S5 with H1 to S5 with TCP/IP

Hi Guys,

We have with us an automatic storehouse with 3 transporters visualised by a WinCC application controlled by a transport coördinator running on a small server, we have on automatic transportsystem in the factory and a couple of AGV's.
The whole thing runs on several S5's (135U & 115U) with CP1430TF cards (I think) that take care of communication over H1 protocol.
We'd like to update the whole thing in the next couple of years. Because of budget and time we have to do this step by step. Our goal is to run the whole thing on a couple of S7 (300/400), communication between those PLC's and WinCC should be over Ethernet. Furter down the line I'm thinking about profinet or profibus.
That is the situation, now the question.
Because the H1 card for the transport coördinator is getting hard to find, we'd like to take care of that first and change the whole H1 network to TCP/IP. This means that our S5's have to work over TCP/IP.
I've found this link and i think the X5-CPU it would be an excellent sollution.
- No changes needed in the excisting S5 programs
- Easy to change to X7-CPU in a later stage when the S7's are implemented one by one
- X5-CPU has its own processor so the current processors won't get extra tasks
- Current H1-network cabling can be re-used for the time and later replaced with new Cat.5 or 6 cables.
Does anyone have experience with such a device? Or maybe has other ideas? Keep in mind that we run 24/7 almost all year around! We can't afford anymore than 48h downtime with one transporter at a time of a few hours with the whole storehouse at a time.
Hoping for the best!!!
HG

Heino,

The X5 CPU offered by INAT is a very impressive unit. It's very expensive also. We have a press-line using an S5 155U for control. It contained a CP 1430TF CP for communication with the PC Based visualization. One option we explored to facilitate upgrading the visualization was the X5, but the cost was too high. We replaced the CP 1430TF with the INAT S5 TCP/IP communication processor, and the visualization with a PC based WinCC Flexible RT application. The S5 TCP/IP works great, and is much faster. It will do H1 and TCP/IP as well, so you would have the upgrade capacity for TCP later. If you are planning an upgrade to S7, using the X5 CPU instead would be a great idea, as this would give you the ability to convert the program slowly over time before replacing all of the hardware.
Our installation is working well so far with the old S5 CPU and the new communications processor. The S5 is cryptic and obsolete, but they are very reliable controllers.

Best regards,
Chris

Hello,


Many years ago I used a card for S5 from VIPA that could be used for both H1 and TCP/IP. Take a look at www.vipa.de or give them a call.

MrQ said:

Hello,


Many years ago I used a card for S5 from VIPA that could be used for both H1 and TCP/IP. Take a look at www.vipa.de or give them a call.

Click to expand...

It seems that VIPA stopped with S5 stuff for over 1 year.