PLC5, Panelview Plus & Barcode scanner

I need to link a PLC5/30, Panelview Plus 700 and a barcode scanner (currently RS232).

My original plan was to use RMTIO between the PLC & PVP, but I now see the RMTIO requires an additional comms module ($$$). Communications via RMTIO appears deprecated, as they only mention it in chapters devoted to porting application from older systems.

The PVP comes with one serial port, and RSLinx Enterprise installed. From what I can see of the setup screen it only allows the serial port to be configured with DF1 protocol (i.e. for commms with a PLC), so you have no access to the raw RS232 data stream (and for that matter, the programming ability to parse raw data stream seems lacking).

I can see three options:
1. Purchase RMTIO adapter for PVP. Use RMTIO between PLC & PVP. Use serial port for comms with RS232 scanner. Still not clear how to communicate with scanner. Do I need to create a "3rd-party" OPC server? If so, is it possible to download this to PVP?
2. Use DF1 between the PLC and PVP. Replace serial scanner with USB scanner. It is not clear how to access data from USB scanner within PVP application.
3. Use DF1 between the PLC and PVP. Obtain an additional serial card for the PLC for RS232 comms to the scanner, and implement simple comms protocol in the PLC.

Any recomendations/comments appreciated.
Cheers,
R. Main.

Here's a couple of options that wouldn't require RIO or use your serial port, becuase RIO is a pain to use with PVP.

What is your port situation on the 5/30? Any DH+ or spare channels that you can use for DH+. I'd much prefer to use a DH+ comm module on the PVP communicate to the PLC5 than RIO any day. Much faster and save on messy programming and block transfers.

If you have rack space you can add in an ethernet side car to the processor and use ethernet comms between the PVP and PLC5. You do have to shift cards down as the side car must reside in slot 1.

Thanks for the reply.
I do have one inactive channel that could be configured for DH+. That and the DH+ comms module would be a reasonable solution, though I'm not sure of the cost of the DH+ comms module.

I've used the ethernet side car with PLC5/40s and /60s. I think the cost would be prohibitive here, and it would be a big pain to re-sequence the racks (assuming of course the sparkies left enough wire to even _attempt_ that ;-).

I figured the price tag for the side car would be a detereent, but if you had the 1st 2 slots open for some reason then maybe it wouldn't be that big a hassle. I'd recommend staying away from the RIO option as much as possible. DH+ at least gives you direct addressing between the PVP and PLC.

I just went to their configure products page and got the same pricing for a DH+ PVP700 and a standard PVP700. If you already have the PVP then the add-on module (which does both RIO and DH+) is about $350US. Not too painful in my opinion.

Agreed, $350 is not a bad solution.
That still leaves me with the barcode scanner interface to work out. I would have a free serial port on the PLC but I'd like to avoid interfacing it to the PLC, since the data is required in the PVP - not that I couldn't pass the data on up, but I'd like to avoid designing warts on the system from the onset ;-)

Comment only

mainr said:

3. Use DF1 between the PLC and PVP. Obtain an additional serial card for the PLC for RS232 comms to the scanner, and implement simple comms protocol in the PLC.

Click to expand...

Assuming 1771 I/O, the ASCII card, after the interesting setup, is pretty solid. Not sure but I believe the ASCII card is an ebay item now.

You can use our 435NBP. Takes your serial data and sends it over ethernet/ip. You can use strings or integers and send it directly to your st or n register. No programming involved. Take a look. Yet to find a customer that doesn't like these!

http://www.rtaautomation.com/ethernetip/435nba/

Rick
Real Time Automation
414-453-5100

Thanks for replying, Doup-P and Rick-RTA.
I've already determined that I will have a spare serial port, so an additional card is not necessary.
The ethernet bridge seems like a neat solution, but after a little investigation, it appears that a USB scanner should be trivial to interface (just have to ensure the input field is correctly setup within the RSViewME application running on the PVP), so it has been agreed to look at replacing the scanners.

Magnetic Pickup Unit

Have a nice day.

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