ComLi

Hi to all does anybody knows anything about ComLi and how it comm unicates with a siemens S7 300..

COMLI is a serial protocol developed by Sattcon (now owned by ABB). If you ask ABB kindly, they can supply you with a specification of the protocol. Siemens have programmable serial modules (in the S7-400 at least, I don't know about the S7-300) these can be programmed to act as a COMLI master or slave. What type of device are you trying to connect with the Siemens PLC?

Hello,

Comli is a Swedish serial communication protocol developed many years ago by Satt Controll(now owned by ABB). It was popular in the nordic countries and the Netherlands during the late eighties and nineties. Since Satt was big here a lot of other companies implemented Comli in their products. It was like a scandinavian modbus. Even Siemens made implementations for the S5-135.

Just a little curious, what are you going to communicate with?

I think it should be no problem to get the protocol specification from ABB since it is no secret.

Another way if you have some kind of SCADA in your system would be to use the SCADA as a gateway. Then you could use the OPC driver from Novotek: http://www.novotek.com/DOWNLOAD/DRIVERS/FACT/Sccopcfs.pdf

Alert 500

Well first of all thanks for your reply.. well we have a very old

system running here it is an ALERT 500 using the ComLi protocol to communicate with also a very old SCADA using the SattGraph 1000

i just want to replace the old SattGraph 1000 with something newer but at the moment i canot touch the Alert 500 so i think the only solution is to find a way to communicate Alert 500 with a Siemens S7 and ProtoolPro if you have any idea you are welcome to say it \

Thanks...

Hello,

I know the Alert 500 system quite well, I've modified a few in the past. I currently work for a global company that has invested in technology and software to upgrade Alert 500 systems to Siemens S7. It is against the rules of this forum to advertise your own company, so I won't.

But if I may I would like to give some advice. As you know the Alert 500 has been out of production for a long time and availability of spare parts has become a serious problem. So your company should make a strategy to upgrade the Alert 500. This upgrade can be done by putting profibus adapters in the old I/O cabinets and connecting to a Siemens S7 (hence removing the PDP11). The old I/O can then be replaced with Siemens I/O little by little.

For your specific request of suggestions of how to replace the Sattgraph with a new SCADA, your options are:

1. find a SCADA package which can use a COMLI DDE I/O server
2. Pass data through a PLC that supports COMLI communications and another protocol that is supported by your favorite SCADA package.

One thing to be careful with is synchronization of data in COMLI. The maximum number of registers that can be transferred in one COMLI message is limited. To avoid problems, ensure that the registers that must be synchronised are sent in the same COMLI message.

Also, you say that the Alert 500 cannot be touched at the moment. This could cause you a lot of problems if the current COMLI setup requires modification as you might need to modify the Alert 500 program as well.

Kind Regards

Alastair

If you are looking to replace the Sattgraph 1000 with a modern SCADA then I don't see any need to communicate with the S7-300. Use a SCADA with OPC and get the OPC driver: http://www.novotek.com/DOWNLOAD/DRI...CT/Sccopcfs.pdf

Alert 500

Well yes first of all it is a very old system and i want to use a S7 300 just to be the "buffer" between the Alert 500 and the SCADA because of the ComLi Protocol for know it is difficult for us to upgrade to a new system and because there are 2 SCADA systems (SattGraph 1000) running with the Alert 500 i can "play " with one of them but i dont know the way to make the S7 300 communicate through ComLi..also yes there are limited registers but the Alert 500 program does not use to many ...Also i want to replace Sattgraph 1000 because they are running on a 386 SX PC and also the VGA card is locked ... so if i just replace the old vga with a new i have a starting error on Sattgraph ..and my hands are tied and the ooperation system is xenix ....

You have my sympathy, it is hard to do your job when there the equipment is always in use.

Comli is a master/slave protocol (1 master and 1 or more slaves). Only the master station can request to read or send data on the network, the slaves are only allowed to respond to the requests by the master. I think that the Sattgraph is running as master and the Alert as a Slave. Is this true in your case?

I am confused that you have 2 Sattgraph stations, do they both connect to the Alert by COMLI? If they do and both the Sattgraphs are running at the same time, you must have two separate COMLI networks. Can you confirm this?

Which SCADA software do you intend to use to replace the Sattgraph? I think it should be much cheaper to use a SCADA I/O server for COMLI, rather than paying for a PLC and serial communications card. Apart from acting as a buffer between Alert and SCADA, do you intend to use the S7 300 for anything else?

I am sorry to ask questions without giving answers but I need more information in order to help you.

Alert 500

Ushidayo hello..well yes we have 2 SattGraph running "parallel"
but master is the Alert 500 and both Sattgraph are slaves ,because as i told you they are very old so for the moment we are using only one of them, as for the future i was thinking to replace SattGraph with A ProTool project..but still i do not know how to confgure S7 300 with ComLi...

Hi,

So the Sattgraphs are set up as slaves? This will make things difficult, you will have no choice but to use a PLC as the buffer (SCADA I/O servers are always the master). I will try to contact my colleagues in Sweden who have used COMLI on Siemens before, but it might take a while to get an answer. They previously arranged with Siemens to make a serial module that speaks COMLI. BUT it might only be for S7 400 and it is probably only for a master configuration. The last time I looked (about 5 years ago!), serial modules for Siemens PLCs couldn't be programmed from S7 to suit different protocols. To make the serial module compatible with a new protocol it required a change to the software in the PROM.

An alternative might be to use an ABB PLC that can speak COMLI (master and slave). Or to use something like a Mitsubishi Q series which has a programmable serial card. Would you consider using a non-Siemens PLC?

I have seen one of these used before to link an Alert to a S7 400.
http://www.visualcontrols.co.uk/babelbox.htm
It should work with the S7 300 too. I wouldn't use it as my first choice because it can be troublesome to set up and cannot handle heavy data loads. But it might work for you.

Another thing worth considering is a Beijer E-Terminal. It is a touch screen operator panel which has a COMLI slave driver. In Europe these operator panels are often re-badged as Mitsubishi MAC E Terminals.

T.k

Ushidayo hello thank's for you reply well as you see it is a problem with this Alert 500 ..yes i was thinking to use and a different Plc than S7 but i want to build the Scada project with the ProTool or with the UniOp since they are the only i know..
Anyway if you find anything in the future just let me know..
ofcourse there is another solution to my problem ...TetraLaval can solve it but they ask for a huge ammount of money..replacing everything including and the 2 PRI with siemens I/O
Bye ...

Comli

SAMIOS1 said:

Hi to all does anybody knows anything about ComLi and how it comm unicates with a siemens S7 300..

Click to expand...

REGARDING YOUR QUERRY FOR INTERFACING YOUR SATTCON CONTROLLER
YOU CAN VERY WELL USE THE "SCADA PORTAL 2.0" FROM ABB ITSELF. THIS SCADA SUPPORTS "COMLI" AND YOU CAN REPLACE YOUR OLD SCADA WITH THIS.AND FOR YOUR INFORMATION I HAVE NEVER USED COMLI THOUGH I AM USED TO MODBUS(WITH ABB SCADA PORTAL)

I don't think ABB SCADA PORTAL can be set up as COMLI Slave, only COMLI master.