modem testing

i have an upcoming project to network 2 plc's . automation direct dl06 . with modems . i have not decided on modems yet and so this a 2 part question . first does anyone care to make any recommendations on modems for this ? pros and cons . this will be my fist attempt at modems so i do not know where to begin as far as features . also i will be setting this up in our shop which of course has 1 phone line is there a way to setup and test these without having 2 dedicated phone lines for this . it will be something that will be done quite a bit in the future so putting something together is no problem . but it will be hard to get 2 more lines just for this . we do not have a pbx system to work from any ideas?

plc noob said:

i have an upcoming project to network 2 plc's . automation direct dl06

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Perhaps I'm missreading your intent. But the DL06 can communicate (in theory) up to 4000 feet by using rs485 . The DN15TB breakout board makes this easy.

bernie this seems like exactly what i am looking for so with the modems the 2 dl06 units can pass data through this connection ? do you have any recommendations on a brand of modem ?

milldrone these will be in seperate locations when installed . i just wanted a way to emulate a telco service in the shop for setup and testing without buying 2 more monthly phone lines just for this purpose . the device bernie listed looks like it will do what i am thinking . just trying to get as much as possible tested and working before the installation on the job site

The local modem we used is an oldie - MultiTech MT5600ZDX. And it's been a while (a couple of years) since we did this. But it worked fine on the floor. Our only problem was at the customer's plants getting a dedicated line (no PBX at all).

You mention 2 DL06's with modems. I assume each will have its own modem with its own phone line?

Hello PLC Noob,

We use these for line emulation - very simple to use - just plug 'em in...

http://www.pds-test.co.uk/pdf/freelink_demo_issue6.pdf

and we tend to use Westermo modems a lot (pretty rugged industrialised kit - designed to work with PLCs)...

http://www.westermo.com/Resource.phx/content/index.htx

bernie these will be master / slave one in a remote pump station and the other in the main plant phone line and modem for each. must have modem on each end right ? this is my first try at this so i am green at doing remote i/o with modems

I didn't catch that this was a Remote I/O application with one DL06 talking to another. I thought you were looking for remote access to each individual PLC from a programming/monitoring PC. The MDM-TEL offered by AutomationDirect might be the quickest choice.

i had looked at this on from ad bernie . but i did not know how it compared to some of the others . thanks for the info