioned. I looked up the prices.

quote: "20 years ago placing a PLC on a Cellular or Cable Modem and giving it a URL was "state of the art".

Doing that now, even though it can still be done is a recipe to be hacked." end quote.

Is hacking also a problem with sms text messages?

quote: "I'd recommend you look at a cellular VPN device and make the PLC part of your Plant/Office LAN.

Devices from Rockwell Automation and Phoenix Contact come to mind." end quote

If I could deduct the amount on a company's  annual tax return it would be great.

https://www.rockwellautomation.com/en-us/products/hardware/allen-bradley/network-security-and-infrastructure/ethernet-networks/stratix-4300-remote-access-router.html

https://www.phoenixcontact.com/en-us/products/industrial-communication/industrial-routers-and-cybersecurity

I only need a few sms text messages with amount of water filled per day or so. Nothing intensive and nothing risky in processing. Only monitoring.

20 hours ago, BobLfoot said:

 

 

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I am not a SIemens Expert. but did lookup this module - https://www.automation24.biz/gsm-gprs-communication-module-siemens-logo-8-cmr2020-6gk7142-7bx00-0ax0

It looks like for under 300 euro you can have your logo plc sending text messages to your cell phone and if properly configured only your cell phone can send commands back to it.

I'd advise talking with Siemens experts and make sure you're application is secure, but it is seeming less risky to me after a browsing of the manual.

As always RTFM.

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@BobLfoot

Thank you for taking your time on this topic. I greatly appreciate your answer.

Best wishes

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Since you are in Denmark I would use a Secomea Sitemanager for the link and a Siemens Logo. The new logos have a webserver where you can graphically create custome webpages. Then the secomea will give secure acces via simcard to the logo which you can view with any device that can go onto the web

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