Remote access for PLC from 2 SCADA station at the same time?

flyers · Oct 23, 2006

Can AB PLC (SLC & PLC5) connects to a broadband or lease line modem and 2 SCADA located a few hundred km away from the PLC (Wonderware & RSView32) access the same PLC to read & write data at the same time? (There is another set of modem at each SCADA workstation)

Hope to hear from you guys.

Russ · Oct 23, 2006

I'd guess with a dedicated box by the processors acting as a 'go between' you shouldn't have any problems.

Programs like pcanywhere should allow you to easily access these systems remotely. I'm sure that with Scada you'd be able to set something up...
Have fun..

consys · Oct 23, 2006

Short answer, Yes. Each SCADA system would not know that the other system was there. I have done it before with two SCADA PC's communicating to AB PLC5's over DH+. Normally now I use Ethernet and typically set up the SCADA as a redundant pair of IO servers.

mike123 · Oct 23, 2006

consys said:
Short answer, Yes. Each SCADA system would not know that the other system was there. I have done it before with two SCADA PC's communicating to AB PLC5's over DH+. Normally now I use Ethernet and typically set up the SCADA as a redundant pair of IO servers.

Hi consys, about the Ethernet for SCADA system, do we have to setup computer server for the Ethernet network and register with goverment office in order to have address for the Ethernet??? What type of cable you use? Thanks

consys · Oct 24, 2006

mike123 said:
Hi consys, about the Ethernet for SCADA system, do we have to setup computer server for the Ethernet network and register with goverment office in order to have address for the Ethernet??? What type of cable you use? Thanks

I assume that by "computer server for the Ethernet network and register with goverment office" you are refereing to setting up a pc on the www. There are other ways that you can do it.

What I have done in the past is set up a small local network that consisted of One PLC, Two PC's and a RAS "box". connected to to two modems. The PLC was GE both PC's were running Intellution iFix and everyone "talked on Ethernet. The PC's , PLC and RAS all had hard-coded TCP/IP address's that were given to me by the company IT dept. lets say 10.0.0.1 for the PLC 10.0.0.10 and 11 for the PC's and the RAS was allocated a range 10.0.0.20 thru to 10.0.0.25. Now in the above scenario there is no connection to the internet so there is no need to register any address's with Governement or anyone else. The PC's talk to the PLC just like "normal" and if anyone wants to access the system remotely (to program/monitor PLC or to log on from a remote source and connect to the scada system they simply use "dial-up networking to first create a connection to this site and once connected they satrt either the programming software or the scada software on their PC.
Now since the wide spread take up of ADSL. It "should" be relatively simple to get an ADSL connection at the Plant (preferably one with a fixed IP address) and then then you should be able to connect to this IP address say from your home ADSL "pointing" by your PC to the plant's ip address. Of course there will be certain considerations that need to be taken into account ( firewalls etc. ) and I am sure that there are plenty of people on this forum that can point you inthe right direction.

Apart form iFix I have done a lot of work with Citect in setting up ethernet networks. If you have any questions please feel free to either post them here or PM if you want.

mike123 · Oct 25, 2006

consys said:
I assume that by "computer server for the Ethernet network and register with goverment office" you are refereing to setting up a pc on the www. There are other ways that you can do it.

What I have done in the past is set up a small local network that consisted of One PLC, Two PC's and a RAS "box". connected to to two modems. The PLC was GE both PC's were running Intellution iFix and everyone "talked on Ethernet. The PC's , PLC and RAS all had hard-coded TCP/IP address's that were given to me by the company IT dept. lets say 10.0.0.1 for the PLC 10.0.0.10 and 11 for the PC's and the RAS was allocated a range 10.0.0.20 thru to 10.0.0.25. Now in the above scenario there is no connection to the internet so there is no need to register any address's with Governement or anyone else. The PC's talk to the PLC just like "normal" and if anyone wants to access the system remotely (to program/monitor PLC or to log on from a remote source and connect to the scada system they simply use "dial-up networking to first create a connection to this site and once connected they satrt either the programming software or the scada software on their PC.
Now since the wide spread take up of ADSL. It "should" be relatively simple to get an ADSL connection at the Plant (preferably one with a fixed IP address) and then then you should be able to connect to this IP address say from your home ADSL "pointing" by your PC to the plant's ip address. Of course there will be certain considerations that need to be taken into account ( firewalls etc. ) and I am sure that there are plenty of people on this forum that can point you inthe right direction.

Apart form iFix I have done a lot of work with Citect in setting up ethernet networks. If you have any questions please feel free to either post them here or PM if you want.

Dear Consys,

I am very happy to see your reply as I am learning hard about Citect network (out of work for a long while and very keen to be able to get back). What I am much interested to learn is setting up ethernet networks for Citect. Yes, If you start a new SCADA project and the plant does not have an ethernet network yet, is it your responsibility to design an ethernet or someone else from IT people? If you design an ethernet network for Citect, how can a pair of cable become an ethernet network? do you have to add an additional PC (besides I/O & Citect servers) and special software? and do you have to have IP addresses for Citect ethernet nodes? (where you get it from??? if required). The generic card put in a Citect server(is it just a normal 10Mbyte ethernet network card every computer have nowaday?). I have many questions would like to ask...
Thank you very much for your instruction

Mike

mike123 · Oct 25, 2006

Oh, I sent you a long PM too

flyers · Oct 26, 2006

consys: 2 SCADA talking to PLC5 over DH+ is fine, I've done that as well. But if using a lease line modem (connecting to the serial port of the CPU), the PLC can only communicate to one SCADA at a time, right?

1) Below is the 2 designs, for design A, each SCADA can only communicate with the PLC one at a time, right?

2) While for design B, 2 SCADA can communicate with the PLC at the same time? Is it possible?

consys · Oct 29, 2006

Flyers, I believe you are correct on both counts

Remote access for PLC from 2 SCADA station at the same time?

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