WonderWare/Wincc

I have used WW in the past, but am faced with a new challenge. I need to connect to bout 30 AB plc's of various flavors, as well as a few Siemens S7-300's and several Siemens Soft PLC's. I am able to connect to everything with RSLinx and Kepserver except the Soft PLC's. I am able to modify the logic in the Soft plc's with Step 7. The Soft plc's are panel pc's running Protool(?) and connected to the I/O with Profibus, and networked together with ethernet. Is it possible to "see" the i/o somehow in a similar fashion to how i "see" i/o on my AB platform?

Hello control_logic;

The Soft plc's are panel pc's running Protool(?)

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You should clarify this point begore we can help you more.

Protool is a Siemens HMI package; it uses connections to PLCs on its network to display data for operator control and monitoring. A RunTime license can be run on a PC platform instead of a dedicated Operator Panel. Modifying the logic in the PLCs would affect the displays on the Panel PCs as the PLC registers would be modified; but you cannot use Step 7 to read or write to a Protool application. Are you sure you are accessing PLC logic in these PCs through Step 7?
You might be looking at C7 PLC/HMI panels, they run PLC logic and Protool HMI in parallel, and are connected to their I/O through Profibus-DP; they also have a HMI screen displaying values from the connected I/O. Look at the front of the panel PC, there would be an identifying label that showed C7-62x, for example. These would then be seen on the PLC networks as S7-300 controlers and should be accessible through your OPC servers...
Or is this very different hardware/software combination, something like WWinLC? Please validate this info, then someone here could probably helps out.
Hope this helps,
Daniel chartier

here is hopefully a better description...

I have 1 system, we call it "master" it controls finished goods conveyors, and communicates to an unmanned laser guided forklift (LGV). It also communicates to 5 robotic palletizers. It is comprised of 1 Simatic Panel PC, which has a profibus interface card, and quite a lot of remote i/o devices. It is connected to the corporate network with ethernet. I am able to edit/view the actual program with step7 through the ethernet connection and have made a few changes. These changes would not be seen on the HMI, so it was not necessary to even look into hot to change that at the time.

It runs on Windows XP Pro, has Protool/Pro and step 7 and WinAC installed on it as well as some other apps to communicate via radio to the S7-315, which is installed in the LGV.

As you can probably tell, I am not particularly well versed in Siemens Equipment. This is because I was never trained in it and have been spoiled so far in my career by being surrounded by Allen-Bradley equipment.

Currently I am using my laptop as an HMI so I don't have to be out on the floor all the time, but I can still see what's going on. I setup an application with Factory Talk View 5 and use rslinx gateway to address all of the machines I want to monitor. The thing is, I would like to be able to monitor some of the equipment that has Siemens controls, but I am unable to connect to it. I am using the Kepware Enterprise which came with FTV, but either it is unable to connect ot a soft plc or I am not smart enough to tell it how. I have all the IP adresses etc, as I am able to pcAnywhere into the HMI's and so forth.

So is your question, "how do you connect to Soft PLCs with Kepware Enterprise for FTV"?

Could you describe "Kepware Enterprise"? I know AB distributes Kepware products - I'm gussing that it's a re-branded KepServer Ex, but can't find it on the Kepware web site. Typically the "Enterprise" label in the Rockwell lineup refers to the FactoryTalk versions, and Kepware doesn't play with those to my knowledge.

I know I wrote Kepware Enterprises, but what I meant was Kepserver Enterprise, which seems to be as you say a rebranded Kepserver EX. It comes with many drivers for most PLC's. Unfortunately I can't get it to "talk" to the Soft PLC's or even acknowledge that they are there. I should mention...there is no mention of "Soft PLC's" of the Siemens variety or any other among those which come with Kepserver Enterprise or listed on the website for the "Full Version" product. I am pretty sure what I want to do can be done, I just don't know if I have to start from a different angle. The different angle being to use a Siemens product such as WinCC as the HMI and then use some Kepserver EX to talk to the Allen-Bradley equipment. Does that make sense to anybody but me?

SoftPLC is not listed in KepServer EX's long list of supported drivers (Plugins).

I couldn't find an OPC server for SoftPLC driectly. However, their web site seems to indicate that you can communicate with it like an AB PLC-5 through Kepware. It didn't indicate configuration specifics. That should be a good starting point for you to figure it out.

http://www.softplc.com/splcdata.php

Any software applications with PLC-5/SLC-500 data table access support can communicate with SoftPLC. This includes products such as Wonderware, Intellution, Indusoft, Maple Systems, Panelmate, Indusoft, Panelview, and many many others. You can also use OPC via server products that support the A-B PLC-5, such as Kepware or Matrikon. Applications developed in Visual Basic, Visual C++ or other languages that can access PLC-5 data tables using a driver toolkit, such as the ONE Toolkit and Drivers available from SoftPLC Corp are also an option. SoftPLC supports data table access commands which are a super-set of Allen-Bradley's Data Highway Plus command set. SoftPLC also provides operator interface products.

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Siemens Soft PLC is named WinAC

As soon I know, the connection WinAC to an non-siemens OPC or SCADA without additional software from Siemens is impossible.

SIMATIC NET is needed.

The connecion to WinAC looks like connection to S7-PLCSIM (S7-PLCSIM is Siemens PLC simulation software).