TSAP with S7-300

Thanks to the help of people from this board, I was able to get my S7-300 to talk to my Step 7 software with both MPI and ethernet.

Now, I'm trying to connect the PLC to another computer running wonderware. I can ping the PLC just fine. The computer with Wonderware and the PLC are on the same Class-C network. But, for some reason, I get communications errors on the Wonderware Intouch computer.

I found a tiny bit of info about TSAP and I'm thinking that this might be my problem.

Can somebody give me a crash course on this subject? It is possible to set this value (or at least view it?), using step-7? I think I can find the settings in the OPCLINK/Wonderware side on the pc.

Or am I totally on the wrong track...?

Thanks!

I can help comment that you should have mentioned Intouch or WW in the topic.
"TSAP" is not what you really want to achieve. Now many experts with Intouch will ignore this thread.

As far as I know, there should be some kind of direct driver in Intouch. Dont know much about it.
If you are going the OPC route, then you need somekind of OPC server which has to be purchased seperately. Intouch would then be an OPC Client. Examples of OPC servers for S7 ethernet is Simatic Softnet Ethernet S7 Lean, Kepware, Deltalogic and others.

The machine that has intouch on it is using OPCLINK. It is an image of the HMI computers that we use in the field. The PLC programming is a copy of the programming we are using in the field. In the field, we can make a new image of an existing HMI, change the IP information and the LMHOST file and boom, everything works like a charm.

I'm trying to figure out what is different between my simulator and the field. The TSAP is the only thing I can think of that might need to be addressed (no pun intended...)

The fact is, I can ping everything even by using the LMHOST table alias names, but Wonderware won't talk.

Unfortunately I dont know what LMHOST is.
If it is an image of an existing PC and PLC, then why do you have to change the IP adresses, this just so that I understand what you are doing.
Which OPC server are you using ?
Check the OPC connection with an OPC test client, Siemens OPC Scout for example.

LMHOST is like a local DNS lookup. You have a file with IP addresses and aliases.

We have multiple oil drilling rigs. If an HMI fails on one rig, we will make a new image of the one we have here in the office, which is likely configured for a different rig. Since all the rigs have the same Siemens S7-300 PLCs in the same configuration and programming, when we change the IPs to match the rig and make sure the LMHOST file shows the same class c as the rig in question, it is literally a plug-n-play for the new computer we install.

Then, we ship the old one back to us for repairs, reimage and send it to the next rig that has a problem/failure.

Our problem now is that the old hardware is failing and we are running out of suitable replacement parts, so I have been tasked with getting new computers to work with the plcs. So, they bought me plcs that are the same as the ones on the rigs and gave me the software for them. Then, I imaged an HMI from the existing system on the rigs, hoping that it would be able to connect as easily as the field replacements, but no luck.

Since the IP addressing appears to be working fine, I'm left thinking that there is a piece of network communications that is malfunctioning due to not being configured right.

Simatic Net OPC Server 2.2 is what we are using.

I posted a new thread to hopefully get the attention of the wonderware gurus you talked about, Jesper.


Thanks!

Which OS does this new PC have ? Your version of Simatic Net may be incompatible with the OS.
Simatic Net is currently at v6.4 so your v2.2 is v.e.r.y old.

If you installed STEP7 on that PC, then that your probably new version of STEP7 works OK does not mean that an old version of Simatic Net will.
Also not sure if you can even run an old Simatic Net on the same PC as a current STEP7.

What does "imaging an HMI" mean ?
Normally an image is a complete copy of a disk or a partition, so I dont know how you brought the HMI application and communication setup onto the new PC.
You cannot have restored a complete image. The drivers would go crazy when the new hardware doesnt match with the image from the old PC.

It is an NT-4 box with Service Pack 6.
The computer hardware that I am using is identical to the hardware on the rigs. Literally, we use a hard drive duplicator to make a complete image of another HMI to use in the replacement one.

The version of simatic net is there because the image had it on there. Nobody here at the company was involved with the original install. In fact, I think we bought these computers from the vendor who provided the hmis originally.

The Step 7 software is located on another box. I installed it with help from the company I purchased the PLC simulator equipment from.

So, are you saying that the PLC equipment might be too new to talk to my old version of simatic net?

OK now I understand better, the PCs are the same as the old PCs. That is why a complete image ought to work.
And I thought that the PC you talked about before with STEP7 was the same.

It is very hard to figure out what has gone wrong or what the setup is exactly.
If I understand you correctly, DASSIDIRECT connects to the S7 PLC via its alias. That is why you can take the same HMI application and just modify the IP alias when you copy it to another PC/PLC combination.

Try to connect the PC to a "real" PLC and see if it goes OK. If it does it could indicate that the simulator PLC is not configured correctly.

Anyway, lets continue in the new thread.