Siemens PLCSim to InTouch

Hi,
I am trying to communicate with Siemens S7 PLCSim through InTouch (Wonderware). I am running a Windows 7 VM on a MacBook... I have Simatic Manager and Wonderware installed on this one VM. I cannot get InTouch to communicate with the PLCSim (Simatic 300 PLC).

These are the steps I have taken;
- Set up PLC with IP 192.168.1.110... Running the PLC in simulator without any issues
- Set the actual machine IP (Network connections) to 192.168.1.10...
- Started NetToPLCSim (allowing access to port 102) and set network IP to 192.168.1.10 & PLCSim IP to 192.168.1.110 (These IP's where already detected when clicking on '...')
- Installed DASSIDirect and configured with the IP address 192.168.1.110 & created a Device Group
- Set up an access name in WindowMaker with same topic name as Device Group in System management console

I don't seem to be communicating with the PLC at all through Wonderware.

I know of people doing the same thing that I am trying to do but running two VM's (one with siemens and one with wonderware). Is this the only way to get this to work?

Thanks

Check this out.
http://nettoplcsim.sourceforge.net/

I've had a good look at that and followed each step carefully. It all appears to set up as expected but Wonderware doesn't seem to be communicating.

Any ideas on how to confirm it is set up correctly or confirm Wonderware isn't seeing it?

Note: Im not seeing anything when I monitor the connection/Server on NetToPLCSim

Thanks

Sorry, didn't read carefully that You already used NettoPlcSim.
Look at this thread:
https://support.industry.siemens.co...net-opc-connection/103472/?page=1&pageSize=10

Thanks, I hadn't seen that before. Looks like you have to use 2 different machines (VM's). I'll give it a go and feed back

Hi,

you can reach the Plcsim with Nettoplcsim only under the IP address shown at "network address".
Thus, if your PC on which Nettoplcsim is running has 192.168.1.110, then you have to use this IP address as Plc address in your client software (DAServer setup).

Thats a common misunderstanding of using Nettoplcsim. The program "only" redirects the data from the external network interface to the internal Plcsim interface.

If you don't want to change the client settings for testing, you have to set the IP address of the PC where Nettoplcsim is running to the same IP as the Plc you want to simulate has.

Another option is to add a second (or more) IP addresses to your network interface. I've added some screenshots in the nettoplcsim documentation of how you can do this. With adding more IP addresses, you can simulation many Plcsim instances on the same PC.

I've had another go and still can't get it to work on the one VM. I've tried all different network settings (Including Host only adapted). Nettoplcsim never logs anything when monitoring (apart from the standard 'Started monitoring...')

Next thing is to install a second VM and try to get the two to comunicate...

In general it should work if client (DAServer) and server (Nettoplcsim/Plcsim) are running on the same machine. I've tested this with libnodave or Snap7.

You can do a quick test with the Windows telnet client (maybe you must add it from System settings / programs).
You configure Nettoplcsim and start the server. Open a command window, and enter:
C:\>telnet 192.168.1.110 102

If the connection was successful, then the screen will go empty. If you stop Nettoplcsim, then you should receive an error. This says, that Nettoplcsim listens at the IP and TCP port 102 (Siemens port). In the Nettoplcsim monitor window you wont't see anything, as the first entry commes with the connect request to the Plc.

Or, maybe the DAServer doesn't like it when he wants to connect to the same IP as he is running on. The Simatic.Net OPC Server doesn't like this either, but this is Siemens software ;-)
There is no technical reason why this should not work.

Solved

Thanks for your response.

I got it to work on 2 VM's. One is running the PLC (and nettoplcsim) and the other is running InTouch.

Just in case anyone wants to replicate this...

- I first set up 2 VM's. I'm running one with 32 and one 64 bit Windows 7. I chose one of each for other reasons (other software compatibility).
- They are both set up to a 'host only' network adaptor, this took a bit of playing about to set up on VitualBox. Both Virtual machines have to be on the same virtual network adaptor so that the host machine (in my case my macbook) can act as the bridge between them.
- Manually set the IP for the two virtual machines. I chose 192.168.1.1 (PLC VM) and 192.168.1.2 (InTouch). Do this in windows network adaptor settings.
- Ping the VM's to ensure they have comms. EG ping 192.168.1.2 from 192.168.2.1 and vice versa
- Now the PLC can be set up on PLCSim. The PLC itself can have any IP address as Nettoplcsim supplies the port for them to communicate.
- Run nettoplcsim on the PLC Virtual machine as the manual suggests, then choose the IP of the VM as the 'network address' and the IP of the PLC as the 'PLC address'. These should already be detected in nettoplcsim when clicking on '...'.
- Set up your DASSIDirect driver in System Management Console on the InTouch VM. This is the way Archestra/InTouch communicates/reads/writes to the PLC. Use the IP Address of the VM running the PLC as the IP to communicate with the PLC. Don't forget to set up the 'Device group'
- If you set up a tag in InTouch with the correct access name then when it is in runtime you should see the data request in Nettpplcsim if you 'Start Monitoring'

Any questions, just ask. Good luck.